In March 2017, the Marriott International Convention & Resort Network (CRN) reached a milestone of 100 properties in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, the brand announced this week. The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin in Lake Buena Vista, Florida was the hundredth hotel to come on board.
Its lobby is currently undergoing a $12 million renovation that is set to be unveiled in Fall 2017. There is no lack of meeting space at this resort. The tremendous Hemispheres Ballroom measures in at 54,238 sq. ft. and can fit almost 9,500 attendees for a reception.
The wide array of destinations includes Westin Hotels & Resorts, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott, Autograph Collection Hotels, Renaissance Hotels, Marriott Hotels and Gaylord Hotels. The expansion has taken CRN into a lot of new markets—Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, Hilton Head, Savannah, Charlotte, Birmingham and Hawaii Kona. They also entered the areas surrounding Kansas City Crown Plaza, Houston Galleria, Denver Convention Center, Dallas Downtown and the Boston waterfront and convention center.
“We are excited to enter all of these markets as CRN can now offer customers increased distribution of highly-respected brands across the most-sought after destinations,” Mike Wainwright, vice president of sales for CRN, says. “These increased markets and locations now allow our Marriott Account Representatives to source additional hotels for those large group meetings to ideally match their desired dates, patterns and space requirements.”
Booking one of these venues is just a few simple mouse clicks away. CRN debuted a new website with enhanced features for event professionals. It has preselected hotel search groupings, narrated videos and the MeetingsImagined platform.
“Planners can now view easily grouped options such as hotel type, rooms, and space to help them identify potential hotels and destinations. Then they can click on a hotel’s Site Visit Video to learn more about the CRN properties,” Wainwright explains. “Customers can easily identify like properties for multi-year rotation, as well as visit the ‘Meetings Buzz’ section to access MeetingsImagined along with valuable tips, tools and resources. MeetingsImagined is an inspirational planning tool. Meeting planners can use this interactive platform to match key components and events to the meeting purpose and work directly with property event teams to bring their vision to life.”
