John Deere Provides Economic Boost to Sarasota Hotels

SARASOTA, Fla. – Good luck getting a room in two of Sarasota's premier hotels this month.

At a time when tourism is normally as slow as a baby sea turtle on sand, both the Ritz-Carlton and Hyatt Sarasota are almost completely full.

The 266-room Ritz-Carlton occupancy is 97 percent, while at the Hyatt, practically all of its 294 rooms are spoken for through the end of October.

Both occupancy rates are largely unheard of percentages for Southwest Florida's so-called shoulder season, which covers late summer and early autumn months before winter arrives.

While the figures are impressive for the two hotels, officials note they speak to the larger recovery of Sarasota's tourism industry.

Both Ritz-Carlton general manager Jim McManemon and Charles Githler III, managing partner of the group that owns the Hyatt, attribute the gains to increased luxury leisure travel, new hotel amenities and the employee retention efforts.

But the representatives from the hotels also are quick to point to higher group business as a key reason for the occupancy uptick.

Among groups spending time in Sarasota, none are bigger than John Deere & Co.

Deere season, as hoteliers call it, begins in October and lasts for about five weeks, when the giant farm equipment maker brings in roughly 3,000 lawn care division dealers for meetings and to test new equipment. This year's gathering marks the 10th time Deere has met in Sarasota.

In addition to boosting occupancy for the two downtown hotels during a traditionally sluggish time, Deere and meetings by Johnson & Johnson and others are aiding business at lodging properties in Longboat Key and elsewhere.
 
"John Deere is good for our city," McManemon says.

The company meeting appears to be good for the hotels too.

As a result of Deere and other group business, Hyatt occupancy is running an average of 10 percent above last year, Githler says.

Ritz-Carlton's occupancy growth for this year is also double-digit, at 23 percent above 2003, McManemon says. Neither hotel would discuss average room rates or increases in daily rate averages.

By comparison, Sarasota County hotels posted an average occupancy of 53 percent in October 2002, and 62 percent for the same month last year, according to the Sarasota County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In response to the increases, the Ritz-Carlton has added 150 new full- and part-time jobs in the past year, and McManemon said more employees will be added when the hotel's members-only golf club opens in 2005.

By comparison, when the Ritz-Carlton opened three years ago, it employed roughly 350.

"We're very happy with the acceptance we've received from the Sarasota community," says Robert Buford, the Ritz-Carlton's principal owner.

The Ritz-Carlton's occupancy rate also marks the highest level in the four-star hotel's three years of operation, when it premiered in November 2001 in the shadow of terror attacks that temporarily crippled Florida's visitor industry.

"This year, we've broken records every month," says McManemon. "We're the busiest we've been since our opening."

The Hyatt appears to be purring along as well.

"What we're seeing in terms of shoulder season is that the traditional boundaries of it are shortening," says Githler.