Reno-Sparks Convention and Tourism Authority president Chris Baum says hotel prices were so low, conventions were going other places.
“Sometimes we haven’t had a chance to have their business because they are not willing to go out there with a product that is priced so far below the market."
~Chris Baum, Reno-Sparks Convention and Tourism Authority President
So, Baum campaigned for hotels to raise rates, arguing that lowering prices doesn’t increase occupancy. They did and it worked.
Room rates went up nearly 10 percent over the previous year and occupancy rose 12 percent.
“When we price ourselves higher, more competitively then the conversation is more about what we have to offer.”
Reno and Tahoe area hotels earned $25 million more in 2013 than a year before. Baum says the agency will use some of the tax revenue generated by higher rates to repair infrastructure, but most of the money will go to marketing including efforts in China, South Korea, Japan, India and Brazil.
September 12, 2020He held a campaign event at the airport in Minden and in defiance of the state’s COVID-19 directives limiting public gatherings, after a planned rally at Reno-Tahoe International Airport was canceled at the last minute.
June 17, 2020When Nevada closed businesses to protect people from COVID-19, gyms were among the first to be shuttered. But for Reno-based mental health advocate Russell Lehmann, those changes were more than just an inconvenience.
June 7, 2020A vigil marking the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Sparks resident Miciah Lee at the hands of police focused on voter engagement, local politics and community.
January 8, 2020Reno’s housing affordability crisis is leading to encampments that add waste to the Truckee River. Now the city is turning to private contractors to clean it up, but homeless advocates want other solutions for addressing the root of the problem.
December 20, 2018Scientists are partnering with kids to help catch snowflakes. Their goal? Working with students to study what crystals can tell us about snow, the weather and how climate change impacts our water supply.
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