Connecticut hotels suffer with economy

Cromwell (WTNH) - With business and leisure travel down, the Connecticut hotel industry is suffering a bit.

"We came out of the summer months, which is typically slow business travel, looking for that rebound in September and October," Steve Gardiner, GM of the Crowne Plaza, said. "It did not happen for us this year."

Gardiner is the head of the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell which today is hosting the hotel industry summit. Among the speakers, H. Scott Phelps, the President of the Greater Hartford Convention and Visitors Bureau, delivered good news and bad.

The good: convention bookings for 2011, 2012, and 2013 are looking good. The bad: bookings for this year are another story.

"One of the tough things is that you can, many times, book some business in the year, for the year," Phelps said. "This year, it'll be harder to do that than in previous years."

"2009 is likely to be another year where there's gonna be less and less short-term new books for conventions and large meetings," Jeff Bouck, of Hilton Hartford, said. "And, it's gonna make it more competitive in our hotel business."

Because, there are plenty of hotels competing for what appears to be -- at least temporarily -- a shrinking piece of the pie.

A few hotels have closed -- like the Goodwin in Hartford. But others have changed hands. The Hawthorne Inn, on the Berlin Turnpike, is now a Days Inn. And new hotels are popping up all over; many of them offering discount rates.

But at the Crowne Plaza, Gardiner says he can't cut prices to compete with the guys literally across the street. Because, cutting prices would mean cutting service and that's not an option.

"How do we deliver great customer service and reduce our expenses at the same time?" Gardiner questioned. "We just have to be a little more diligent in our entire operation."