Tuesday, January 26, 1999
N.Ky. loses educators convention
Drawbridge accused of bias
BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL — The Kentucky Association for Early Childhood Education — a group that sees between 800 and 1,200 people at its annual convention — will no longer meet in Northern Kentucky.
The association, which has met every four years at the Drawbridge Estates for the past two decades, claims the hotel and convention center is discriminating against it.
“The current management of the Drawbridge refused to negotiate a contract with us based on the rational (sic) that our participants do not eat or drink enough to warrant conference business,” President Jeanette C. Nunnelley wrote in a letter. She could not be reached for comment Monday.
The educators group, which advocates children's and family rights, typically uses all meeting space at the convention center but rents only 200 rooms for a three-day period. In 1996, they served one large lunch and another meal to a group of 40.
When Ms. Nunnelley called to make reservations for October 2000, Drawbridge management said the group did not use enough sleeping space and did not spend enough money on food and drinks to justify use of every meeting room.
Booking the group this far in advance “would not be good business sense,” said Jim Willman, Drawbridge vice president for operations. He added that the hotel would reconsider booking the conference closer to the preferred date if no one else had been booked.
In the letter sent to the
Drawbridge, the news media and state politicians, Ms. Nunnelley said her group and its national affiliate will no longer consider Northern Kentucky as a possible site for its convention.
The early childhood association conference cost $23,000 in 1996. Mr. Willman said the group spent roughly $6,000 for all meeting rooms; $14,000 for 200 hotel rooms at $70 each; and $2,800 on meals.
In comparison, a military conference at the hotel in October spent $68,000. Costs included $42,000 for hotel rooms, $16,000 for two dinners, $10,000 for a cocktail party, and use of one meeting room.
“The organization was very upset,” said Marinell Brown, the group's business manager and a teacher at Northern Kentucky Technical College.
Mr. Willman said the reasons behind the hotel's decision are not simple or discriminatory. And he said he offered alternatives.
“For us to give up all of our meeting rooms for one group that won't even use all of our sleeping rooms is not good business sense,” Mr. Willman said. “We are a convention hotel designed to have sleeping and meeting rooms compatible.”
The association wanted to book space for three days in the first two weeks of October. That is the hotel's busiest convention time.
The way the Drawbridge does business is not unusual.
Kathy Ivie, marketing director at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, said she works in partnership with the hotels near the center. The convention and visitors bureau books groups more than a year in advance, trying to fill hotel and meeting space.
The convention center then works on booking groups within the year, filling in the dates that are left.
“We certainly will book business and meeting space without the hotel rooms,” Ms. Ivie said. “If a state association calls three months from now, we know for sure they can have the space because we know a large group won't be booking it.”
Mr. Willman said he offered Ms. Nunnelley alternative dates in November and December, but they will not work for the association.
“This happens every day. We may have something already booked for a date someone wants or we might not have all the space they need,” Mr. Willman said. “Probably 100 times a year we have to tell people there is a conflict.”
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