Four Points by Sheraton Brisbane

Last week Adam and I went and visited the new Four Points by Sheraton Brisbane which opened earlier in March.

My career in the hotel industry started at Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas and then continued at Sheraton Brisbane so I have a soft spot for the Starwood Hotels brand. Since losing the Sheraton (now the Sofitel) a number of years ago, Starwood have been working hard to get back in to the Brisbane hotel market and word on the street is that it won't be long before we have a Westin as well.

The Four Points is on Mary Street, just a couple of blocks from the Queen Street Mall (centre of the CBD) so its a very central location. Not surprisingly, the hotel rooms are very modern and look fresh (see picture below). One side overlooks the city/other buildings but the other has partial views of the Story Bridge and the river which is a nice surprise considering how central it is.

The hotel has some really good opening specials currently available so now is a great time to check it out while it still has that "new car" smell!

 

Conference wins a positive for the Brisbane hotel market

Its been a very, very quiet year for the Brisbane hotel market, especially compared to what we're used to. So it was nice to see some positive news for the year ahead with this update from Brisbane Marketing (below).
My guess is that the Austmine conference in 2015 will be a big one.


Conferences booming in Brisbane

Brisbane has won the right to host 16 conferences worth more than $30 million in a stunning September quarter for the local business events industry.

The September quarter bid wins led by the Brisbane Marketing Convention Bureau include a number of prestigious medical, education, resources and IT conferences:

• Joint Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine, Aeromedical Society of Australasia, and Flight Nurses Australia Conference 2014
• Australian Association for Research in Education – New Zealand Association for Research in Education 2014 Conference
• WCO IT Conference & Exhibition 2014 (World Customs Organisation)
• Australia and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting 2015
• Austmine 2015 International Conference and Exhibition.

Other bid wins led by the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) - done in partnership with Brisbane Marketing – have also contributed to the outstanding September quarter result.

These events will inject more than $30 million into the city’s economy, while bringing 11,500 delegates to Brisbane.

It puts Brisbane on track for a bumper year for conferences in the lead-up to the G20 Leaders Summit in November 2014.

Lady Gaga fails to deliver

No, I'm not talking about her on-stage performance ... I'm talking about filling the Brisbane hotel market. She's not my taste or style in music so this was not a concert I was ever going to attend.

Usually, big name musician + midweek concert in Brisbane = good things for the Brisbane hotel market (and of course us). So it was a rather disappointing surprise when the city failed to fill on Wednesday or Thursday last week when her concerts were on. I'm not sure if this was due to the Monday public holiday, the fact that its June and that corporate travel is slow or just that her concerts were out at Boondall and not at Suncorp Stadium (just outside the CBD).

What did surprise us tho was that the city filled on Tuesday night thanks to the Socceroos World Cup qualifying match against Japan at Suncorp.

We've loaded up on rooms for Coldplay in November which is midweek, during peak season and at Suncorp ... so it should be similar to U2 & Jay-Z, Bon Jovi, etc and be a very big event for the Brisbane hotel market.