Jack Schmidt, Vice President, Regional Director of Sales & Marketing, Andrew A. Wilson, Executive Chef, and Norm Dillard, Director of Food & Beverage, for Suncadia, which opened in April. At The Lodge at Suncadia, the Portals restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, and features an ever changing menu of sophisticated, home style cuisine with fresh, local, and organically grown ingredients under the direction of Wilson. In addition, the new property features a 20,000 square foot conference center with versatile indoor meeting space and large mountain meadows for outdoor gatherings.

Destination Hotels & Resorts showcased its diverse collection of independent hotels, conference centers and resorts at a special media-event held at Charlie's Palmer's Astra in New York City on April 28.

Chris Miller, Regional Director of Sales & Marketing, Hotel ICON, in Houston, Texas. For meetings and social gatherings, Hotel ICON’s offers a full-floor function area, featuring catering by VOICE, the venue’s onsite restaurant and soaring ceilings, walls of windows, exceptional finishes and advanced audio and visual equipment. Encompassing nearly 5,000 square feet, the venue offers a dramatic, 2,400-square-foot ballroom (divisible into two smaller salons) with a 1,200-square-foot foyer and additional conference rooms, including a dedicated executive boardroom with video conferencing. The mezzanine level, which overlooks the lobby, will offer an additional 2,000 square feet of function space.

Entitled, "Find the Perfect Pairing with Destination," the event echoed the company’s distinctive duality of its venues with an emphasis on the luxury guest accommodations and meeting spaces that are paired with unique dining, spa and outdoor experiences. In addition, Destination Hotels & Resorts took the opportunity to formally introduce its two newest properties Stowe Mountain Lodge in Vermont, due to open in June and Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Washington, which opened April 1st. This is the first time in the company's history that the collection opened two resorts within only a few months of one another.

"Meetings are very important to us," said Maureen Callahan, Vice President of Marketing, Destination Hotels & Resorts. The company offers an expansive selection of unique meeting venues—from intimate gatherings to IACC-certified conference centers—as well as an array of incentive programs and meeting packages. The selection spans coast-to-coast and from sea level to altitude, with distinctive meeting experiences in one-of-a-kind settings.

Destination Hotels & Resorts is a collection of uniquely positioned independent hotels and resorts in diverse locations offering extraordinary facilities and services. The company’s portfolio features more than 6,000 guest rooms, 10 golf courses and 12 full-service spas in more than 30 locations. Each property is operated with an entrepreneurial spirit that captures the essence of each individual location to create "destinations" and "experiences" – not just hotels.

Julie Goraj, Marketing Communications Manager, Vail Cascade Resort & Spa in Vail Colorado and Mark Sapoznik, Marketing and Public Relations Manager, Resort at Squaw Creek, Lake Tahoe, California at the "Find the Perfect Pairing with Destination," Destination Hotels & Resorts Event discussed many of the attractive offerings of their venues.  Both venues, although known for meeting space, luxury accommodations and skiing, offer spectacular spa experiences. The Spa at Squaw Creek and Resort at Squaw Creek's Health and Fitness Center offers treatment rooms with Treatment beds of memory foam, Two manicure and two pedicure stations, Spa boutique, Men's and women's locker rooms with dry saunas and steam rooms, Outdoor whirlpools and Year-round heated swimming pools. The Vail Cascade features the 78,000-square-foot Aria Spa & Club, which includes 14 treatment rooms, the renowned Sanctuary relaxation lounge, state-of-the-art fitness equipment, innovative group classes and personalized instruction.

In addition to Stowe Mountain Lodge and Suncadia Resort, other properties represented at the event included: The Shores Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach, Florida; InterContinental Tampa; Wild Dunes in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, Tarrytown House Estate & Conference Center in Tarrytown, New York; Hamilton Park Hotel & Conference Center in Florham Park, New Jersey; Inn and Spa at Loretto in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Mountain Lodge in Telluride, Colorado; Hotel ICON in Houston, Texas; The Driskill in Austin, Texas; Resort at Squaw Creek in Lake Tahoe, California; Vail Cascade Resort & Spa in Vail, Colorado; L'Auberge Del Mar in Del Mar, California; Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa in La Jolla, California; Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, California, Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona, Destination Resorts Hawaii and Wailea Beach Villas on Maui, and the new Terranea Resorts, scheduled to open in 2009.

Cynthia Maddox, Director of Public Relations and Marketing Communications, The Driskill in Auston Texas. Located in downtown Austin, the Driskill Hotel features more than 18,000 square feet of flexible meeting space and event facilities and an experienced staff is poised to assist with state-of-the-art, audio-visual equipment and computer capabilities.

"Meetings are very important to Destinations, Hotels & Resorts," Maureen Callahan, Vice President of Marketing, Destination Hotels & Resorts, told Facilitiesonline. "Most of our properties now have significant meeting space, and meetings account for about 40 percent of our business. We also have six IAAC-approved properties."

Something good will be cooking at in Stowe, Vermont when the Stowe Mountain Lodge opens in June. Emily Biscone, Marketing & Sales Coordinator and Sean Buchanan, Executive Chef of the property offer some samples of the venue’s distinctive cuisine. Buchanan, host of Vermont Public Television’s "Feast in the Making" and one of the state’s foremost advocates of farm-to-table cuisine, emphasizes seasonal cuisine with fresh and creative flavors and dishes.

Since Destination, Hotels & Resort properties also feature amenities and acitivies, such as Spas, Golf or Skiing, as well as quality, gourmet dining, meeting planners can expect to see more package combinations. "We are doing more hybrid marketing, with group specials and team building activities for properties," Callahan added.

Jordan Wilson (left), with InterContinental Tampa, and Tracey Lyon-Mercado, Marketing Communications Manager, The Shores Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach, Florida, at the "Find the Perfect Pairing with Destination," event held by Destination, Hotels & Resort in New York. The InterContinental Tampa features 17,000 square feet of meeting and event space, including 21 meeting rooms and a meetings-specific amphitheatre with seating for 40. The Shores Resort & Spa is boutique resort with 12 meeting rooms and more than 20,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor adaptable function space, with spectacular water views, for corporate and social events. Space includes: Grand Ballroom (6,895 square feet), Outdoor Ocean Terrace (3,714 square feet), Richard Petty Ballroom (3,195 square feet), Atlantic Room, Cloud Level (3,185 square feet), Bill France Ballroom (2,014 square feet) and Additional Board Rooms (406-1,078 square feet).

Destination Hotels & Resorts makes planning a meeting at one of its distinctive properties easy with sales managers on property and five national sales offices located in New York, San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles and Chicago. The regional sales directors in each office provide group and meeting planners a convenient alternative to shopping each Destination Hotels & Resorts property one at a time. For a complete list of these contacts, visit www.destinationhotels.com

Terry Wills, Public Relations Representative Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa, which is situated on 9.5 acres in sunny La Jolla, California, Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa features 210 deluxe guest rooms and suites; over 25,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space; an 8,000 square foot full service luxury spa; advanced networking and AV technology; free high speed and wireless Internet; four distinct restaurants and bars; full fitness center; magnificent courtyards and water fountains; and a courtyard heated pool with poolside cabanas.