Published September 2002

Hawthorn adds limo
and markets county sites, venues to lure guests

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

The Hawthorn Inn & Suites’ share of Snohomish County’s hospitality market has recovered substantially from the impact of last September’s terrorist attacks.

Hawthorn General Manager Susan Bacon credits innovative marketing and a strengthening economy for the increase in business.

“Although we lost business right after September 11, we’ve recovered some of the tour bookings, and much of our corporate business is back to normal,” she said. “Traffic off the freeway has been greater than last year because we’re more established and better known, and also because more people are driving than flying this year.”

While some airport hotels and new facilities focused on corporate travel have been suffering in the regional market, Bacon said the Hawthorn has been more fortunate with its northern location between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Corporate business during the week yields to tourists and social events on the weekends, she said.

Being competitive has also helped, she said. The fast T-1 Internet connections the hotel previously charged to guests’ room bills are now free, and Bacon is planning to add an Internet connection in the hotel’s business center for conference guests who want to use e-mail or search services during meetings, but for a nominal fee.

Also, a recently added limousine service has gone over “extremely well,” she said. The limo service, begun in June, is drawing two to three bookings a week, creating a promising new revenue flow for the hotel.

The Hawthorn owns the stretched black luxury vehicle and retains a driver on call for assignments.

“We’ve had the limo in four parades already in Arlington, Marysville, Lake Stevens and Snohomish, and took it to Smokey Point Night at the Everett AquaSox game this summer,” Bacon said. “We also use it to make sales calls on potential clients and keep it parked in front of the hotel.”

Bacon also is considering adding a car rental agency at the hotel soon.

“Overall, we’re growing because our sales team markets the whole facility — the Hawthorn Inn, O’Berg’s restaurant and convention center, La Pointe Spa and the office tower — and the whole north Snohomish County area, including Everett,” Bacon said.

She said people who like the freeway location of the hotel are encouraged to use it as a base for visiting the Everett waterfront, north county communities, Skagit County’s spring Tulip Festival and the annual Northwest Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-In at the Arlington Airport, a five-day event that helped to fill every room in the Hawthorn nearly every night.

The Hawthorn sales staff also visits Eastern Washington to market the whole Snohomish County area for tourism, including the popular Boeing Tour Center in Everett, to “show people what they could do here on a visit,” she said.

Part of the hotel’s success has been because there is no direct competition from comparable properties in the area, Bacon said. But competition is coming, when the Tulalip Tribes open their expanded casino next June, along with an adjacent hotel that will be joined later by a second one, plus a convention center.

Bacon, however, sees the Hawthorn benefiting from those new facilities.

“I don’t think the Tulalip hotels will hurt us at all. Many business travelers will probably not want to stay there, preferring a quieter place a few miles away,” Bacon said.

“Also, there will be so many people going to Quil Ceda Village that we will certainly get pushover from that. And having so many things to do there will be good to promote to people coming to the Hawthorn.” Also, the Hawthorn sales team is beginning to work with Seattle and Vancouver cruise terminals to provide overnight lodging for people coming and going from ocean cruises.

“We’re seeing ourselves more and more as concierges, helping people who stay here make connections with ferries to the San Juan Islands, hot-air ballooning in Snohomish, Mariners games in Seattle, Emerald Downs, Woodinville wineries and things like the Everett Performing Arts Center,” Bacon said.

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