Stronger Coffee, Better Décor

Branson is jumping into the conventions and meetings game, notably with two new Hilton hotels in and around Branson Landing. We peek inside.

The coffee is stronger and tastes better than you expect at a hotel restaurant. The server who ushered me in from outdoors to the bar of the Liberty Tavern for an interview wears a nametag that says “Serguei.” The lobby of the attached Hilton hotel is decorated with leather furniture and backlit panels covered in what looks like Japanese paper. Copies of American Art Collector and Gourmet Traveler magazines are laid out, with gleaming covers.

This is not traditional Branson. It’s the Hilton Promenade. Overlooking the main square in Branson Landing, the Promenade’s room prices vary depending on the day you check in and how full the hotel is. For Tuesday, May 1, rooms start at $139 and top out at $379; on the following Friday, they start at $159 and top out at $399. (At higher-traffic periods of the year, the room prices increase.) The five-story hotel opened on Valentine’s Day; a second hotel, the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel, is scheduled to open in August. It’s a major component of the Branson Convention Center. Although managed by the Hilton Hotels Corporation, the hotels are owned by Branson Landing developer HCW Development, while the City of Branson owns the convention center facility itself. Between the two hotels, 530 rooms for rent are entering the market. The Promenade offers 2,000 square feet of meeting space, already being used for smaller events. The convention center hotel is much larger, with a total of 50,000 square feet of meeting space connected to a 23,000-square-foot ballroom.

At press time, Hiltons of Branson was gearing up for a busy summer and fall, with 125 event days booked, plus 14 “gated” shows such as a Log Cabin Expo to take place in September or October. This is according to Mark Hartman, the general manager. A genial, elegant-but-not-too-elegant man, Hartman moved to Branson in July 2005 and assembled a sales team 18 months ago. Hartman has been with Hilton for 25 years; this is his 14th hotel opening. He is extremely optimistic about the prospects of both hotels, which he regards as serving two different markets: Hartman views Overland Park, Kansas, St. Charles and St. Louis as his competition. Springfield is conspicuously absent from the list, and Hartman takes pains to say his goal is not to steal business from elsewhere but to add convention options. He sees much potential for Branson. In most tourism markets, he says, convention business represents 40 percent of visitors; in Branson, the number is around 3 percent. Branson’s entertainment options and the hotels’ proximity to Branson Landing eliminate the “find out where to go and get a cab” aspect of conventioneering in larger cities, Hartman explains. It makes it easier for him to sweeten deals with potential clients.

Swanky Rooms, Few Downsides

While the Branson Convention Center Hotel isn’t yet open, I was given a tour of the Hilton Promenade by John O’Connor, a St. Louis–based publicist for Hilton. It’s equipped with a rubber-floored fitness center with flatscreens on every treadmill. There’s a de rigeur indoor pool and a business center (but no WiFi).

The rooms are incredible. You could put them up against the ones at the Drake Hotel in Chicago any day. Throughout the hotel, most of the floors and fabrics are red and gold, but varied in texture. As the colors imply, the effect is regal.

The furniture is leather. The “condotel” units contain loft-like brushed-steel appliances and large wall-hanging flatscreens. The view from the fifth-floor corner suite is a grand panorama of Branson Landing’s square, Lake Taneycomo and the narrow shopping streets. The downsides: No bathtubs, no WiFi and some ambient noise from the Branson Landing Square. That said, it’s a swanky spot; time will show if it’s enough to generate new convention tourism to Branson.

Click here to read a review of the new Hilton Hotel.

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