Dallas has just sold $478 million worth of bonds to finance a new convention-center hotel. This seems like an odd time to be building such a mega-project, given a slowdown in travel demand and given the recent foreclosure on St. Louis’ Renaissance…

The Wall Street Journal reports today that federal government travel managers are cracking down on  junkets to fun places like Las Vegas and Orlando. The story quotes an FBI memo as saying that “conference[s] are not to be held in cities that…

If Kansas City’s leaders want to learn about the economics of a 1,000-room convention hotel, they could drive 200 miles east and talk to the folks who recently foreclosed on the Renaissance Hotel in downtown St. Louis. Instead, they’re spending $500,000…

Consulting firm Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels is forecasting an 18 percent drop in revenue this year for the Renaissance Hotel in downtown St. Louis, but it still thinks the hotel can turn an operating profit of about $500,000. The consultants’…

The St. Charles Convention Center has something to brag about today: It issued a news release noting its $10,141 operating profit in calendar 2008.  While that tiny amount of black ink would amount to a rounding error on some income statements, its a rarity in the…

Here in St. Louis, we now know the folly of listening to consultants who promise that a big new hotel will attract more convention business. Our downtown Renaissance Hotel, built on the basis of such projections, has just defaulted on its…