Travel2ltam talks about the history and news of the accommodation with Piro Hernández, Director of Sales and Meetings at the Miami International Airport Hotel.
How does the hotel operate and what services does it offer?
It is a hotel that is more than 60 years old since its construction, it is basically the center of the airport. In the beginning, the airport expanded and grew, but beyond that, we are very strategically located. It has 268 rooms. The big difference is that they are big and people are surprised by the size, because they are larger than what one is used to receiving in a normal hotel. Obviously we have about 15 rooms of those 268 that we use as a promotion with a Twin bed that was used much before. We are now in a remodeling process, we have already completed the seventh floor, we are working on the sixth and we hope to be completely remodeled by June of this year.
Does the hotel have rooms for events and conventions?
Of course, the hotel has event rooms that are on the seventh floor. We can receive up to 300 people in the theater inside the room and we have two Boardrooms for about 10 to 12 people. While the large room can be divided into four different rooms according to need. Apart from that, we are very happy with the remodeling because it is going to be a very fresh change, that is, it is going to be very modern. New TVs, carpet, furniture, beds. In addition, we are close to checkpoint number 5, from the hotel you walk everywhere and a great advantage of being able to stay at the airport is the variety of restaurants that you have nearby. You can find Italian or Latin cuisine, a number of chain restaurants, all within walking distance. And of course, there are many shops, and right next door we have a medical center and also a government building, so it is very safe to stay here.
What would your client mix be like today? Taking into account the people who come to experience the city, versus those who have to stay for some operation at the airport.
In general, more people who have to travel and wait to move are accommodated. The event rooms are used a lot by people from the airport, Homeland Security and Duty Free. However, there are also guests who are external. For example, tomorrow we have a party for a company that takes airport photography with a private party and they are going to use one of the rooms. We also have a restaurant on the seventh floor where a birthday will be held because the child likes to see the planes.
Events are active in some ways, but in terms of rooms, the highest average stay flow is one night. We are working to change that image and maximize stays for two and three nights. But there are also minority cases of corporate people, who have come to visit and stayed 23 nights without problem.