Site Inspection
Reno Grande
Published in May 2007 Departments
Sierra Service Keeps Planners Coming Back
Pamela Soules, event manager with Winmark Corporation, has used the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nev., on numerous occasions. She’s held several annual conferences and trade shows for her company’s franchise Play It Again Sports there. When the property hosted events for Winmark franchises Once Upon A Child and Music Go Round, she spent more time at the resort.
So what’s next? She working on taking a vacation to Nevada’s second city to visit the property again.
Vacation in the same place where you’ve held five conferences? It makes sense to Soules — after all, she won’t really be going to the same place. When she held her events there, the property was known as the Reno Hilton. Now, the Grand Sierra is undergoing renovations everywhere from the gift shop to the guest rooms.
She’s not alone in her enthusiasm.
“With all the renovations and newness of the Grand Sierra Resort, I can’t wait to get our members back there,” says Inge Hafkemeyer, convention and meeting manager with the International Association of Administrative Professionals. The organization held its annual international convention and education forum there in August 2006.
At 2,000 rooms and 200,000 square feet of meeting and function space, the resort is already in the midst of expansive renovations.
“Everything — but everything — inside this massive complex is either expanding and/or being renovated,” says Jeanne Corey, the resort’s vice president of sales. That includes all 10 restaurants, the 110,000-square-foot casino, the lobby and the hotel rooms.
The property will also get a 150,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, which Corey says will be the largest in North America.
The renovations promise good things to come, but Soules and Hafkemeyer hope one thing stays the same — the service.
“The staff is beyond exceptional!” enthuses Soules.
Hafkemeyer concurs. “[I] wish I could clone them for all of our conventions!” she says.