Council backs new hotel room fee for marketing
Sixteen hotel owners won approval Monday night for a new revenue stream that could bring in $335,000 a year to help market Kalispell to tourists, trade shows, meetings and individual travelers.
Kalispell City Council unanimously approved assessing a $1.25 flat fee per room, per night that will go into a new Tourism Business Improvement District. It also approved bylaws and ratified the board of directors.
“This idea all over the state has been effective in raising tourism dollars” among cities implementing their own districts, Cheri Nelson told the council. She led the Kalispell Chamber’s Tourism Committee over the past 18 months as the local district was planned.
Visitation in Glacier National Park is expected to grow between 2 and 12 percent with the park’s 100th anniversary this year, Nelson said, “and we hope to take advantage of that.”
Winifred Storli, owner of the Blue and White Motel, was the only hotelier to speak against the new fee.
“I can’t support any more taxes,” Storli said. Visitors who can pay for a $100-a-night hotel room won’t feel the impact of the assessment, she said, “but it’s hard on the unemployed and people who stay in a motel for a week … This is not the time to add taxes, there’s too many people out of work.”
Areo Inn Owner Gib Bissell took the opposite stance.
“We can’t afford not to do this now,” Bissell said. Even when times were good, he reminded the group, hotel owners learned the lesson that they can’t afford to back off on marketing.
He agreed with Storli’s suggestion that the valley needs to revive its traditional promotions such as Canadian Days as a way to draw visitors.
“There’s a lot of things we could do to market better,” Bissell said. “But we’re all busy, so if we don’t hire a director who will do it?”
The current $60,000 or $65,000 budget from bed-tax revenue, he said, can’t provide that coordination and compete in the tourism market.
Pauline Sjordahl, former First Night Flathead director and a volunteer now for Kalispell historic district tours, made the case that a coordinated effort would address the “erratic” scheduling of city events that tend to bunch up on certain weekends.
Chris Walters of the Hilton Garden Inn recounted his experience in Billings, where a $750,000 budget funds citywide improvement projects.
“Regionally and nationally, we’re still one of the lowest states” for bed taxes and tourism assessments, Walters said. “I have no fear that any fee will turn tourists away. Other cities are implementing this and they’re going after the same market we are … There could be a residual effect with people deciding to move here.”
Dave Harvey of the Sportsman & Ski Haus in Kalispell encouraged approval. “To not allow this thing would be an unbelievable mistake,” he said.
Terry Kramer of Kramer Enterprises told the council his last two home-building jobs were the result of visitors deciding they liked the area well enough to stay.
“Marketing for tourism as an event venue is what we need to do,” Kalispell Downtown Association Executive Director Pam Carbonari told the council. “This is the time to do it. This is an opportunity for our city.”
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com