Visit Boerne Advisory Board

OFFICIAL MINUTES REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETING OF THE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU ADVISORY BOARD POLICE/MUNICIPAL COURT COMPLEX 124 Old San Antonio Road Boerne, TX 78006 Thursday, July 1, 2021 – 4:00 p.m. Present: Chairman Joe Granados, Vice-Chair Michelle Ernst, Board Members: Mary Kanafani (4:05), Cristal Bitar, Ross Partlow, Guy Sanders (4:20) Absent: Elizabeth Castle, Brad Wilson, Tommy Mathews 1. CALL TO ORDER – 4:00 PM After establishing a quorum, Chairman Joe Granados called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. 2. CITIZENS COMMENTS: There were no comments. 3. APPROVE MINUTES 2021-598 Approve Minutes from Regular Quarterly Meeting of April 22, 2021. Joe asked for a motion to approve the minutes; Michelle Ernst made the motion, Mary Kanafani seconded; the motion past unanimously. 4. RECEIVE PRESENTATION ON HOTEL PERFORMANCE AND STATISTICS 2021-599 a. Fair Market Share for Year Ended 2020 - Hill Country Competitive Set Larry reviewed the fair market share spreadsheet for the 4th quarter of 2020, pointing out that as compared to our competitive set (Bandera, Kerrville, Fredericksburg, San Marcos, New Braunfels) Boerne was able to surpass its fair market share of 5.36% by capturing 5.59% of the market. In addition, even with the COVID-19 economic impact, Boerne closed the year of 2020 with a 48.16% overall occupancy rate, and an average daily hotel rate of $87.80, with the total hotel revenue coming in at $8,315,452.00. Larry stated this was, "not too bad" given the state of emergency the whole country was in due to the pandemic. He went on to review how Boerne's neighboring cities fared at year end. City of Boerne Page 1 Printed on 12/31/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 1, 2021 Advisory Board 2021-600 b. Fair Market Share for 1st Quarter 2021 - Hill Country Competitive Set Larry continued moving on to the competitive spreadsheet for the 1st Quarter of 2021, again comparing Boerne to its competitive set. For Q1 2021, Boerne finished at 6.12% of the fair market share exceeding its given share of 5.51%. Additionally, the average daily rate for the quarter was $88.96, the overall occupancy rate was 59.49%, and the total hotel revenue was $2,686,243.00. As compared to Bandera, Kerrville, Fredericksburg, New Braunfels, and San Marcos - Boerne beat out every other city in occupancy except San Marcos. We also beat out every other city in average daily rate except Fredericksburg. 2021-601 c. Overview of 1st Six Months 2021 Larry reviewed the Smith Travel Report summary spreadsheet going over the revenue for the 1st six months of 2021. He added that he believes the total revenue was more like 1.4 million if you include The Kendall and the short term rental properties, explaining that they do not report to Smith Travel. Michelle asked if the hotels were increasing their average daily rate and Crystal interjected that she was getting $250 at Comfort Inn. Larry agreed that most of the hotels had been able to increase their ADR's as well. 5. RECEIVE UPDATE ON: 2021-602 a. New Ads - "Boerne, TX - An Elevated Hill Country Experience" Larry shared some samples of adds that the CVB is currently running and went on to talk about the new tag line: "Boerne, Texas: An Elevated Hill Country Experience". Joe asked if they were doing anything with realtors to which Larry said he had meet w/ Charlie Hill at Cordillera who wanted to get more involved with city sponsored events like Dickens on Main; and would be meeting with others in the future. 2021-603 b. Texas Media Link (TML) City of Boerne Page 2 Printed on 12/31/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 1, 2021 Advisory Board Larry talked about the relationship with Texas Media Link and how it was not working out as he had hoped. He explained that TML had done some targeted digital marketing in San Antonio back in October and November of 2020 in order to get people to Boerne for holiday shopping. However, we were not seeing the overnight hotel stays as was the ultimate goal. For this reason and some problems with their communication and reporting systems, the CVB was going to cease the relationship. Instead, they would be contracting with AJR Media on similar marketing efforts for digital advertising. 2021-605 c. YOLO, TX - Aired May 15, 2021 Larry reviewed the work that was being done with YOLO, the "You Only Live Once" television show, and talked about the upcoming 5th episode on Boerne. He went on to talk about the CVB's plans to have YOLO return in July for more filming and that they would also be re-airing Boerne's previous episode in August at no charge to the CVB. Joe asked how we are doing in our efforts to share and include the new marketing strategy with the whole city including the Chamber and the EDC. He also asked how the city's re-branding efforts were coming to include all of the city departments like the Hill Country Mile, the parks department, etc. Larry said the CVB is working with the city manager, Ben Thatcher on re-branding the city of Boerne. Ross asked if we are pushing our videos out to other businesses for their use, to which Larry confirmed that we do share our videos with the EDC, the Chamber and any other business that asks to use them, like Klein's Smokehaus for example. 2021-606 d. Oprah Daily - Lifestyle Website Larry moved on with a quick review of the article on Boerne that came out in Oprah Winfrey's Digital Lifestyle Magazine and the current reach it had gained. 2021-607 e. United Airlines In-flight Magazine - "Hemispheres" Larry gave a quick review of the United Airlines ad we placed in their "Hemisphere's" in-flight magazine adding that there was also a digital component included with the ad buy as well. He gave a brief recap on how we were able to acquire the ad, the estimated reach statistics and the Boerne QR code that would be included in the ad as well. 2021-608 f. Influencer Status Report City of Boerne Page 3 Printed on 12/31/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 1, 2021 Advisory Board Larry moved on to provide an update on recent influencers to Boerne and mentioned a couple who came to Boerne because of the recent coverage they had seen from "SA Foodie". Tori Bellos of the CVB mentioned the increase in follower-ship on Instagram due to these influencer visits to which Michelle agreed. Larry also mentioned another influencer (Cameo Murray) that had been to Boerne and would be returning. Joe asked if we share the influencers with other hotels like Comfort Inn and if we are tracking other influencers who come on their own. Tori replied that we absolutely do share them and track them if we know they are here, but that sometimes we do not know they were here until much later. Guy asked if we are comparing the different platforms - i.e. Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok, etc. Tori responded that per the city's policies, the CVB was not currently allowed to use TikTok because of their lack of ability to archive the content. Joe expressed his concern that his (The Kendall's) hotel tax dollars were not being used on one of the most highly accessed and shared social media platforms currently available and he would like us to investigate how this limitation could be removed. Larry responded that Tori would look into this and report back. 2021-609 g. 2023/2024 Eclipse Report Larry moved on to talk about what the city should expect with the next eclipse in 2024 and about the committee that Tori was on to be prepared when the time came. Joe asked if there were any more questions on the advertising and marketing segment of the agenda; there were none, so he moved on to item #6. 6. RECEIVE UPDATE ON NEW BUSINESS 2021-610 a. Film Friendly Texas Larry gave a short historical update on how Boerne has tried to become a film friendly Texas City in the past and where we are on it at this time saying the application process was moving along and we should be approved in the very near future. He also have an update on some possible film projects that were in the works. 2021-611 b. AirDNA Larry gave an update on the partnership between TTA and AirDNA and gave a quick overview of the short term rental properties in the city and their positive impact on the hotel occupancy tax revenue and increased visitors to Boerne. He explained that the CVB was under a 4 month trial run contract to see if this would be a good source of data collection, similar to the Smith Travel Research reports we receive for the hotels. City of Boerne Page 4 Printed on 12/31/2021 Convention & Visitors Bureau Official Meeting Minutes July 1, 2021 Advisory Board 2021-612 c. Groups Meetings Business Larry then gave a quick update on the status of the groups meetings and conferences market adding that meeting planners were still saying the meetings market would not return until possibly the last quarter of 2021 or 1st quarter 2022. 7. CVB STAFFING UPDATE Larry reviewed the current staffing situation and what we are doing to circumvent the loss of our administrative assistant position, explaining that we need a volunteer coordinator and what her duties would be. He also talked about the current budget and where we are at this time saying that the CVB was ahead of budget and business is good. Joe asked where overages go, to which Larry replied any overages are put into the CVB's fund balance. He then talked about the volunteer luncheon we had at Richter and how much our volunteers had enjoyed it. 8. RECEIVE ADVISORY BOARD MEETING DATES FOR 2021 2021-613 a. Regular Meetings Schedule Jeanette Teague shared the Advisory Board meeting schedule with the board. 9. COMMENTS FROM BOARD & STAFF Guy asked how the hotels influx had been, to which Larry responded that business meetings were down but transient business was way up. Joe agreed and commented that they were starting to see small executive retreats at his hotel. 10. ADJOURNMENT There being no further questions, comments or business before the board, Chairman Granados asked for a motion to adjourn: Guy Sanders made the motion, Michelle Ernst seconded, all were in favor and the meeting adjourned at 4:44 p.m. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting will be held on Thursday, October 7, 2021. s/s Larry Woods_________________________ Boerne Convention and Visitors Bureau Director s/s Jeanette Teague______________________ Secretary City of Boerne Page 5 Printed on 12/31/2021