Tim Jarret General Manager/ Partner The Tampa Club/BNG Hospitality
What is The Tampa Club’s mission? The Tampa Club is a private, city club. It sits on the 41st and 42nd floors of the Bank of America building in Downtown Tampa. The mission is to create an environment where members can engage connect and do business. This year, we celebrated our 37th anniversary. We believe in inclusion. We were one of the first clubs to allow minorities and women as members. The Club was founded on the purpose of inclusion, allowing women and minorities to be apart of the club.This year, we partnered with the Tampa Bay Diversity Chamber of Commerce to further our vision of inclusion. Members join the club for different reasons. Networking is a big component because it allows members to connect with one another and share and grow resources. The club staff treat members as individuals. Members are called by their first name and the staff learns each individual’s likes and dislikes. Members can also take advantage of our private event space for special occasions like weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, and other celebrations or business gatherings. The club is like a home for our members. How has the event space evolved in Tampa? In the last few years, many new event venues have opened in the Tampa market. The older buildings are being remodeled for event space purposes. The hotels in the area are growing their event spaces. There are many more choices than in previous years. They are great choices and very different capacities from one another. What separates us is the stunning view of the Bay region and our reputation for a high-quality experience. Next year, we are going to invest in updating the members’ space throughout the club. We want to maximize the way members use the space. We want it to be conducive for work and play, we will continue to improve our ‘office away from the office’ concept. I think the Tampa Bay economy will remain robust. The area has a lot of smart, passionate people working to solve challenges like transportation as the area continues to grow. The future looks beautiful and bright for the Tampa Bay region. 144 | Invest: Tampa Bay 2020 | TOURISM, ARTS & CULTURE
In just the first three months of 2019, Tampa’s Downtown hotels saw an 84.4% occupancy rate.
( ) Another factor is Port Tampa Bay, the largest port in the Southeast, serving both cruise lines and freight companies. Cruise giants such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean operate year-round and cruise regularly to Cuba from Port Tampa Bay. Hotel occupancy in Tampa was up in the period from January to March 2019, according to Visit Tampa Bay. Downtown hotels registered an 84.4% occupancy rate during those three months, an impressive 7.3% increase on the year. The county’s total taxable revenue from hotel stays came in at around $195.5 million – up more than $10 million in comparison to the same period in fiscal year 2018. A big part of a hotel’s attraction is its service offering, according to Jim Bartholomay, General Manager, Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel. “I have worked all over the country and I have never worked in an environment like Tampa Bay where there is genuine hospitality bred into the local residents. The workforce available to us in this region is just phenomenal. Everywhere a person goes in Tampa Bay, they will experience wonderful service and high levels of hospitality. So, when we do have turnover at the hotel, we have the ability to be very selective as to who we bring on the team next. We spend an inordinate amount of time vetting potential employees and asking questions like are you hospitable? Do you like taking care of others? We can take talent from all walks of life that may not have any skills to work in a hotel and we can teach them these skills, but being genuinely hospitable is the only thing that we cannot teach. That is a trait that is either innate or not in a person.” Even for those guests who chose not to stay in a hotel, online platforms such as Airbnb are still obligated to pay a County Tourist Development Tax at a rate of 5%
