Nearly 4,000 Park City-area hotel rooms pledged to GOP bid

(Park Record) The committee attempting to lure the 2012 Republican National Convention to Salt Lake City has secured commitments from approximately two dozen hotels and lodges in the immediate Park City area to house GOP delegations should the political bash be awarded to Utah.

The number of Park City-area lodges that have told the host committee they would set aside rooms for the Republicans appears to be 22 or 24, according to figures provided by the committee and the local lodging association.

Scott Beck, the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the lodges have indicated they would make approximately 3,900 rooms available in the Park City area, or just more than one-fifth of the 18,000 rooms the committee is attempting to secure within a one-hour drive of EnergySolutions Arena, where the convention would be staged.

"Park City embodies the individual spirit of Utah and the West," Beck said, calling Park City "vital" to Salt Lake City's bid for the convention.

Beck declined to name the Park City-area hotels that have said they would house delegates. The president of the Park City Area Lodging Association, Jeff Bennett, also refused to list the properties. Bennett said, though, the bloc totals 89 percent of the available rooms at the places that have shown interest. He said the hotels and lodges represent a "wide range of properties throughout the greater Park City area." They have a combined 124,000 square feet of meeting space, he said.

Original Article