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Conference liaisons at Steamboat Springs' major hotels hope to entice businesses by providing perks and paying attention to customers' needs.

Still, corporate groups are taking their time to book conferences, and some aren't booking at all. The Sheraton Steamboat Resort and the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel provide meeting space for those events, and officials said their hotels were working hard to get contracts signed.

"The wintertime is very heavy with continuing medical education programs, and the summertime is very heavy with associations - and then, corporate throughout the year," said Joan Morrison, director of sales and marketing at the Sheraton. "I think corporate is where we're seeing the most hit."

The Sheraton's percentage of conference and nonconference customers ranges from 60-40 to 40-60, she said.

Comparison to previous years is tough, however, because of changes in the hotel's makeup. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide bought the property in 2007. The hotel completed a $20 million renovation, adding timeshare units and eliminating hotel rooms.

Still, the economic downturn is evident. January was strong, February is "holding its own" and March slows down, Morrison said last week.

"It's tough," she said. "Things are slower. We are seeing groups that are not willing to sign contracts immediately. It's taken a longer time to get these contracts signed and returned."

Conference planners, like other travelers, are hunting for bargains, she said. The Sheraton aims to add perks instead of slashing prices, Morrison said.

The Steamboat Grand also is seeing a slowdown in corporate group bookings, Sales and Marketing Director Karen Schneider said. But the hotel has diversified between corporate and noncorporate groups so it isn't overly dependent on one, she said. She wouldn't say how much of the hotel's bookings typically were conference participants.

"The noncorporate groups, they are still booking their groups and their conferences. : A lot of these folks are doing this a year to two years in advance," Schneider said. "The process is taking longer."

Conference planners need to get more approvals from their companies and groups than previously, she said.

Schneider spoke about conference bookings at a Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association breakfast Feb. 11. She noted then that conference planners were releasing contracted rooms because they weren't sure they could fill them.

But there's good news: "Every group that we have had has picked up to their adjusted and our contracted block" of rooms, Schneider said last week.

The Grand is keeping ties with groups and businesses on tight budgets, she said.

"We are making sure that we are in touch with all of our customers and ensuring that we have very strong relationships" so they return to Steamboat when possible, Schneider said.

Steamboat's hotels get one-time visitors, groups that rotate among venues and annual visitors.

The Medicinal and Bioorganic Chemistry Foundation plans a conference every other year at the Sheraton. The foundation's mission "is the organization and sponsorship of international conferences, symposia and educational programs which are dedicated to the advancement of bioorganic and medicinal chemistry."

It met in January in Steamboat. Foundation Board Member Dr. Jack Hodges said the group usually brings about 200 people to town.

"We've been coming there for years," Hodges said. "I think the conferees just love the venue there. The way you set the conference up, there's lectures in the morning and lectures in the evening, and in the afternoon people are free to ski. They just love that."

Morrison said the future of the Sheraton's meeting business was difficult to predict because of a shrinking booking window. Groups usually book one to 1 1/2 years in advance, but some now are signing on the dotted line just six months before their conferences, she said.

"I guess the feeling is that we're going to see a turnaround around the fourth quarter, but we need to find everything we can get for the first quarter of next year," Morrison said.

- To reach Blythe Terrell, call 871-4234

or e-mail bterrell@steamboatpilot.com