Technological advances are often crucial for event planners to have a marketing edge. Here are new and recently renovated Dallas/Fort Worth venues that have stayed on top of upgrades and improved offerings for tech-savvy guests. The hotels, conference centers, restaurants, private rooms, and other spaces can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, conferences, meetings, weddings, business dinners, teambuilding activities, cocktail parties, and more.
Located at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Dallas and occupying a space in the LTV Towers, the upscale restaurant/social club Grayson Social opened in October. The entire 6,200-square-foot venue, which specializes in Southern cuisine, seats 182 guests or holds about 229 for receptions. The 2,240-square-foot main dining room seat 110 or holds 125 for receptions. The 1,600-square foot Grayson Upstairs is a members-only sitting room on the mezzanine level that seats 24 or accommodates 34 for receptions. Grayson Upstairs is available by reservation, and is outfitted with sofas, rocking chairs, a 64-inch flat-screen HDTV, and free Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, a 1,360-square-foot-bar holds 40 for cocktails. Other tech amenities include music controls via iPads and a projector. While the restaurant is open to all, a separate club component provides member perks, including invitations to private events and discounted pricing.
In December, the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas's financial district will rebrand as the Adolphus, Autograph Collection, after undergoing extensive renovations. The property offers mobile check-in and check-out for guests through Marriott's mobile app, which can alert guests when their rooms are ready for check-in and offers a chat feature to interact directly with the hotel staff. The hotel has 407 guest rooms and 15 meeting rooms totaling 20,396 square feet. The largest space is the 5,304-square-foot Grand Ballroom, which holds 800 for receptions or seats 540 banquet-style, 375 classroom-style, or 150 in a U-shape. Spa Adolphus, a 5,000-square-foot luxury spa and salon, opened in October. In August, the hotel opened the Pool Adolphus, a rooftop pool that includes a bar.
In June, electronic dance music company Night Culture, through its subsidiary Stereo Live, opened a Stereo Live venue in Dallas's Bachman-Northwest Highway neighborhood. The 14,500-square-foot nightclub, which is in the space formerly occupied by Club Carnaval, has standing capacity for 1,400 people. The venue is also available for private and corporate events. The venue has a massive, 1970s-style polyhedron mirror disco ball, a DAS sound system, and state-of-the-art lighting that complements a six-foot-tall foot video wall and light array.
In July, the 218-room Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, introduced the Suite Sleep experience, which offers guests an array of dream-inducing, in-suite amenities and on-request personalized assistance from the Uptown hotel’s sleep therapist. The therapist is a specialist in the identification and mitigation of disrupters such as lights and sounds from technological devices, unfamiliar bedtime surroundings, and room temperature. As additional solutions, the sleep therapist can recommend white noise apps that play the sound of ocean waves, waterfalls, and other restful elements. Other relaxing offerings at the hotel can be found at the 2,000-square-foot Ritz-Carlton Spa and Salon. Other tech-forward amenities include charging stations for electric cars and the hotel's app, which allows guests to check in, check out, and make service requests. The hotel has 16 meeting spaces; the largest is the 9,548-square-foot Ritz-Carlton Ballroom, which can seat 1,140 theater-style or 480 classroom style.
With extensive renovations that are expected to be completed by early next year, DoubleTree by Hilton Dallas-Love Field has installed several Flyte Board flight information displays so that visitors can get real-time flight updates for the Dallas Love Field Airport. Guests can check in and check out using the Hilton Honors app's Digital Key feature, as well as use the app to choose a preferred room. The 244-room hotel has 13 meeting spaces totaling 14,000 square feet. The largest meeting area is the combined First Class A & B space, which is 5,408-square feet, and can seat 600 theater-style, 410 banquet-style, 360 classroom-style, 90 U-shaped-style, or 80 boardroom-style.
Formerly, the Admiral Hotel, the DoubleTree by Hilton Arlington DFW South in Arlington opened in September, after a $10 million renovation to the property. The five-story, 237-room hotel has 6,000 square feet of event space. The largest space is the 4,200-square-foot Bluebonnet Ballroom, which can seat 400 theater-style, 300 banquet-style, or 150 classroom-style. Guests can use the Hilton HHonors app, which allows users to check in through a mobile device and select their room based on the hotel layout and its outside surroundings. By the end of 2016, Hilton brand hotels will make the app available for iPads, add a real-time chat feature for guests to chat with hotel staff, and a “pin my room” feature that allows guests to mark their favorite room so they can select the same room on future visits.
The Ashton Hotel in Fort Worth, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recently added a high-tech amenity. In September, the property began offering the OpenKey app. The app allows guests at the 39-room property to manage their room check-in before arriving, contact the front desk, confirm their identity with an ID capture for security, and send an estimated time of arrival. The hotel has 4,853 square feet of meeting and event space, including four meeting rooms, a restaurant, and a wine cellar that doubles as a 20-seat event space. The 2,431-square-foot Winfree Ballroom seats 200 theater-style, 150 banquet-style, or 100 classroom-style. The 1,651-square-foot Winfield Scott Room can hold 130 for receptions, or seat 110 banquet-style or 70 classroom-style. The room can be divided into two for smaller events. The hotel also has a 10-seat boardroom.
The American restaurant chain Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House reopened its Dallas outpost in September after relocating from Victory Park to Uptown Dallas. The nearly 13,000-square-foot restaurant seats 480 guests across its main dining room, four private dining rooms, and patio. The Johnson Studio designed the new two-story restaurant, which has a modern, illuminated chandelier that cascades down from the second story into a suspended cage over the bar top, doubling as an art piece and a spirits display. The website for Del Frisco's offers gift cards in electronic and traditional forms. The electronic gift cards are instantly redeemable by email or by printing, and they are customizable with multiple card designs and options for personal gift messages.
As a Marriott brand hotel, Courtyard Dallas Plano/Richardson offers guests the opportunity to check in and check out via the Marriott Mobile app. Open since October, the 132-room hotel has 672 square feet of meeting space that can seat 84 theater-style, 56 banquet-style, 48 classroom-style, or 22 boardroom-style, or hold 74 for receptions.
August saw the opening of the Homewood Suites by Hilton Trophy Club Fort Worth North. The 110-room hotel in Fort Worth has two main meeting spaces. The Pegasus room is 924 square feet, and can seat 40 theater-style or 30 boardroom-style. The 280-square-foot Trophy room seats 12 in a boardroom set-up. Hilton HHonors members can use the Hilton HHonors app's Digital Key feature to check in, check out, and choose their preferred room. That feature will expand by the end of the year to include the ability to select a preferred room for future visits.
