Hotel guru to help guide new Long Beach hotel
The Allegria Hotel in Long Beach hired Mike Johnston, a former Long Island Hotel and Lodging Association president, to help market its 143-room, upscale facility in the economic slump. (Dec. 3, 2010) Credit: Bruce Gilbert
Hotel guru Mike Johnston has landed a huge consulting assignment: helping the upscale Allegria Hotel in Long Beach wade its way out of the slump that has beset the lodging industry across the country. The 143-room Allegria, on the boardwalk, missed its first summer season, opening in late September 2009. By then, the Great Recession had the economy in its grips, and guests were not plentiful. Johnston, a past president of the Long Island Hotel and Lodging Association, said the Allegria did well, considering the circumstances.
"They did fairly well," Johnston said. Only about two-thirds of the rooms were open when the hotel started receiving guests.
With winter coming on, the Allegria will be relying on corporate business, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and conferences, Johnston said. But its true glory days are expected to be in the spring and summer. By then, Johnston said, the rooftop pool will be open for use.
Johnston was upbeat. "Like any new hotel, you go through trials and tribulations," he said. We're trying to get them to have a positive 2011."
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