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Trophy Club officials are looking to help generate more nights spent in hotels in town by creating a tourism incentive program, or TIP.
Breaking it down
During the July 28 meeting, Trophy Club Town Council approved the program 6-1, with Garry Ash being the lone no vote.
Jill Lind, Trophy Club's director of communications and marketing, presented the plan that could be an investment of $125,000 for the city per year.
Each of the town’s hotels along SH 114 is eligible for up to $20,000 in annual reimbursements for room-night rebates and special marketing incentives. The hotels could also receive up to $5,000 annually at a 75% reimbursement rate or approved wayfinding signage.
Lind said hotels can start submitting reimbursement starting the 2025-26 fiscal year, which runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2026.
The hotels that are eligible to participate include:
The program’s cost will be funded through the city’s hotel occupancy tax revenue and it is a targeted effort to attract visitors through hosted events, coordinated travel and hospitality partnerships, according to city documents.
All of the hotel operators will be invited to join an executive tourism meeting to coordinate efforts, the desired impact and the reimbursement process.
“The goal is simple: to drive more overnight stays in tourism activity by partnering with our local hotels,” Lind said.
An example provided to council was if a swimming team comes to town to compete, a hotel that has rooms for $109.95 per night could offer a special rate of $79.95 per room, per night. With a $30 discount per night and 15 rooms booked for two nights, the hotel could receive back $900 in the TIP.
Hotels could also provide transportation to events or restaurants and provide catered meals, gift cards, branded client gifts or other promotional material and be reimbursed, according to the presentation.
Ash explained he would like to see a program where the town had more control of it. He said if groups of five or more were given a $25 dining card in Trophy Club, all of the money would be staying in Trophy Club between the hotel and food.
He said he was against the wayfinding signage and suggested that $25,000 would be better spent on a dining card program for hotels. Lind said the signage request was from hotel operators in Trophy Club.
“I took a look at the booking behavior of what goes on in hotels,” he said. “Seventy [percent] to 80% of all bookings are done online or apps. So before they come anywhere near Trophy Club, they've already chosen where they can stay. So that leaves 20% to 30% for walk-ins. Based upon people's booking behavior and the trend where more and more people are booking online, I just struggle with the signage (cost).”
In their own words
“We’ve struggled historically to find an effective use for this money, and I think that what we're trying to do here, hopefully, can maximize the engagement from our local hotel operators,” Mayor Pro Tem Rhylan Rowe said. “They're the ones that are going to have to be active in implementing things.”
