City may pull out of tourist district

However, Anne LeClair, president of the San Mateo County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city needs to focus on the individual travelers lured by its advertising blitz. In particular, the Hiller Aviation Museum is often pushed as a local attraction, she said.

"We promote the heck out of San Carlos including the Hiller. The kinds of things we are generating for small rooms can't be measured in quite the same way [as conventions]. That's the challenge. They see the group business going elsewhere and think they aren't getting any," LeClair said.

She pointed out 19 percent of county hotel bookings are convention-goers who go outside the blocks of rooms often reserved at specific hotels.

The BID was formed in 2001 to give the county greater clout in competing with larger cities for business.

The bottom line on the issue appears to be financial. When the BID imposed a fee on each property, owners balked. San Carlos offered to pick up the tab for two years but the grace period is now over. LeClair said owners can pass the cost onto clients - roughly 15 cents per room for a hotel with 60 percent occupancy - but Grocott said the proprietors he spoke with refuse to do so.

"They aren't happy about the fee," Grocott said.

San Carlos doesn't benefit from tourism so a promotional fee is useless, he added.

LeClair said the bureau offered to work out a payment plan with the owners.

She said it isn't the amount of money due that upsets them as much as it is having to pay the bill at all. A delay in invoicing handed the owners bills for months of assessments at one time, adding to the frustration, she said.

"After the council said they would pay for the first two years, the properties became accustomed to that," LeClair said.

She plans to attend Monday night's council meeting.

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 104. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.