Convention center seeks new booking policy
By Terry Murry on Thursday, September 9th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – The Pendleton Convention Center Commission is asking the city to help write a booking policy that would allow the center to bump smaller events if larger, more lucrative ones want to rent the space. The Pendleton City Council agreed at its Tuesday meeting that encouraging tourism is important, but so is local good will.
“It is important that we balance our policies, taking into consideration our customers who have already booked a smaller event, and then also trying not to miss those larger opportunities,” City Manager Robb Corbett said.
The council sent the proposed booking policy back to the drawing board for more fine-tuning. Corbett said there were several suggestions.
“One is to look for more objective information so that we can point to reasons why we might re-book an event,” Corbett said.
It was also suggested that the city look at policies at other convention centers, and also add a guarantee that any event booked, no matter how small, is guaranteed its space once it is within 120 days of the event.
