FAIRMONT BREAKERS LONG BEACH

Elevating planner and guest experiences at a new luxury property in Long Beach

44

RFPs claimed from RFP Showcase

150+

Diagrams created per year

2700

Rooms nights secured through Passkey annually

INTRODUCTION

In Southern California, standing out isn’t just about location or history—it’s about delivering seamless, tech-enabled experiences that today’s planners and guests expect. Enter the Fairmont Breakers Long Beach, located in a nearly century-old jewel that’s been meticulously renovated for the modern era. Its doors opened in November 2024, combining classic Southern California architecture and details with tech-forward design. With leaders like Maureen Leary, Director of Sales and Marketing, this landmark property is not just restoring history—it’s redefining luxury hospitality for group events in a competitive, evolving market.

“Our guests get the benefit of a beautiful, historic property that's brand new in so many ways,” says Leary. “We offer stunning crown moldings from the 1920s, but also high-speed wifi and connectivity throughout the building—the best of both worlds.” 

As the first true luxury hotel in Long Beach in over 60 years, Fairmont Breakers is at the forefront of new hospitality trends. But launching in a crowded Los Angeles market, with a diverse mix of international, corporate, and social clientele, brings unique challenges and opportunities—especially for group business.

CHALLENGE

Competing for Group Business in a Crowded, Evolving Market

The hospitality industry is currently marked by optimism, but also tight budgets, rising expectations, and fierce competition. RFPs sent through the Cvent Supplier Network include an average of 10 venues, so creating a vision for an unforgettable event from the first touchpoint is essential to winning the business immediately and in the future. 

Group planners now demand more than just space—they want unique, tech-enabled experiences, fast responses, and seamless booking processes. 

Some of the trends and challenges Fairmont Breakers Long Beach faced while opening include:

  • Hybrid and Virtual Event Demand: Planners expect venues to support both in-person and virtual components for meetings, which means reliable connectivity and built-in streaming capabilities are essential.
  • Personalization and Authenticity: Guests desire events that feel tailored and memorable, with unique spaces and creative setups replacing the generic ballroom experience. And while unique spaces are highly desirable, they pose a logistical challenge for non-professional planners and those unable to travel to the hotel before making a decision. Their historic ballrooms feature architectural columns, which are both a defining characteristic and a deterrent for planners concerned about sightlines and flexibility.
  • Speed and Transparency in Sourcing: Planners prioritize venues that respond quickly to RFPs and provide transparent, accessible booking and housing solutions.
  • Competitive Exposure: In major markets, new properties struggle to gain visibility amid established competitors. Digital marketing, advertising, and enhanced online profiles are critical for breaking through and capturing planner attention. As a new property, it needed to increase exposure among planners used to booking elsewhere.
  • Diverse Client Needs: Serving pharmaceutical, incentive, social, and corporate groups—each with different booking patterns, tech requirements, and expectations.
  • Lean Operations: The hotel has 185 guest rooms and just over 9,000 square feet of meeting space. With a smaller property comes a smaller sales and reservations team. Efficiency and automation were crucial to managing high volumes of inquiries and room blocks.

Distinguishing your property and grabbing someone's attention is really difficult sometimes. By having a fantastic collection of opportunities and maximizing our exposure, we can drive that awareness campaign that is so vital to our success.

Maureen Leary
Director of Sales and Marketing

SOLUTION

Cvent’s Integrated Technology Suite

To meet these challenges and exceed planner expectations, Fairmont Breakers Long Beach adopted a data-driven, technology-first approach, leveraging multiple Cvent solutions to streamline operations, enhance visibility, and deliver exceptional group experiences.

CSN Advertising: Increased Visibility and Faster Responses

  • CSN Advertising: Luxury profile listings, suggested ads, and display ads boost the property’s visibility to planners sourcing in the competitive LA/Long Beach market.
  • Faster RFP Responses: With Cvent’s RFP tools and a committed team, Fairmont Breakers maintains a badge for being a “quick responder”—a crucial factor in winning last-minute or high-value business.

The advertising possibilities and the robust offering Cvent has give us... great exposure, great opportunity to reach new meeting planners... It’s really vital when you’re launching a new hotel or entering a new market to make sure you are maximizing your exposure and driving that awareness campaign that is so vital to our success.

Maureen Leary
Director of Sales and Marketing

Cvent Passkey: Seamless Room Block Management

  • Automated Group Reservations: Passkey enables guests to book their rooms directly, whether for a major convention, a wedding block, or a corporate group. Custom websites for each group make reservations simple and on-brand.
  • Integration with PMS: Reservations flow straight into the property management system, reducing manual work and preventing missed opportunities—especially crucial during the hotel’s launch phase when core systems were still coming online.
  • Upsell Revenue: Integrated upsell tools enable the property to offer premium suites and spa packages at the time of booking, increasing incremental revenue.
  • Enhanced Planner Collaboration: Meeting planners gain real-time dashboard access to pickup and availability, reducing back-and-forth communication.

Passkey was essential for us... We actually launched with Passkey before we launched with our property management systems. We didn’t miss a beat, didn’t miss an opportunity. Plus, the volume generated by a convention or large conference, even if we only have a portion of the rooms, can lead to many questions. Passkey answers those questions on both sides.

Maureen Leary
Director of Sales and Marketing

Cvent Event Diagramming: Bringing Unique Spaces to Life

  • Interactive Diagrams and 3D Visualization: Enables planners (and social clients) to visualize event layouts, work around room columns, and customize setups for unique experiences.
  • Overcoming Booking Barriers: By showing how challenging spaces can be configured, Fairmont Breakers Long Beach wins business that might otherwise have gone elsewhere.
  • Creative Inspiration: The tool inspires the hotel’s own team to brainstorm new configurations and share them instantly with clients.

Without event diagramming, we would get meeting planners who would just say, ‘No, I’m sorry, no columns.’ With the tool, we’re able to show them how their event can work and be successful—despite the columns, or even utilizing them for additional screens.

Maureen Leary
Director of Sales and Marketing

RESULTS

Driving Group Business, Efficiency, and Revenue

Leary and her team look back on their first full year at Fairmont Breakers Long Beach with pride and look forward to future years with anticipation of growing the luxury event opportunities in Long Beach. “We’re breaking down some of those barriers and the regular standards of meetings and creating memories that last a lifetime through events,” she said. 

diagram of a meeting space and picture of a webpage

Their success is evident:

  • 100% RFP Response Rate with an average response time of 10 hours
  • Received RFPs: They received $36 million in RFP opportunities through the Cvent Supplier Network in 2025
  • High Conversion Rates: 9.3% conversion rate from RFP to booking—above market average
  • Incremental Revenue: Passkey-enabled upsells on suites and spa packages directly contributed to non-room revenue growth, with nearly 1,000 reservations made in Passkey in 2025
  • Efficiency Gains: Passkey and Cvent Event Diagramming reduced manual work for the sales and reservations team, allowing a lean staff to handle a high volume of group business without sacrificing service quality. The team diagrammed 84 events in their first year, improving communication with planners and clarity between internal teams.
  • Winning Business with Creative Solutions: Event Diagramming enabled Fairmont Breakers to secure events that competitors with less flexibility or visualization tools could not.
  • Enhanced Brand Visibility: CSN advertising and a luxury profile helped the property break through in a market saturated with established hotels.

The efficiency of the tools within Cvent and the creativity of event diagramming allow you more time to be creative and come up with imaginative sets and experiences for our clients. It really ticks all of the boxes for us.

Maureen Leary
Director of Sales and Marketing

BEST PRACTICES

Fairmont Breakers Long Beach's success illustrates the transformative impact of embracing new opportunities, investing in technology, and leveraging collaborative event planning systems. By partnering with Cvent, the hotel has not only opened successfully in a fiercely competitive market but also emerged as a leader in designing inspiring and repeatable events for planners and attendees.

 


 

A pixelated blue and purple arrow forms a circle on a black background, symbolizing synchronization.
  • Speed Matters: Being first to respond to RFPs and inquiries dramatically increases win rates. On the Cvent Supplier Network, 62% of RFPs are awarded to one of the first three venues to respond. Your Quick Responder tag is important to event planners. 
A meeting team monitor with a purple and blue icon on a black background.
  • Visualization Sells: Event Diagramming, especially with 3D and collaborative features, overcomes planner objections and inspires creative event design. Teams well-versed in innovative design in collaborative tools will impress planners and win hearts, minds, and wallets. 
Two blue and purple cogs are placed on a black background, creating a visually appealing design.
  • Automation Enables Personalization: Passkey and integrated Cvent solutions let a small team deliver bespoke experiences at scale—critical for luxury and boutique properties. Luxury event attendees expect a tailored experience that streamlined technology can provide. 
The earth is depicted in a pixelated, retro-style with blue and gray shades.
  • Digital Marketing Drives Awareness: In a new property, proactive digital exposure is essential to capturing business away from entrenched competitors. A variety of advertising helps planners recognize your name and what you offer as they source.  
A pixelated image of a computer monitor with a light bulb inside on a black background.
  • Hybrid-Ready is Now Table Stakes: Built-in streaming capabilities and hybrid event support are expected by planners and are a key differentiator for winning pharmaceutical and tech group business. 
Products used:
Fairmont logo and picture of hotel exterior

MEETING SPACE

9,166 sq. ft.

GUEST ROOMS

185

LOCATION

Long Beach, CA

CHALLENGE

  • Planners expect unique, tech-enabled, hybrid-ready experiences, fast RFP responses, and transparent, streamlined sourcing and booking processes.
  • Fairmont Breakers is a new property designed to cater to diverse client segments and operate with a small sales and reservations team, making efficiency and exposure critical.

SOLUTIONS

  • Used CSN luxury profile listings, suggested ads, and display ads to boost visibility among planners sourcing in the competitive LA/Long Beach market.
  • Passkey enabled upsell revenue (suites, spa packages) and provided planners with real-time dashboards for pickup and availability, reducing back-and-forth and answering questions efficiently.
  • Cvent Event Diagramming inspired both planners and the hotel team with creative configurations, enabling them to win business that might otherwise have gone elsewhere due to layout concerns.

RESULTS

  • Achieved a 100% RFP response rate with an average 10-hour response time, and converted 9.3% of RFPs to bookings—above market average.
  • Generated incremental non-room revenue via Passkey upsells, with nearly 1,000 reservations made in Passkey in 2025; diagrammed 84 events in the first year to improve clarity with planners and internal teams.
  • Lean team realized significant efficiency gains while growing luxury event business and “breaking down barriers” to create memorable, non-standard meeting experiences.
 
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