A Cozy Hotel Experience: How Stoney Creek Built a Cabin on the Lake Feel Across the Midwest

During the winter months, it’s hard not to imagine ourselves curling up by a fireplace in a cozy cabin — possibly with a warm drink in hand. Throw in a flannel blanket and a chandelier made of deer antlers, and you may have found yourself in the lobby of a Stoney Creek hotel in Columbia, Mo. Or, if you’re more the “bundled up for a stroll along the picturesque river” type, Stoney Creek hotel in Moline, Ill., might be your perfect getaway spot.

Whatever you fancy, if you are looking for a destination with a whole lot of charm, beauty, and history — not to mention hospitality — there is a Stoney Creek Hotel for you.

Founded in 1994, Stoney Creek Inn and Hotels has 12 locations across the Midwest, all of which have dedicated events and meeting spaces on site. Each property has its own unique charm to it, ensuring nothing short of a memorable experience. Whether you’re looking for a weekend getaway or planning a rustic wedding or polished business meeting, you can always expect a beautiful space and a team ready to go above and beyond to meet your needs.

We spoke with Mark Creger, Vice President of Revenue Management for Stoney Creek Hospitality, about the different properties within their portfolio and to understand a bit more about what makes them so special.

Tell us a bit about the Stoney Creek brand and your properties specifically. What makes them unique or different?

We have 12 Stoney Creek properties located throughout the Midwest — Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma. We offer anything from your rustic “cabin by the woods” experience to your upscale getaway destination. Most of our hotels feature sizeable meeting and event space with on-site event coordinators. A stay at Stoney Creek is an experience that you cannot find at other limited-service hotels, from the unique decor to the genuine hospitality that radiates from our staff.

What is bringing people to your properties right now? Are your guests primarily local to the Midwest or coming in from other areas?

Most of our guests are local to the Midwest, but we often have guests from all over the United States looking for a clean, comfortable place to stay as they pass through or are in town for business.

What are the most popular types of events that you are hosting at your properties? Is it more business travel — conferences and conventions? Or is it more social — weddings, bridal showers, and birthday celebrations?

Before COVID, we had a balanced mix of sales with corporate, government, and associations making up the business travel and sports groups, weddings, and staycationers making up the social/leisure travel. In the last two years, we’ve seen a big boom in leisure travel, especially sports and staycationers, and less of the corporate travelers. We are hopeful the corporate
segment bounces back in 2023.

What makes a Stoney Creek property a great place to bring groups to and host events?

Our unique spaces separate us from the competition. We are a breath of fresh air for attendees of meetings and events that are used to the same stale meeting rooms. Our unique corporate structure allows us to be nimble and go above and beyond for our guests, allowing our staff to do whatever it takes to make the event a success.

How has Tripleseat helped your properties streamline group bookings and event management processes so far?

The lead forms’ ease of use for our clients creates an efficient and smooth conversion process so we can communicate quickly with them. The easy-to-use platform enables our staff to work efficiently and effectively to perform their tasks so that no detail falls through the cracks when assisting the event organizers throughout the planning process. Customizable reporting allows us to easily measure and manage the data to benchmark our KPIs and allows us to make data-driven decisions in all that we do.

What’s next for Stoney Creek? Any plans for new properties or renovations/expansions?

We have big goals for Stoney Creek in 2023 and beyond. That involves investing back in our current properties to provide more value for our guests and hopefully manage new hotels so that we can provide an exceptional personal home away from home experience through passionate, genuine hospitality to guests in other markets as well.

Learn more about how Tripleseat for Hotels can manage bookings for your property

Increase and manage your hotel’s group sales from hotel room blocks, to booking event function spaces, and growing banquet revenues, in one tool with Tripleseat for Hotels. Schedule a demo to learn more.