In your company, are you responsible for booking venues, facilities, restaurants and organizing transportation for meetings and events?
| Getting To and Around Houston |
In-town meeting planners know that Houston has an abundance of efficient transportation options that make the city a viable choice for large-scale conventions and corporate events. With thousands of incoming flights arriving at Houston’s two main airports every day, business professionals can enter the city days early or just moments before the event is set to start. Once settled into their accommodations, professionals can either make use of Houston’s notable public transportation options or use personal rental transportation to get themselves where they need to go.
Meeting planners shouldn’t forget the many professional corporate transportation companies they have at their disposal. We’ve highlighted a few of these companies that have built a reputation on catering to the specific needs of corporate meeting planners. Competitive group packages and special corporate amenities allow attendees to get to their destinations in style and in a timely manner.
Airports
The Houston Airport System (HAS) is composed of two major world-class airports: George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU). HAS is the fourth-largest airport system in the US and the sixth-largest in the world. The two airports service more than 50 million passengers on an annual basis and have helped established Houston as one of the top corporate event destinations in the country.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport offers non-stop service to more than 100 locations within the United States and more than 70 international destinations. IAH also offers more departures to Mexico than any other airport in the country, making corporate getaways for executive-level clients easier for planners to organize.
The airport is known for its signature Consolidated Rental Car Facility (CRCF), which provides patrons a more streamlined car rental experience. All arriving passengers must do is simply collect their baggage, find the general car rental shuttle and board the craft. In five minutes, they will arrive at the CRCF where they can find a vehicle from one of nine providers, including Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty.
Hobby Airport’s four-runway facility ranks as the 43rd busiest airport in the nation in terms of overall passenger traffic. The airport is consistently ranked as a favorite among travelers and has recently won two awards from the Airports Council International (AIC).
Corporate Transportation
While most trade show and convention attendees will opt for a car rental during their stay in Houston, there will occasionally be side events or extra special occasions that will require you to transport a group from on location to another. For example, your client wants you to arrange for his most valued business partners to have dinner at a steakhouse twenty minutes away from the downtown hotel his guests are staying at. Letting your client’s VIPs drive there on their own is certainly an option, but it’s definitely not the professional thing to do. You’ll need a transportation service company to provide you with a top quality vehicle and a friendly driver that can comfortably accommodate your group. As a motorist city, Houston is filled with such options.
Houston Corporate Transportation (HCT) (formerly known as J&B Limousine) offers meeting planners special offers for airport, convention, leisure and corporate account services. The HCT fleet includes luxury sedans, which hold 3 to 4 passengers, and SUVS, which can accommodate 5 to 6 passengers. Available stretch limousines can provide fun and memorable rides for up to 10 passengers while vans can transport a small group of up to 15 from one location to the next. For larger groups, look into renting one of either two types of buses, one with a capacity of 22 passengers and the other with a limit of 32. HCT services are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
AFC Corporate Transportation boasts a fleet of 138 vehicles, making it the largest transportation service company in Texas and ranked in the top 40 in the nation. Not only does AFC give visitors a way to get to and from Houston’s two airports, they also provide transportation services to the Carnival and Caribbean Cruise Lines in Galveston. The diverse fleet includes sedan Navigators and super stretch limousines. Executive and limo vans offer all the space of a typical 8 to 10 person van, but with the luxury amenities of a true limousine. AFC also provides the mass transit capabilities of charter coach buses, perfect for any out-of-town excursions for a large group of guests.
Public Transportation
For visitors who are looking for a direct way into downtown without the use of a rental car, METRO’s Airport Direct service takes riders from IAH to the heart of the city. From Terminal C, travelers take a comfortable and spacious METRO bus to downtown where they can connect to the Texas Medical Center or Reliant Park via MetroRail. The Airport Direct service is just one example of METRO’s current initiatives to make the city more user friendly for guests without personal transportation.
METRO’s light-rail line is an important transportation option for business professionals who will be staying in downtown for the duration of their visit. The 7.5-mile METRORail line extends from the University of Houston-Downtown to the Reliant Park complex. 16 stops enable passengers to gain easy access to downtown’s major destinations, including the Museum District, Rice University, the Toyota Center, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the downtown METRO Transit Center. Each stop has a pay station that accepts cash or credit cards to purchase one-way, round-trip, full-day and week-long rail passes.
Meeting planners shouldn’t forget the many professional corporate transportation companies they have at their disposal. We’ve highlighted a few of these companies that have built a reputation on catering to the specific needs of corporate meeting planners. Competitive group packages and special corporate amenities allow attendees to get to their destinations in style and in a timely manner.
Airports
The Houston Airport System (HAS) is composed of two major world-class airports: George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU). HAS is the fourth-largest airport system in the US and the sixth-largest in the world. The two airports service more than 50 million passengers on an annual basis and have helped established Houston as one of the top corporate event destinations in the country.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport offers non-stop service to more than 100 locations within the United States and more than 70 international destinations. IAH also offers more departures to Mexico than any other airport in the country, making corporate getaways for executive-level clients easier for planners to organize.
The airport is known for its signature Consolidated Rental Car Facility (CRCF), which provides patrons a more streamlined car rental experience. All arriving passengers must do is simply collect their baggage, find the general car rental shuttle and board the craft. In five minutes, they will arrive at the CRCF where they can find a vehicle from one of nine providers, including Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty.
Hobby Airport’s four-runway facility ranks as the 43rd busiest airport in the nation in terms of overall passenger traffic. The airport is consistently ranked as a favorite among travelers and has recently won two awards from the Airports Council International (AIC).
Corporate Transportation
While most trade show and convention attendees will opt for a car rental during their stay in Houston, there will occasionally be side events or extra special occasions that will require you to transport a group from on location to another. For example, your client wants you to arrange for his most valued business partners to have dinner at a steakhouse twenty minutes away from the downtown hotel his guests are staying at. Letting your client’s VIPs drive there on their own is certainly an option, but it’s definitely not the professional thing to do. You’ll need a transportation service company to provide you with a top quality vehicle and a friendly driver that can comfortably accommodate your group. As a motorist city, Houston is filled with such options.
Houston Corporate Transportation (HCT) (formerly known as J&B Limousine) offers meeting planners special offers for airport, convention, leisure and corporate account services. The HCT fleet includes luxury sedans, which hold 3 to 4 passengers, and SUVS, which can accommodate 5 to 6 passengers. Available stretch limousines can provide fun and memorable rides for up to 10 passengers while vans can transport a small group of up to 15 from one location to the next. For larger groups, look into renting one of either two types of buses, one with a capacity of 22 passengers and the other with a limit of 32. HCT services are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
AFC Corporate Transportation boasts a fleet of 138 vehicles, making it the largest transportation service company in Texas and ranked in the top 40 in the nation. Not only does AFC give visitors a way to get to and from Houston’s two airports, they also provide transportation services to the Carnival and Caribbean Cruise Lines in Galveston. The diverse fleet includes sedan Navigators and super stretch limousines. Executive and limo vans offer all the space of a typical 8 to 10 person van, but with the luxury amenities of a true limousine. AFC also provides the mass transit capabilities of charter coach buses, perfect for any out-of-town excursions for a large group of guests.
Public Transportation
For visitors who are looking for a direct way into downtown without the use of a rental car, METRO’s Airport Direct service takes riders from IAH to the heart of the city. From Terminal C, travelers take a comfortable and spacious METRO bus to downtown where they can connect to the Texas Medical Center or Reliant Park via MetroRail. The Airport Direct service is just one example of METRO’s current initiatives to make the city more user friendly for guests without personal transportation.
METRO’s light-rail line is an important transportation option for business professionals who will be staying in downtown for the duration of their visit. The 7.5-mile METRORail line extends from the University of Houston-Downtown to the Reliant Park complex. 16 stops enable passengers to gain easy access to downtown’s major destinations, including the Museum District, Rice University, the Toyota Center, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the downtown METRO Transit Center. Each stop has a pay station that accepts cash or credit cards to purchase one-way, round-trip, full-day and week-long rail passes.
1
2
If you have expertise in a particular area relevant to planning meetings and or events, you may submit a 400 to 750 word "how-to" article for possible inclusion in any of our magazines and/or our websites.
If accepted, your submission will be edited for length and clarity. There is no monetary payment if your item is used; instead, you can publicize yourself through a five-line biography with your contact information that will appear at the end of the article.
Send submissions to
editorial@MeetingPlannerResources.org. We will contact you if your submission is chosen.
If accepted, your submission will be edited for length and clarity. There is no monetary payment if your item is used; instead, you can publicize yourself through a five-line biography with your contact information that will appear at the end of the article.
Send submissions to
editorial@MeetingPlannerResources.org. We will contact you if your submission is chosen.