Bethesda
One of Bethesda’s biggest draws is that it offers groups incredible ease in reaching downtown Washington, with its metro access and large convention hotels at prices you would never find in the capital.
“Unless you really need to be on Capitol Hill, you can easily be out here,” said Karin Aaron, director of sales for Visit Montgomery. “I have nine full-service hotels that can take a meeting up to 400 and three conference centers. We can make it work unless [the meeting] is very large.”
Marriot is headquartered in Bethesda and has two hotels in the area that groups can combine with shuttle access for larger events. The 447-room Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center has more than 50,000 square feet of meeting space and an auditorium. The 407-room Marriott Bethesda offers 18,000 square feet of meeting space.
For something out of the box for an evening reception or a different feel for a day meeting, Aaron recommends one of the area’s traditional mansions, like Kentlands Mansion, which is independently owned but has a resort atmosphere.
Because Bethesda follows the same booking patterns as Washington, Aaron recommends booking at least nine months out, as many larger associations are getting their dates on the books several years in advance.
Prince George’s County
Home to the largest hotel in the Washington metro area and the largest non-gambling property on the Eastern Seaboard — the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center, which includes 2,000 guest rooms and 500,000 square feet of meeting space — Prince George’s County offers meeting planners incredible proximity to downtown Washington with more space and lower prices than in the capital.
Beyond the Gaylord, National Harbor is also home to a Westin, a Hampton Inn, a Residence Inn and an AC Marriott; the county also has multiple Quality Inns, Hampton Inns, Holiday Inns, Marriotts and Clarion Inns to handle all the groups looking for D.C. proximity without D.C. prices.
As the area has been used as a getaway from the capital for centuries, groups can also make use of mansions like the 1745 Belair Mansion, the late-1700s Darnall’s Chance, the 1780s Montpelier Mansion and the 1787 Poplar Hill on Lordship’s Kindness for receptions and off-sites, or they can incorporate a more experiential step back in time at the 18th-century Adelphi Mill or the College Park Aviation Museum.
