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Bothell LTAC chair urges shift from agency-heavy marketing to measurable visitor-generating programs
Summary
LTAC Chair Prasad Angluri pressed the committee to tie lodging-tax spending to measurable overnight stays, asked staff to price a STAR/CoStar occupancy report and to assemble contract termination clauses for the Street Sense marketing contract; staff also reported a Port of Seattle grant application to expand lead generation.
Prasad Angluri, chair of Bothell’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, told members on March 17 that the committee must be able to “clearly measure our investments to translate into visitors coming to Bothell and staying here.” He proposed adding a DNA/CoStar presentation and a broader discussion of LTAC priorities for 2026–2028 to the agenda and pressed staff for data and contract options to inform any reallocation of funds.
Angluri framed the meeting around a simple metric: how LTAC spending translates into overnight stays and local spending. Staff presented preliminary financials showing roughly $401,000 in revenue through November 2025 and projected expenses near $470,000 for the year, leaving the committee’s reserve balance below its target. "We are starting to go into the red zone," staff warned, describing the numbers as estimates. The chair said the committee must consider alternatives to avoid depleting reserves.
The committee’s largest single vendor is the Street Sense marketing contract. Staff reported that about half of LTAC programmatic dollars currently go to that contract and that the contract includes lead-generation work and website management. Angluri asked staff to compile a list of all LTAC contracts and their termination clauses so the committee can understand timing and administrative requirements for any change. "If we save $100,000 with Street Sense," he said hypothetically, "what can we spend that on for this year?" Staff agreed to return costs and a termination-clause spreadsheet for committee review.
Local hoteliers and committee members pushed back and offered ideas for reallocating funds. Jesse Olson, a local hotelier, told the committee, "We bring in about $3 million every year" in gross room revenue at his property and urged using targeted tactics that put heads in beds. Other members proposed specific, head-of-bed strategies: regional sports tournaments, multi-day festivals, "sip-and-stay" wine packages, apartment-targeted incentives for families to book local hotels, and influencer or short-video campaigns to drive awareness.
On data, staff said a STAR/CoStar market report—the industry standard for occupancy and average daily rate data—costs more than $1,000 for a single report and could be purchased for the nine-hotel comp set the committee is tracking. Staff offered to obtain pricing for a single report and for subscription options and to bring that estimate to the May meeting. Several members urged buying the data to allow objective measurement of committee performance and a baseline for future ROI calculations.
The committee also discussed an external grant application. Staff reported that they submitted a Port of Seattle marketing-grant request for $20,000 (a program that requires a two-to-one match) to increase out-of-state lead generation and add roughly 6,000 opt-in subscribers to LTAC’s newsletter list. Given ongoing contract conversations, the chair asked staff to “hold” on making any commitments until the committee sees the contract-termination information and the cost estimates.
Members agreed to test ideas rather than enact wholesale changes immediately. Several advocated for pilot programs and for reallocating only a portion of spending in 2027–2028 after reviewing the data and contract options. Staff committed to: (1) getting CoStar pricing and subscription options, (2) assembling termination clauses for current contracts, (3) delivering Street Sense performance metrics (clicks, visits, lead-generation figures), and (4) drafting an anonymous survey for local hotels about impacts and needs. The committee tentatively scheduled its next meeting for April 14 to review those items.
The committee formally approved the meeting agenda with the two new items early in the session and adjourned at 12:03 p.m. The LTAC did not take any binding action to terminate or reduce current contracts at this meeting; members directed staff to return with the financial details and options necessary for an informed decision.
