Sheraton renovates two Los Angeles venues.

With over an estimated 17 million meetings held on an average day, event planners have an ongoing challenge when it comes to making meetings creative and fresh for clients. While there is an array of hotels and restaurants in Southern California that cater to meetings, two newly renovated hotels in Los Angeles have made finding a unique and inspiring venue all the easier.

The newly redesigned Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Airport Hotel and Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica both welcome businesses to take a refreshing and alternative approach to meetings with distinctively designed event and public spaces that offer a boutique hotel feel with the high level of service and amenities planners expect from a full-service four-star Sheraton hotel.

After its $14 million in renovations, the newly-designed Sheraton Gateway was featured on the cover of Los Angeles Business Journal for redefining the "airport hotel" with its urban boutique style and grand hotel amenities. The 802-room hotel is located moments away from LAX, providing business travelers and event planners alike with an oasis of stylish indoor and outdoor decor, topnotch dining, and 45,000 sq. feet of brand new meeting space and equipment in a convenient location. With a vast meeting room unparalleled in the LAX corridor, Gateway's Grand Ballroom is a magnificent 7,900 sq. foot facility that can accommodate up to 900 guests for receptions, theme parties and gala affairs. Additionally, twenty-eight self-contained breakout rooms offer planners a variety of options. The hotel's 50 Club level rooms specially cater to business travelers with complimentary continental breakfast, hors d'oeuvres and cocktails in the private Club Lounge, and all guests have access to the new 1,240 square foot fitness center that features a state-of-the-art "cardio theatre" complete with personal flat screen televisions. Gateway's new Shula's 347 destination restaurant, the first and only gourmet steak house restaurant from famed NFL Coach Don Shula on the west coast, features an exceptional menu of fresh seafood and prime cuts of beef in a custom designed contemporary dining venue complete with a private dining room for intimate gatherings. Gateway's expansive outdoor heated pool area gained a fresh resort-destination look with elegant black and white cabanas, patio dining and surrounding palm trees and tropical flora.

Following an $11 million renovation that recently garnered the hotel Hospitality Design Magazine's prestigious award for Creative Achievement in Hotel Design, the new Sheraton Delfina features the welcoming ambiance, contemporary appointments and personalized amenities of an intimate, yet luxurious beachside hotel. Standing tall above the Santa Monica coast, Delfina has the only penthouse ballroom in town, offering 4,500 sq. feet of sweeping ocean and coastline views. Designed in the hotel's soothing color palette of Espresso brown and Tibetan blue, the Penthouse Ballroom is fully equipped with a full-service kitchen and room division options to provide for both intimate and large events. For smaller and informal gatherings, Delfina's Club-level guests have access to a handsomely furnished private clubhouse, with living room style sofas, linen club chairs, dual-sided fireplace and plasma television, located just off the pool and surrounded by resort-like cabanas, tropical landscaping and a wooden pool deck made from exotic Brazilian Cumaru.

"At both Gateway and Delfina, we aim to provide an innovative atmosphere where people are able to retreat from the typical and discover a more enjoyable and stimulating environment for conducting business," explains Michael Miner, Area General Manager for both hotels. "Planners can be assured an unforgettable and productive meeting."

Information provided by Sheraton. For more information on the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Los Angeles Airport, please call (310) 642-111 lot visit www.sheratonlosangeles.com.

For information on the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica, call [phone], or visit www.sheratonsantamonica.com.