SHARONVILLE — It's only a third of what they were seeking, but suburban leaders and hotel managers are pleased that the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau will hand over $500,000 so a new northern Hamilton County bureau can directly market suburban hotels.

        On Wednesday, Hamilton County commissioners decided they could spare $250,000 from the county's general fund for this direct marketing. The county will disburse the money to the Greater Cincinnati bureau, which already budgets $250,000 for that effort.

        The $500,000 is far shy of the $1.6 million the new bureau was seeking, but at least there's a greater sense of control for the suburbs, said Sharonville Mayor Virgil Lovitt.

        “We were hoping to get more, but we knew from the beginning that we probably wouldn't end up with that much. We had only two things going for us — common sense and big mouths,” said the mayor. Some hotel operators in the northern communities have complained that the downtown Convention and Visitors Bureau was not adequately representing their interests, even though suburban hotels provide the lion's share of the county's lodging tax revenue.

        At their Wednesday session, commissioners agreed to increase the countywide hotel tax by 3.5 percentage points so that, if the city increases its own bed tax, the two governments can raise money for a $160 million expansion of the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center.After being pressured for months by Mr. Lovitt, commissioners agreed to the increase with the understanding that money from the county's general fund and revenues from the present 3 percent hotel tax, which now goes toward the Greater Cincinnati bureau, would help its suburban offspring.

        “It's yet another win for the northern hotels,” said Mark Schutte, general manger of two Red Roof Inns in Sharonville and chairman of the Greater Cincinnati Lodging Council.

        But Julie Harrison Calvert, spokeswoman for the Greater Cincinnati bureau, said a contract with the new bureau cannot be hashed out until Cincinnati City Council raises the city's bed tax to 4 percent from its current 3 percent. A meeting is set for Monday.

        “The details have to be worked out and the agreement has to (first) be solid between the city and the county,” she said.

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