Probe of Hotel Booking Bonuses Is Launched
Long Beach convention bureau officials are investigating whether employees of their organization inflated hotel booking records to collect thousands of dollars in unearned annual performance bonuses.
The head of the Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau said Thursday that the agency is conducting an independent audit to determine if sales figures related to hotel rooms are accurate for fiscal year 1998-99.
“We want to see whether there are any problems, either mathematical, clerical or otherwise,” said Linda Howell-DiMario, the bureau’s chief executive officer. “We are taking this seriously. If there are any mistakes, we will correct them.”
Among other things, Howell-DiMario said the accounting firm of Ernst & Young will look into accusations that members of the bureau’s sales staff received bonuses based on falsified records.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau, which helps groups and businesses locate hotel accommodations and municipal facilities for their events, books about 350,000 hotel room nights per year. Funding for the 30-person agency comes from a $3-million city contract paid by the hotel bed tax.
The bureau’s salespeople can receive performance bonuses equaling 10% of their annual salaries, anywhere from $4,000 to $5,000 per year. Howell-DiMario also is eligible for bonuses based on bookings.
In an Aug. 4 memo to her staff, Howell-DiMario said she believed that some current or former employees made the accusations of falsified bookings. The Ernst & Young review will be finished in about a month, she said.
Meanwhile, Howell-DiMario said she ordered another, more limited internal audit last week that uncovered some discrepancies in sales records for August and September of fiscal year 1998-99. The review indicated that the sales force actually sold 18,000 room nights fewer than originally reported.
The review described the problem as “mathematical” and concluded that the errors didn’t affect the performance bonuses paid at the end of fiscal year 1998-99.
Some of the errors have already been corrected, Howell-DiMario said, and additional solutions are under consideration.
