Let the preparations begin: Confirmed 2024 RNC dates in Milwaukee bring planning into focus

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- With the 2024 Republican National Convention dates confirmed for July 15 through July 18, organizers across the city, including the hospitality industry, can ramp up planning and preparation for the event.

"We love what's going to come in 2024 with having close to 45,000 attendees hitting the city," said Adam Dziadosz, the president of the Greater Milwaukee Hotel & Lodging Association.

Organizers say the convention is not only good for a short-term economic impact, but longer term as well, as the city hopes to attract more large-scale events. Part of that effort in recent years has been the expanding footprint of hotel rooms in the city and region.

"Especially with the Wisconsin Center coming back online in 2024 in its expanded role, it's going to allow these larger conventions that may not have looked at Milwaukee in the past, as a legitimate contender to hold those kinds of conventions," Dziadosz told CBS 58 in an interview inside the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn Milwaukee Downtown.

Dziadosz said the RNC has booked rooms across Milwaukee, as far north as Green Bay, as far west as Madison and south to the Wisconsin-Illinois state line.

Because of that, property owners in the area will be able to benefit through short-term rentals.

Shortly before the pandemic, average Airbnb prices in the Milwaukee area were averaging above $1,000 a night for the Democratic National Convention. In 2016, Airbnb hosts in Philadelphia for the DNC there collectively brought in $2 million.

The full impact for hotel and lodging will not be known for some time, but what is clear for Milwaukee is that the experience in preparing for the 2020 DNC can help ensure successful hosting of the RNC in 2024.

"It's really easy for us to kind of take a look at what we had planned for 2020 and bring that to the forefront," Dziadosz said.