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If last week’s blizzard is any indicator of what the rest of the winter has in store for Des Moines, the newly renovated Ramada Tropics Resort & Conference Center just might have a winter rush on its hands.

The hotel, previously the Holiday Inn Merle Hay, was purchased about three years ago by Century Hospitality Midwest, which then sank nearly $20 million into the property to completely refurbish all 145 rooms, add 21 suites and install a brand-new 20,000-square-foot indoor water park.

Sounds nice after last week, right?

The suites overlook the indoor water park, which has two 150-foot tube slides, a pirate ship with slides and water cannons, a pool with volleyball and basketball, a lap pool for adults and a large hot tub.

Director of Sales Rossie Williamson said the owners saw an opportunity to provide an attraction, the indoor water park, that can’t be found at other Des Moines hotels.

“This is a real true water park in terms of the way the rooms are configured around it so the water park is the central focus of the whole property,” Williamson said. “I am selling and marketing this as the only destination resort in Iowa, because it is a place you come to and you don’t have to go anywhere else. Your room, your entertainment, your meeting space is all here, so it is a true destination resort.”

To market the hotel as such would have been nearly impossible before the renovation.

“It wasn’t one of the better properties in town; actually it was one of the lesser ones,” Williamson said. “It was that typical lower-end property that smelled funny, and everything was kind of old and peeling off, and our owners saw an opportunity.”

Along with the indoor water park, the owners added a new restaurant – Castaway’s Bar and Grill – an 8,000-square-foot conference center and a 3,600-square-foot entertainment center featuring an arcade and four large NASCAR simulators.

Williamson said the hotel does weddings and corporate events and has booked 28 out of 48 potential weekends already for next year. She also said she is reaching out to large companies such as Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Wells Fargo & Co. and Deere and Co. in an effort to attract corporate travelers with discounted weekday rates.