[eurolisp] Ideas on how to deal with hotels for future meetings

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

Hi all,

I was talking with a "hotel professional" (who happens also to be my gal 
;), and I got some interesting advice on how to deal with hotels if 
you're organizing a conference. This might be interesting for anyone who 
might be planning a conference in the future.

And in fact, she mentioned an interest in helping out in the future, to 
take care of various details.

Ok, so the goal is to book a hotel or two, so that people can mix and 
easily talk late into the night and get to the meeting on time.

* If you don't know the date yet of your convention, you can ask a hotel 
when all the fairs/conventions are planned. This has two advantages:
1) You will find out when hotels will be underutilized. Easy booking and 
low prices.
2) You can get a group discount.

About 2), you decide on a price, estimate # rooms, and aim for some mix 
of singles and doubles. In German, there's this thing which is called 
something like "contingency with option", which means before a certain 
time, guests with a codeword may book a room until a deadline. They will 
be assured of a room and the discount until that date.

On a room that's Eur80, a good discount might be Eur10 off (that is, Eur70).

NOTE: Someone will need to physically look at the rooms to make sure 
they aren't coffins...


MfG,
Tayssir