hotel rate at symposiums

**J* L* <h*@yahoo.com>**

There's more to the hotel rate issue than was brought out in the brief discussion about the Sheraton. When GWA bargains with a hotel about holding its meeting there, it needs to get the best rates on meeting rooms. banquet rooms, and space for the show, etc.-- all the space we take up over the course of a meeeting.

  To do that, it needs to guarantee so many room nights -- i.e., so many rooms rented for a particular number of nights. If everyone saved $5 by booking through Expedia, GWA would owe the hotel a big penalty for not meeting the room nights guarantee, which would have to be made up somewhere (higher dues, higher fees next year, fewer programs).

  That's not to say that GWA doesn't bargain for the best rate it can on members' hotel rooms.It does. But since these rates are arranged a year or two (or even 3) in advance, when the symposium hotel is chosen and a contract signed, many things can change before the meeting is held. (Inflation, recession, local economy...) 

  Obviously if your budget is really, really tight and the only way you can make it to the symposium is to get a break on your room, then you'd want to consider contacting the hotel directly or through Expedia, etc. But otherwise, I personally would prefer to help GWA present the event than go to the extra trouble and save $5 a night.

  Just my personal opinion.

  Judy Lowe (former GWA president)

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