Room block is now filled
Hi all,
I received word from Marriott that our room block is not only filled
ahead of schedule, but they extended us a few extra rooms at our
discount rate as a courtesy. However, at this point, they can't
provide any additional rooms at the $99 rate. They are willing to
extend a $169 rate, which is discounted from the $229 that I see as a
general offer on their site. (Wow, we made out like bandits.)
We have a couple options to proceed:
* A planning team member could locate a nearby hotel that can provide
a more comparable rate to our original $99 rate, preferably without
a guarantee attached, and with a later deadline, such as Dec. 15 or
Jan. 2, and set up a contract for Red Hat to execute for that block
(which I would sign for Red Hat).
PROS/CONS:
+ Encourages more community travel by people who are on their own dime
+ Extended deadline
+ No potential loss of funds to pay for guaranteed but unfilled
rooms
o Requires additional, rapid work by non-Paul person
- Splits up the community into multiple places, incl. logistics
hassles and $$ for multiple hospitality/hacksuites
* We could engage with Marriott to get more rooms at the higher rate,
a sort of "step up" for people who weren't early enough to get the
early bird rate. I would be willing to handle this, since I already
have points of contact with Marriott and it doesn't seem like it
will take much work. I would also contact my original sales handler
to see if I could work them down to something like $149, and I would
eschew any further guarantee.
PROS/CONS:
+ Extended deadline
+ No potential loss of funds to pay for guaranteed but unfilled
rooms
+ Keeps community together in one place for hacking and socializing
o Slightly better cost than leaving people to book for themselves;
for a 4-night stay, ~$680+tax vs. $800+tax for booking on your own
- Significantly more expensive than our original rate (~$400+tax for
4 nights)
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
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