FUDCon Paris Hotel options

[Robyn Bergeron]

On 05/21/2012 05:26 AM, Jaroslav Reznik wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>> On 05/16/2012 08:32 AM, Jaroslav Reznik wrote:
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> [snip]
>>>>
>>>>>> We have a deal with an hotel, for 30 twins and 3 nights:
>>>>>> A twin at 81€ (exclusive of taxes) per night.
>>>>> And the tax is?
>>>> +19.6%
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> I've asked famsco to describe me how to manage rooms
>>>>>> reservation/fees
>>>>>> with regard to the contributors,
>>>>>> but they just asked me back for precisions. I haven't given
>>>>>> precise
>>>>>> question yet.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Which is:
>>>>>> How to manage this hotel reservation:
>>>>>> - Do I have to assign a room for all that asked for?
>>>>> I expect we should prefer sponsored/rh people but we should not
>>>>> deny
>>>>> individual contributors to have this rate if there's room.
>>>>>
>>>>>> - Who is going to pay, Red Hat for all or one contributor could
>>>>>> pay
>>>>>> by
>>>>>> itself but with our special rates (pay back to Red Hat?)
>>>>> Last year we paid it separately - for Brno guys I paid it
>>>>> together,
>>>>> Jared paid for Fedora sponsored people and there were few
>>>>> individuals
>>>>> too (or smaller Red Hat teams, not sure right now ;-).
>>>> I would prefer if it could be paid by RH and then individuals to
>>>> reimburse back RH, or our NPO could be the buffer, as our hotel
>>>> would
>>>> like to be paid with only two payment (first to confirm the
>>>> reservation and then to paid the whole part a month before)
>>>> Should I see with Robyn, as the FPL is managing budget?
>>> It can be quite difficult for us to do cross department payments
>>> but
>>> if hotel insist on a one big payment, I think we can deal with it.
>> So we discussed this a bit last week in the EMEA Ambassador meeting,
>> but
>> just to follow up here:
>>
>> It's a lot easier to have the ability to have people book their own
>> rooms from a block with our name on it, and then have Red Hat pick up
>> the tab for sponsored rooms onsite (including having multiple
>> departments pick up their portion - ie. folks sponsored vs. Brno
>> Attendees can be paid for separately).
> Yep, it would be much much easier to be able to deal with payment
> separately. As we can expect a few individual groups (even Brno folks
> will form several independent groups with different budget etc. -
> Fedora QA, Base OS, docs guys, some cloud guys).
>
> With Jiri, we are trying to get a final number for this hotel. I think
> we should set some deadline for room blocking (it's really the only way
> to push some people to action :-).
>
>> What we normally do is work with the hotel to come up with a final
>> number of rooms for a block, and we put a credit card down for that,
>> and
>> if individuals don't utilize the number of rooms then we pay some %
>> portion of the difference.
>>
>> Are they really unwilling to hold a block of rooms until a certain
>> date,
>> and are they also unwilling to do anything other than "we must book
>> and
>> pay for the full block of rooms" vs. what I outlined above?
> I unfortunately missed the end of EMEA meeting (and was waiting for
> this topic but you know - bug blocking F17 ;-) - is it really true
> it's difficult to find affordable rooms in FUDCon time? Otherwise it
> will be option for us to have a separate one... Even it would cost
> more...
It's Paris, and OWF is at the same time - I suspect it's not easy, but I 
can't imagine it's impossible, either.

Do we know if the OWF folks have any hotel block arrangements anywhere 
that we could mayyyyybe utilize/share?
>> We can't do a "pay back Red Hat" situation (no way to receive money).
>>   I
>> suppose the NPO route is possible but then you'd need to be able to
>> apply some of that money towards FUDCon, and I would suspect you
>> won't
>> see some of that money until FUDCon. Additionally, lots of people do
>> want to use credit cards and not cash for paying for their hotel
>> (receipts for work, etc.) and I suspect the NPO has no way to take
>> credit cards for payment, at least not in any way that would provide
>> something workable for attendees to have as a receipt.
> Cash expense for bigger group could be fun (but I expect we can deal
> with expense report individually but I expect some people will be
> unwilling to pay the money...).
>
> It will be still great to make it possible, to have all contributors
> on same place to have more fun.
>
> R.
>
>> Thoughts? Kevin, have you spoken with the hotel since last week?
>>
>> -Robyn
>>
>>>> If you know how many your are going to be, I can ask for more
>>>> twins
>>>> in
>>>> our contract, I have asked for 60 people like I was recommended to
>>>> do,
>>>> but it would be hard to ask for more in a month.
>>> As I said - not sure how many people will come, with Jiri, we try
>>> to
>>> get the number right now. Fedora QA will have meeting with theirs
>>> boss tmrw, I have to ask Fedora Docs team too (and probably other
>>> people will be interested too, but no reply yet...).
>>>
>>> R.
>>>
>>>>>> - How is it linked to the $$$ column on the reservation table?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - I could also ask for more rooms, but we won't have so much
>>>>>> time.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We have the EMEA meeting tonight, I am not sure to be able to
>>>>>> join,
>>>>>> (would be traveling), but if you could bring this question that
>>>>>> could
>>>>>> help.
>>>>> I'll try to join it too (it's after Board, so I'll be online).
>>>>>
>>>>> R.
>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Kévin Raymond
>>>>>> (shaiton)
>>>>>> GPG-Key: A5BCB3A2
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>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Kévin Raymond
>>>> (shaiton)
>>>> GPG-Key: A5BCB3A2
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