Subject: [74attendees] Hilton rates

From: Yaakov Stein <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:15:35 +0200

Although I always stay at the hotel where the meeting takes place,
especially when it is a Hilton, this time I found the rate ridiculously high.

(I am staying at the Parc55, which actually has nicer and larger rooms
for $46 less per night.)

But I have heard from several people that I should just have gone
back to the Hilton site and NOT put in the "IETF" code.
Doing this they received a rate of under $200 (i.e., over $35 cheaper) before taxes.
Admittedly, this rate does not include breakfast or Internet access,
but the IETF provides these in any case.

What's going on ?

Y(J)S

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From: Eric Burger <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:34:32 -0700

This was discussed three years ago in the plenary.  I am not privy to  
this year's negotiations.  Do realize that (1) the IETF has a budget  
short-fall, the meeting fees are getting beyond the ability of  
individuals to pay, and the meeting fees are beginning to raise  
eyebrows at corporations. However, the consensus was that corporate  
people could and were willing to pay more for the hotel, as that was a  
separate line item, and that most of the difference would flow through  
to the IETF.

If that is the case here, instead of complaining, you should be really  
happy that you can chose to be right around the corner, save $46/night  
on the room, and pay $250 less for subsidized meeting fees.

On Mar 23, 2009, at 7:15 AM, Yaakov Stein wrote:

> _______________________________________________
> 74attendees mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/74attendees

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From: Scott Brim <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:45:40 -0700

Did we meet our quota of reservations at the Hilton?

Scott (at the Super 8)

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From: Samuel Weiler <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:28:01 -0400 (EDT)

> Doing this they received a rate of under $200 (i.e., over $35 

Indeed, the Hilton is currently offering a "best available" rate of 
$189 for Tuesday and Wednesday nights and a non-refundable rate of 
$119 on Thursday night.  The $189 rate has 24 hour cancel rules v. the 
72 hours for our contracted rate.

As of yesterday, the $189 rate was only available for Wednesday, which 
exposed an interesting oddity in Hilton's reservations policies: they 
wouldn't offer the $189 rate as part of a multi-night stay AND they 
refused to book back-to-back stays at different rates.  You could use 
a third-party booking channel (e.g., Orbitz) to book back-to-back 
stays at different rates, but Hilton wouldn't do it themselves. 
Which suggests there's some value in pricing each night separately, if 
you have the patience.

-- Sam