Re: Congrads John Earl!

Mark,

> Although I haven't checked very recently, I think that you can get rooms
>or suites for 100-150 / night w/o too much difficulty.  So staying at
>Common hotels and paying rack rates means that the member is volunteering
>to subsidize Common's coffers "over and above the call of duty."  That's
>probably unacceptable for independents.

Finding cheaper room rates is not necessarily the answer in the big picture.
Without enough people staying at the hosting convention facilities, COMMON would
not get "free" use of the meeting rooms.  Convention meeting rooms can get VERY
expensive when rented without accomodations too, and so then I suspect the cost
of the conference itself would have to be raised substantially so that you could
choose your own lodging.

If attendance is high enough the conference gets the miniumum number of guest
rooms filled to avoid surcharges, than when others stay elsewhere it does not
impact the overall cost.  But they would have to be the exception rather than
rule to avoid being charged for the use of the meeting rooms too.

As I understand how that industry works...

Doug