Re: Congrads John Earl!

["mlazarus@xxxxxxxx" <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx>]

Doug,

> 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.


 That logic puts the burden on the select few that wan to be "patriotic" to
Common.  If the Common hotels were to give us a volume discount instead of
charging the higher end of the rate range then we would have no reason to
shop anywhere else!  Everyone wins - we get the cheaper rates, the hotels
get their rooms filled and Common can live up to their contract due to the
volume.  As a fringe benefit, the members will be closer to the venue.

 The current structure doesn't seem to work.

 -mark

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