You said: "At root is that we are trying to negotiate a purchase at a discounted price without committing to buying any particular number of rooms, versus only a limited number of possible sellers." When negotiating a group rate we actually ARE committing to buying a certain number of rooms (the "room block"). There are certainly pros and cons with group rates. On the pro side: guaranteed rate (but not necessarily the absolute lowest available at any time), included benefits (breakfast, Internet, if applicable), free or subsidized meeting rooms where applicable. On the cons side is of course the cancellation policy (not that it has to be as onerous as this one). Ole Ole J. Jacobsen Editor and Publisher, The Internet Protocol Journal Cisco Systems Tel: +1 408-527-8972 Mobile: +1 415-370-4628 E-mail: ole@xxxxxxxxx URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj Skype: organdemo _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf