Reasonable has to be measured on the basis of what the venue might expect for alternative customers at the time of negotiation, not our world view of hotels at the time of meetings. For this to be a meaningful disccusion re. the success or lack there of, we need to compare what we have vs. similar sized groups in the same season, etc. at the same venue. It is a separate discussion re. whether the overall cost or distribution of categories of costs is optimum for the group. Dave Morris On Tue, 23 Aug 2011, Thomas Nadeau wrote: > > But surely based on that block purchasing power we could negotiate more reasonable rates than $200+ night? > > --Tom > > > > On Aug 23, 2011, at 2:07 PM, Ole Jacobsen wrote: > > > > > 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 _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf