On Aug 23, 2011, at 10:27 PM, Glen Zorn wrote: > On 8/24/2011 3:33 AM, Andrew Sullivan wrote: > >> On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 11:29:34AM -0700, David Morris wrote: >> >>> 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. >> >> _And_ having negotiated at the same time, as Ray pointed out already >> in this thread. Every time one of these discussions comes up, people >> seem to forget that the negotiations are happening several years in >> advance of the actual event. Agreements about the future almost >> always require the party buying to take some risk that they will be >> paying more than the going rate at the time the actual sale date >> arrives. > > This can be minimized, though, right? Maybe the conference room rate > could be set at a percentage of the rack rate, for example. There are of course other exposures to be accounted for. year over year the dollar buys a bit less than 10% less TWD than it did this time in 2010. while it is certainly could be done I don't think any of the participants bought dollar hedge contracts against the future cost of their hotel stay. the person arriving from geneva will pay about 14% less then they would have a year ago. given taiwan had about 1% inflation over the same time scale it seems unlikely that their costs went down correspondingly. >> In the case of hotel agreements, the block negotiator takes >> some risk that there will be a lower price or otherwise better terms >> actually available at the time of the block being used. The hotel >> takes some risk that the block negotiator is unable to deliver the >> actual room occupancy negotiated. Each is making a bet. > > Yes, but the total risk on the part of the hotel is that it will be in > the normal state of having empty rooms that need to be filled... > >> >> If you don't like the cancellation terms (or other terms of the bet), >> don't participate in it: don't make a reservation in the IETF block. > > And I do, and have for some time now (since I have no corporate expense > account); this has the added benefit (from my POV, YMMV) of actually > _visiting_ Prague, Maastricht, etc. (as opposed to essentially shipping > myself air freight to a facility that could as easily be in Dallas or > (cringe) Minneapolis except that the people might look different or talk > funny, then shipping myself back again). > _______________________________________________ > Ietf mailing list > Ietf@xxxxxxxx > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf > _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf