--On Friday, August 17, 2012 21:20 +0200 Robert Raszuk <robert@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Besides hotel is least worry as we do know the IETF rates for > the last few years and it is quite easy to check with any > hotel if they are willing to meet those targets or not. Actually, we don't (although one can deduce a lot of it from the IAOC budget and other materials). What we know is the room rates in the conference hotels. We don't know the meeting room charges (including charges for rooms used by the IESG, IAB, IAOC, Nomcom, etc., etc.), the catering rates and rules (including rules about outside food), any charges associated with Internet service, various facility charges not included in any of the above, any accommodation arrangements that presumably lower costs to the IETF such as free or upgraded rooms, and so on for what I assume is a fairly long list. Depending on the hotel and negotiations, some of those are "free" (i.e., bundled into the room rates for those staying in the hotel), others are not. And those of us who have been disturbed by the patterns of room rates in the primary hotel would probably be very unhappy if some average or ceiling on those rates were treated as an acceptable target. john