Jari, Thanks for the explanation, but i had much simpler question i raised on this thread, but i fear i am not getting them answered, so let me add the IAOC mailing list: 1. How many rooms at the Hilton where blocked out at the rate of $209 ? 2. How many rooms at the Hilton where blocked out at the rate of $270 ? 3. Home many rooms at the hilton at the rate of $209 where available for booking at the time yesterday when the official announcement was made to the IETF mailing list ? Thanks Toerless On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 02:36:21PM +0200, Jari Arkko wrote: > Hi all, > > I wanted to first apologise for the difficult situation with hotels (again) - I know > this is important, the IAOC knows this is important, and we are trying. But > I realise that we?re not doing as well as we should. For various reasons. > I refer to what Ray said and what Lou said and what several people > such as Glenn have said about hotel business in general. And thank > you Ray for providing numbers; we?d be happy to provide any other > numbers that people want to see. I also feel bad that I myself am > contributing to the problem as the meeting organisers do set up > a part of the room block marked for, for instance for the IESG > members or the secretariat. > > From the IAOC and meeting organising staff point of view, one of the > parameters that we try to figure out is what block size works for us > in the main hotel. There are very good reasons to make that block > big; but there are also some reasons to not make it too big, risk > for us and the hotel, reduction in the number of hotels that we > can even consider, cost increases, etc. The IAOC wants to run > the IETF finances tight so we have been looking at the room > blocks, the number of small meeting rooms and other > factors that we ask for in our hotel contracts. Yokohama > and Buenos Aires have made at least me rethink this, > and maybe our balance isn?t where it should be. Unfortunately, > the hotel deals are made well ahead in time, so it is difficult to > course correct immediately. > > I also liked Lou?s prioritised requirements effort. > > A couple of other notes, mostly from a personal perspective. > I?ve been to Buenos Aires for a couple of meetings by now, > and I never stayed in the main meeting hotel, either because > I wanted my employer to have to pay less (100$ gets you > many hotels and I wasn?t going to have a vacation in my > room anyway, so a place to sleep was fine) or > once because the meeting host who had invited me had > me placed in one of the surplus hotels due to lack > of availability in their main hotel (which was the Sheraton). > > But moving around in the city was easy. I walked everywhere. > I also used taxis, which are cheap and plentiful. > > The waterfront area between the Hilton and the main city > center has plenty of good restaurants. > > I?ve been to the Hilton, for a meeting, but not stayed at > it. Looked very classy and modern. Compared to the > Sheraton It is newer but also smaller and a bit longer > walk away from the area that the hotels are more plentiful. > > Jari > -- --- Toerless Eckert, eckert@xxxxxxxxx