Sleeping Room Deposits for the 2003 SIOP Conference
Youll notice that we have implemented a one-night sleeping room deposit for
the upcoming SIOP Conference in Orlando. Heres why weve taken this
action.
We know from member feedback and surveys that almost all of our members want
to stay in or very near the SIOP Conference hotel when they attend the
Conference. Last year in Toronto, we reserved over 1400 sleeping rooms on
peak nights at the Sheraton Toronto, which was our Conference hotel, and across
the street at the Toronto Hilton. Based on our history at prior SIOP
Conferences, this should have been adequate to meet our needs. But, as
many of you know, the rooms sold out quickly, and a large number of members who
wanted to stay at the Sheraton or Hilton had to book rooms elsewhere.
Then during the 4 days prior to the Conference, over 30% of the SIOP
Conference room reservations at the Sheraton and Hilton were cancelled. Thats
more than 400 lost sleeping rooms per night! Although weve seen more
last-minute cancellations every year for the past 3-4 conferences, this was
almost three times the rate of last-minute cancellations at the 2001 SIOP
Conference in San Diego. The vast majority of the rooms that were
cancelled were booked at least 9 months prior to the conferences, likely before
individuals could determine whether they would truly be able to attend the
Conference. We also discovered that many individuals were booking multiple
rooms (up to 15!) for the Conference, presumably in case friends or colleagues
needed a room at the last minute, then canceling all but one or two rooms 1-2
days prior to the Conference. Because the cancellations were done so close
to the Conference, we had no chance to let participants staying at other hotels
know that space was available in the Sheraton and Hilton. We know that
many who stayed at another hotel would gladly have shifted their reservation to
the Sheraton, if they had known that space was available. These
cancellations also meant that SIOP failed to meet the room guarantees we had
made with the Sheraton and Hilton, and this cost us $60,000.
To ensure that we do not encounter the same problems in Orlando, we have
asked our conference hotels to require a one-night room deposit. This
deposit is fully refundable for anyone who cancels their reservation at least 90
days prior to the first night of their scheduled stay. For anyone who
cancels less than 90 days prior to the Conference, the deposit is
non-refundable. We looked at how other conferences such as APA manage
hotel room cancellations and talked with hotel officials to get ideas on how we
could do this in a way thats not a burden to our members, and this is what
was recommended. Provided we can avoid a repeat of our room cancellation
problem in Toronto, we expect to have an adequate number of sleeping rooms to
meet our Conference needs.
There are no financial benefits to SIOP from this arrangement, other than
that we hope to avoid paying any room guarantee fees in Orlando. The hotel
will keep any forfeited room deposits none of this money will be given to
SIOP.
If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please email the
SIOP Conference Chair, Jeff McHenry, jmchenry@microsoft.com.
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