Originally Posted by
dcpatti
Thanks for all the advice and tips.
I'm comfortable in negotiations once I know what is reasonable and what's unreasonable. I am a little concerned with being that potential customer that wants the moon on a stick and ends up being written off as hopeless before things even get rolling, so I want to be sure I know what is a reasonable request before I walk in the door. I guess there is no hard-and-fast rule of thumb. I'm also a little concerned about starting the process too early; as chgoeditor points out, hotels may feel more generous if tourist season sucked, which may be a factor in my 2012 quotes being higher than the rates posted on the hotel website for the same room, same weekend in 2011: it's been hot as blazes in DC all summer and we haven't gotten the steady stream of tourists that we usually see. So by booking too early, I risk missing out on some deals just because nobody knows what the future holds, and by booking too late I risk missing securing a block entirely.
It doesn't help that my goals are very ambiguous like "get a good value for my guests." I've polled a few folks and all seem happy with "whatever" for price range but I'd feel horrible to think of my friends having to cough up $229 a night for a room. I know most of them will find a way to afford it but that it would be easier if that price came down. And DC is not a cheap hotel city (sending the group to the 'burbs will introduce so much complexity that I just shudder at the thought).
So my criteria/wish list would be:
-Central location reasonably close to Metro (which leaves only about a zillion choices, and would make it far easier for guests to come without having to rent a car but still get around easily for sightseeing and etc)
-Target pre-tax price of $150/night although realistically this can go to $175 or even higher; I don't think the difference of $25-50 a night is going to make anyone not come to our wedding
-Bar and restaurant on premises (I don't think I can budge on this one; folks will be arriving at all times of day/night, with kids and elderly folks in tow, and they shouldn't have to order a pizza or walk 8 blocks to find dinner)
-Complimentary wi-fi for the guests or at a minumum, a comp for *some* of the guests (the Aussies and the Brits won't have cellular data unless they're willing to pay the ungodly International roaming charges)
-Complimentary breakfast for the guests, at least for the day of and day after the wedding (I understand the hotel might not want to give this to everyone, every day, if they are staying a full week) OR a very good price on a brunch the day after the wedding, that I could cover
Now, if the wi-fi and breakfast is free, then I think everyone will see value even if the price goes up a bit, but the closer we get to the $200-and-up range, the more reluctant I get.
Discount on parking is probably not worth negotiating to me as we are going to encourage people not to rent cars; the Brits and Aussies don't need to be driving on the wrong side of the road in what many find to be a confusing city, the American out-of-towners can skip the expense of the rental car; and everyone can take the subway or taxis.
And here is my moon-on-a-stick request, which I completely DO NOT expect to have filled: a shuttle bus for the day of the wedding. None of the downtown DC hotels that I checked have any shuttle services, and I've checked about 25 so far. Shuttle services are only offered in the suburbs. The wedding ceremony is in Old Town Alexandria. I had considered picking a hotel closer to the ceremony but the DC location I think will work better as most folks are already planning on doing some sightseeing; keep them in VA and they have to get an expensive taxi every day or take the Subway (which isn't that close to the wedding venue anyway). So I'd rather keep them in DC where they can easily do the tourist thing, and figure out how to get them, without cars, to the ceremony/reception. I'm already planning on chartering a mini-bus but if I can get a hotel to provide that, it would absolutely influence my decision.
So what on here is reasonable and what should I just forget about? And do you think I am looking too soon?
One way to think about the freebies is: What's the cost to the hotel?
For example, if their parking garage is normally on 70% full, there's little cost to them in giving you free parking (which I know you don't need anyway). Depending on how they buy their wifi service, there may be little cost to them to give you free wifi. They do, however, lose some revenue from guests who would have paid out of pocket. Now, if there parking lot were normally 98% full, they might be less likely to give you free parking because it would mean not only losing revenue from your guests, but turning away revenue from others.
Food, on the other hand, will cost them money out of pocket because they have to buy the raw materials. Plus it's costing them lost revenue.
The shuttle request may be the most far-fetched. Presumably if hotels have a "free" shuttle, it only travels a limited route & they don't have shuttles to spare. So you're asking them to spend money on something they probably don't have sitting around, hire extra staff, etc. I'm sure you've looked into the cost of hiring a shuttle, so you have a good idea of how much it cost the hotel. But never say never...if they have a shuttle, it's worth asking.
Re. your question:
Will check the convention bookings as suggested; so I'm guessing we'd Want to look for the fuller hotels because they've already made their money and will be more likely to offer a good deal?
Yes and no. (It's not really a matter of them having already made their money...their goal is 100% capacity, all meeting rooms in use & a lot of meeting-related F&B purchases, plus full restaurants, busy bars, etc.)
If a convention has taken up all of their meeting space but not all of their rooms, the hotel may be more amenable to giving you a room block. But...it depends on the nature of the convention & whether it's using rooms at just one hotel or at a bunch.
Here's why: Imagine you're CEO of XYZ and are having your annual sales meeting at the Hyatt. You have 300 sales people & you decide that they'll all stay at the Hyatt, too. The hotel loves this because there is no guesswork involved in the room block. Give or take a few (new hires, people who get sick & skip the meeting), the group will probably use 95-105% of its room block.
Now imagine that you're organizing a huge trade show/industry conference spread amongst 6 hotels + the convention center with 30,000 attendees. You know they all have different price sensitivities, hotel preferences, etc. That hotel room space is a lot more up in the air, because the hotels can only make educated guesses--based on past experience with the show--how much of their room block will get filled. And a lot of it may be up in the air until just a few weeks prior to the convention.