<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kelly786:
Thanks for the detailed response to my earlier questions and for all the useful insights. My question is:Who qualifies for State Govt. Rates? I work for a community college in California. I had read a post somewhere from another CC instructor that he/she uses govt. rates but my colleagues and I wondered: a) if we do qualify for the rates and b) if the rate applies only when we are attending conferences etc. for professional purposes. Recently I called a hotel to check about this and got two different responses from two reservation folks. I was going on college sponsored event and did take the govt. rate but no one asked for ID at check-in.
Thanks in advance
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Hi Kelly, you're welcome-
Most hotels (not all) have some kind of government rate but often only honor it on nights that are not very full. Furthermore you will only get this rate if you are in-state. So you couldn't get the rate outside of California. It doesn't surprise me that you got two different answers, as there are probably very few people that claim this rate. It also doesn't surprise me that they didn't ask for ID. Unless you were trying to claim tax exemption, the front desk will just take your word for it. The average front desk agent probably could not care less what rate you are paying. They just want to check you in and move on to the next person. If the reservations department gave you the rate, you should have no problems afterwards. I would bet that you could probably get away with using the rate even if you weren't traveling for business, unless the hotel is very full on those days. Its certainly worth a try. We let people use their corporate rates even if they weren't there for business. I don't see why govt. rates would be any different.
Thanks for your kind words and good luck!