Originally Posted by exerda
I know the food catering costs ran fairly high (the meetings ran long enough each day that we had three meals plus coffee breaks catered), but from having used the same caterer myself before, I know the coffee didn't run anything near what the TSA paid--we just had plain black and decaf, not some Starbucks blend!
You get whatever the hotel supplies. Some hotels use Starbucks exclusively, and they usually advertise this. Considering the profit margin on coffee, they could use Jamaican Blue Mountain and still come out ahead.
I just looked at the price list for catering at the Boardwalk Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas, where there is another conference I am involved in planning. Coffee (plain old coffee, not Starbucks) is $21 per gallon or $13 per Silex. In my experience, this is a very good price.
TSA may not have negotiated well in planning their conference, which is typical for government meetings in my experience, but the prices they were charged are not all that out of line, either.