MrEntrepreneur

When traveling for pleasure I often use corporate codes and the savings can be up 35% of the listed rates on the hotel website.

However another way to save is simply calling the hotel, ask to speak to sales and ask if there are any conferences going on at the hotel because you may be interested in having a meeting. You just want to know whats going on.

My savings:

Westin New Orleans- I mentioned I was there for Veterans Affairs Risk Management program.

Conference price-139.00 plus tax
Hotel price- 329.00 plus tax

PS for any Starwood Properties when you speak to global reservations they also know which conference are happening at that property.

Those of you part of the moral and ethical club, don't read my thread, move on.

DBCme

Thanks for the tip. And you're right, the ethics police are on patrol. But some would argue your plan may actually benefit the conference organizers in some cases.

Anyway, it sounds like you can't just ask if there are conferences going on at the hotel in a particular week, but what conferences. Do they volunteer this information?

muji

In your experience do they ever indicate that they will be inputting with your reservation some sort of code connected to the conference (which then would result in them requesting to see your membership card or conference attendance document at check in)?

Jimgotkp

You can sign up for reports to see what conferences would be held at what hotels.... you'd have to pay for these reports though

MrEntrepreneur

Well when you speak to Sales you first ask by saying I was looking to book a meeting space on this particular day do you have other events going on, then you ask if you don't mind me asking what would that be. Most of the time they will gladly speak up if you chat with them.

MrEntrepreneur

In my experience, when the hotel reservation desk is not able to make the reservation the conference has its own website where it wants attendees to register. 9 times out 10 the hotel handles the reservations for the group.

The front desk has never asked for any documentation.

MrEntrepreneur

Which website would that be?

flavatravel

What are the most spacious hotel rooms in New York City (Manhattan) for the least amount of money (most square footage for your $).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

MrEntrepreneur

What is your budget per night? And what is your ideal Sq Footage for the room?

hotturnip

When you can get a decent rate, the Marriott Marquis has gigantic rooms. They'd be big for any city, much less New York.

MrEntrepreneur

^Agreed. They have 2000+ rooms but it is very touristy.

Jimgotkp

To be honest, I forgot which company has this listing. I was taught that hotels use these reports to know which groups/companies are going to competitor hotels for meetings/conventions.

patchan8984

I LOVE the London NYC, usually weekend nights are $299 and rooms are a minimum of 500 sq ft. Marriott Marquis is large too, but I like the London's Midtown location instead of the touristy times square.

That said, London was out of my price range on a weekyda, so I booked the Marriott Marquis for an upcoming stay

jredknapp11

If you want roaches, laughes, chills and a few sleepless night on the cheap then go with the AAU & Motel 6 discount.

Motel 6 CP540332 <---- promo code

AAU is American Atheltic Union, open to anyone to join although the rate code usually never requires an official AAU form of id. If you wanted to play it safe, just go over to the AAU and register yourself with them, a years membership for most sporting catagories will set you back around $12. I've been forced to ditch the Marriott's for a M6 when with my team and I've used the above code to snag rooms at or under $35 a night... roaches and cold sweats were always complimentary^

RustyC

The hotels.com rebate deal via Entertainment books is a lot better than the current general hotels.com rebate deal if the hotel is booked online at the travel subsection of Entertainment.com (i.e. Hotels.com engine on another site):

2 nights - $30 (credited back to card)
3-4 nights - $50
5-7 nights - $80
8-9 nights - $140
10+ nights - $250 (!)

I'm kicking myself now for doing a 3-night booking at $105-ish a-i on the general site (totally nonrefundable, natch) that's eligible for $20 back when it could have been done on the Entertainment site and been eligible for the $50.

In combing the T&Cs on the Entertainment rebate I don't see any "gotcha" conditions like minimums per night or one-per-customer (each ENT book has 2 mail-in certs, and I don't see any limit to number of rebates). Rates must be charged to credit card in advance and rebates can only be claimed after stay is complete, but in some cases you can cancel and only pay for a night's stay or maybe not even that.

OTOH, I know that mail-in rebates in general can be fraught with problems. Does anyone out there have experience with hotels.com rebates on the Entertainment Guaranteed Best Rate Program? I guess I'm looking for some comfort level that they'll honor it as stated. In other areas there are horror stories of rebates being very slow, bogus claims of not receiving paperwork, or denials of payment based on something not disclosed in the T&Cs. How good are they at processing or paying out these things promptly?

Also, I'm pricing out some places in Thailand for summer travel for $278 a-i for 10 days, which should be eligible for $250 in rebates on this. I don't see any geographic restrictions on the hotels in the T&Cs or anything else to prevent this. Am I missing something? Seems like this can be a tremendous deal for low-cost hotels anywhere, but I'm really leery about rebates.

(BTW, ENT books are going for $12-15 nowadays for 2010 on their site).