OMG, this hotel is driving me crazy for a lousy $75 conference room. Tons of back and forth with the coordinator, Lots of forms to sign, manager asking a lot of questions about who will be attending and the purpose of the meeting, etc.

Wonder how they will react when I miss my flight that morning. If I'm lucky, they'll just charge me the $75 and we can all move on.

Mike

FWIW, I have had no problem with no-show meetings. Probably done 6 or 7 in the last 4 years. No problem and certainly I wouldn't get into a big discussion with the hotel about anything. I do not usually get into excuses like "I missed my plane" or anything. In fact, only once have they asked why I didn't show up or made any mention of it. That one felt bad and tried to give me a free meeting the following week. I assured her I was happy to pay for the next meeting and would sign another contract for it! :)

Don't get in to a back and forth with them. Just tell them you want a table, two chairs, and a bucket of water. Tell them you need nothing else. Sign the contract and email or fax back. They don't care what you are doing. I generally do not talk to them on the phone. I do not call them back when they call me. I email only.

The last one I had to follow up a couple times, by email, to get the points/nights to post but it finally did.

I am thinking about one more to create some rollover for next year!

Once the hotel sent me an email 2 hours after the planned meeting, stating that no one showed up.
I responded per email, wondering that the guys did not show up and told them I would check.
For the inconvenience caused I asked them to charge my CC and getting the points posted as rewarding event via the Group Posting Tool.
2 days later the points and nights posted to my account.

For those who have found a hotel with the $50 rate and where the points are posting fast, I'm wondering if you'd be willing to post up the brand and location.

They hotel could find themselves having a boom of business, ehem, meetings and those posters needing nights could just do everything online quickly.

That's all great advice, thanks! FYI, they're also putting out a bowl of candy for mine. ;)

I was surprised by how much information they asked for. I did pretty much as you said and she kept coming back with questions. Sheesh. All I'm trying to do is give them a little money. :)

Mike

Yes... and MR can shut down the loophole. All rewards have risks.

In the process of setting one of these up now... waiting to get a quote.

I have gotten the $50 rate at the Fairfield Inn in Mission Viejo

Does anyone know if this has to be set up through the quote process, or can I just work this out with the CY I happen to be staying at all the time these days?

If they know you, you may be able to just work something out, as long as they record the meeting through the right system.

BTW, love the sig.

Mike

Guess I'll just ask - this particular CY is mostly just one-timers (it's a mall property in Miami, where apparently there's a lot of shopping tourism going down), so I am somewhat of an anomaly as a regular/long-term resident. Everybody on staff knows me.

;-) The concept is by no means an original of my own, but the exact wording very much is. I always smile when I see it being used verbatim (including even the trailing ellipsis) on other forums/blogs.

I have booked meetings directly before. It works fine. I have found the rates are cheaper through the online quote system though. It's really so easy.

Yup. It really is easy. And if you are getting the $50 rate, which I get when I request a meeting space for a "20 minute interview," you could basically hit Platinum from scratch for $432 ($54 per meeting)! Worth.

I emailed the Hotel in Frankfurt, but they did not send me a quote as of now - and its already 4 days ago i sent my letter....

What am i doing wrong? the form asked for "price willing to pay" - is that a field you're signing?

Just pick a random city in the US. St. Louis, Dallas, Kansas City, Memphis, etc.... Find a location. I like airport locations as I find they are often cheap but ymmv. You can book online. It's really easy. If the locations say "request quote" instead of showing a dollar sign just find a different location. Keep looking until you find one with dollar signs showing.

I just did a quick search in one city. I did Memphis, TN for a meeting on Nov. 11th.

There is a courtyard that says $250. Select that. (Note: I did not select the $176 Residence Inn since RI doesn't participate in this deal). Then change to a one hour meeting. Takes a few clicks to get the times right. It changes rate to $125. You can find cheaper if you look more. This really isn't that hard. That took me 25 seconds or so to find. Spend 5 minutes and you can get a conf room for $75 in some other city.

There is no requirement of showing, no requirement of talking to anybody at the hotel, etc.... It's EASY.

It is NOT rocket science here people.