Booking a convention hotel room
Clark Howard, the Atlanta-based consumer advocate and host of the Clark Howard Show, has forgotten more about travel bargains than most people would know in a lifetime.
On his radio show, he recently gave this advice: When booking a hotel room to attend a meeting or convention, don’t tell the customer representative that you’re attending an event.
Turns out, you’ll get a *worse* rate most of the time than the average consumer. Convention organizers usually tell you to mention that you’re booking a room to attend an event, presumably to get group-discount rate. But the truth is, at least sometimes, the organization pushes the higher room rates in exchange for freebies and discounts organizers get, such as a break on the price of meeting and conference rooms.
“The reality is, hotels rip people off who are attending a meeting or convention with hugely expensive rates they pretend are a discount,” Howard said on his show.
Most of the time, you’ll be better off using the usual tactics to get a price break on a room, such as using Hotwire.com and Priceline.com, Howard said. Information at BiddingForTravel.com can help you better bid on rooms with Priceline.com. Of course, you might get a better rate staying at a nearby hotel, rather than the hotel hosting the conference.
If your company is paying for your accommodations, maybe you don’t care. But when the money’s coming from your household budget or your small-business budget, lower rates can matter a lot.
