Just got back from the Dominican Republic. Had an awesome time.
One question though, whenever I book a reservation to an all inclusive it invariably comes with this warning:
**Convention Policy **- Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
I always forget to inquire how the hell it’s their business what someone is doing on their own time. Especially if the convention is somewhere off resort grounds.
Do they see conventioneers as more likely to misbehave? Many resorts in Europe will not accept bookings related to stag or hen parties for that reason.
I’m wondering if that’s it. But then again these places are huge for spring breakers (especially American spring breakers because the drinking age is 18) and there are few assholes bigger than drunk college students.
Also, what’s considered a “convention”? 10 friends flying down to hang out for a week and party is a convention?
My understanding is that it usually covers accomodation, all the food you can eat, all the booze you can drink. Not sure like things about spa fees or other ‘activity prices’
Neither. Typically, it includes a certain number of activities on site. For example, I once did an All-inclusive in the DR and included activities were things like yoga in the morning, salsa lessons every afternoon by the pool, use of fins/snorkels to snorkel off the beach. Some evening shows/entertainment as well. But if you want visit tourist sites that are off the resort, or get a boat to take you to a nice spot to fish or a good diving spot, that cost extra. (Sometimes purchased packages include a certain number of excursions.)
Plus unlimited food/alcohol and your room of course.
As to the OP, perhaps this springs from some kind of reciprocal agreement with other hotels – that they won’t undercut each other for convention guests.
Some of the ones I found I found also had a sentence like this buried somewhere ( and it wasn’t restricted to all-inclusive resorts )
So it doesn’t seem that it applies to staying at the resort while attending a convention elsewhere. It probably involves the hotel providing meeting rooms , food for coffee breaks and other amenities based on a negotiated rate for convention attendees that is higher than the package being advertised and a requirement that attendees stay at that resort rather than somewhere else. I once had to attend a week-long conference for my job, and everyone was required to stay at the conference hotel- even people who lived 15 minutes away and could have gone home every night. There were no meetings at night, and the only possible reason for such a requirement would be that the hotel required that there was a paid room for each person in attendance.
This is about right. Our resort had a ton of free activities from 8A until 10P. All the booze/buffets/sit down restaurants were included plus a mini-bar in the room that was restocked every day. In 8 days/7 nights I gained 9 pounds! :eek:
The only thing not included were certain excursions like para-sailing and zip lining.
What **doreen **said. A convention normally makes special deals with specific hotels (and with the Convention Center operator and food-and-beverage concessionaire if these are separate) based on a projection of customers attending and demand for specific services. And FWIW, so does the All-Inclusive relative to the leisure activities it will have available.
In both cases, the hotel makes the “special deal” price based on expectations of what will have to be paid for and who will pay for it. Otherwise, they’ll be happy to charge you *regular *“rack” price.
I’m not sure but I think you may actually have this backwards. All inclusives very commonly sell last-minute deals at enormous discounts. (In 2008 I got a 4-night stay, airfare included, for ~$350). I suspect they’re locking in their convention guests at a rate which is favorable compared to standard rates but higher than the lowest rate they may choose to offer. They don’t want conventioneers canceling their standard reservation to get an ultra-discounted package 3 days before departure.
It would be interesting to know if there is a formal, legal definition for “convention” or if it is a code word that resorts can use to mean “any social activity that results in what we feel constitutes too much off-resort activity and not enough on-resort purchases”. There clearly has to be a border between “a handful of astronomy geeks fly to the Caribbean to have fun and explore the tropical sky” and “The First Annual Podunk Stargazers Convention 2014” Does it depend on the raw number of attendees (e.g. anything under 50 people is a bunch of friends, over 50 and it is automatically a “convention”)? Does it have to do with whether or not the “friends” have a formal organization in place with a charter, rulebook, officers, and secret handshake, or whether they really are just casual friends? What if the “Astronomy Club” exists as a social phenomenon but doesn’t have legal formality or personhood (no articles of incorporation filed with the State, no attorney of record, etc.)? Does the resort have free rein to make arbitrary determinations as to conventionhood?
“Sorry, sis, you can’t come to this year’s family reunion. The resort said we had to limit ourselves to 12 people or else we would be considered a Convention and subject to higher rates. Maybe next year.”
Also, since we are talking about the Dominican Republic here, I wouldn’t be so sure that the legal system is even close to what we have in the US - maybe the idea of a “convention” doesn’t exist there or might represent a concept very different from the Anglo variety.
See my response above- it appears that the “conventions” in question are not off-site, but on the premises and the prohibition doesn’t have to do with off-site activity (nor is it restricted to resorts) but with the convention goer obtaining a cheaper reservation which is not priced to include the costs of the convention.
As far as a legal definition, I don't know if there is one, but there seems to be a industry definition that excludes family reunions, weddings and groups of friends (however large) that will not require such amenities as dedicated meeting space. I know that I've been involved in trips where group rates are obtained for as many as 100 rooms, but no meeting space , etc is required as the activities do not take place at the hotel.
I would assume that they are referring to group business which has signed a contract to fill a certain number of rooms for their event. This may include conference space as well as food and beverage but could be a rooms only contract with the actual meetings/convention being held off site. The important part would be the contract between the meeting planner and the hotel for the rooms.