Tea Party group skips out on $500,000 bill at Vegas hotel

[joebuck20]

@Chicagojeff

Snark.. if they really want to bring things back to the way they use to be.. running out on a bill in Vegas use to get you a helluva lot worse than a summons to court.. lol

Like finding a caribou’s head in your bed?

[kayaker]

The hotel should just be relieved that Randy Quaid and his wife didn’t stay there. They’d be out some real cash, then.

[Bricker]

@mhendo

My own knowledge is admittedly not extensive, but i’ve heard of a very similar incident in my own field.

Each year, the American Historical Association holds an annual meeting that attracts professional historians from all over the US and the world. The locations of these meetings are generally decided years in advance (as of this moment, host cities have been decided up to the 2015 meeting), and the Association enters into agreements with hotels to house the thousands of people who attend.

The 2010 meeting was in San Diego, and one of the hotels booked for the meeting was the Manchester Grand Hyatt. During the 2008 election cycle, the owner of the hotel, Douglas Manchester, was a big supporter—moral and financial—of Proposition 8 in California. There were many members of the AHA, as well as union groups such as San Diego Unite here Local 30, who thought that the Association should cancel its contract with Manchester’s hotel as a protest against his politics.

While there were a number of factors at play in the AHA’s decision not to undertake such a boycott, one important reason was that the Association would have been on the hook for over half a million dollars if it had cancelled. Here’s a section from the AHA’s official announcement:In cases like this, the contracting entity often doesn’t have to put up a lot of money at the beginning. In this case, for example, the AHA itself didn’t pay anywhere near $800,000 to the hotel. But what happens is that the contract for the meeting causes the hotel to put aside large blocks of rooms at reduced rates (and, from experience, i can tell you that the rates negotiated by the AHA are considerably reduced) in the expectation of getting a guaranteed influx of customers who will not only pay for their rooms but will, in many cases, use the hotel’s bars, restaurants, room service, etc. It is this expected income that is the basis for the large cancellation fees.

Excellent post.

I was also skeptical of the hotel’s story, but this explanation gave me a very solid basis to believe the hotel. Really solid and cogent post, mhendo.

[MsRobyn]

@Mosier

For anyone reading this thread, please know that the above statement is not in any way true. Not sure how Voyager got that impression.

Maybe this is unique to where Voyager and I live, but whenever an organization I belong to is using other paid services of the hotel, such as catering or hotel rooms, the hotel comps the meeting space as part of the contract. (I’ve helped plan these things, so I’ve seen the contracts.) The key is “other paid services”. If an organization only uses meeting space, without other paid services, it has to pay for the space.

A lot of restaurants with banquet rooms do that, as well; as long as you’re buying your meals from them (and I’ve yet to go to a restaurant that allowed outside food), the space is yours to use.

[Voyager]

@MsRobyn

Maybe this is unique to where Voyager and I live, but whenever an organization I belong to is using other paid services of the hotel, such as catering or hotel rooms, the hotel comps the meeting space as part of the contract. (I’ve helped plan these things, so I’ve seen the contracts.) The key is “other paid services”. If an organization only uses meeting space, without other paid services, it has to pay for the space.

I don’t think it is location dependent - I’ve been involved when we were in North Carolina, Texas, and both Northern and Southern California, and it is the same deal. Meeting space is very attractive, and many hotels would have it be vacant during the day if there wasn’t a conference booked. You do pay for room set up, so it is not entirely free.

BTW, the first thing we do is get insurance on event cancellation, through IEEE for us. I haven’t seen the policy for a couple of years, but I’d be surprised if it covered either cancellation due to low attendance or cancellation due to politics (like the AHA example.) I wasn’t on the steering committee then, but we had a meeting 6weeks after 9/11, and those who were on were very nervous.

[joebuck20]

@kayaker

The hotel should just be relieved that Randy Quaid and his wife didn’t stay there. They’d be out some real cash, then.

And their shitters would have been full too.

[Amber_in_Treasury]

@Voyager

So, Tea Partiers are boobs (…).

Why do you have to insult boobs like that?

[Cartooniverse]

@elucidator

“Nice legs, Ms Bachman. Be a shame if something were to, you know, happen to them…”

Like daylight appearing between them ?

:o