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  • 1.  Looking for imput on how your organization manages room blocks

    Posted 11-05-2019 20:36
    I was wondering how other organizations manage their room blocks after the rooming list deadline. We ordinarily allow attendees to register after the rooming list deadline which means we must submit fake names as placeholders to the hotel and then submit the actual attendee names as people register. This creates a lot of extra work. How do other organizations handle this, do you release any additional rooms and attendees are on their own to find housing?  Would love tips and tricks that others have used.
    #ManagingRoomBlocks

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    Melanie Pensinger
    Director, Enterprise Meeting Services
    American Cancer Society
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  • 2.  RE: Looking for imput on how your organization manages room blocks

    Community MVP
    Posted 11-05-2019 20:46
    We'll hold x number of rooms in our organization's name, but that is generally a placeholder for sponsors.
    So any unused rooms just goes towards attrition?

    I had an event this weekend where 5 people showed up looking for a room. Block has been closed for weeks and hotel was almost full.
    Would have been nice if they preregistered. Grrrrr!

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    Steven Schlossman
    Jack of all trades. Master of none.
    BMW Car Club of America
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  • 3.  RE: Looking for imput on how your organization manages room blocks

    Community MVP
    Posted 11-06-2019 09:03
    We track the number of late registrants by looking at the registration date and comparing it to the hotel deadline date. We use an average number, and we hold a number of rooms (i.e. 10 rooms for 3 room nights) and then for these late registrants, we transfer the room registration from our company to their personal information. That way we have several rooms for the duration of the conference at the low negotiated rate that we can apply to late registrants.

    You can't change the "late behavior" issue, but you can build a better mousetrap to catch them!

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    Brenda Ainsburg
    Channel Program Manager
    brenda.ainsburg@siemens.com
    Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    United States
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  • 4.  RE: Looking for imput on how your organization manages room blocks

    Posted 11-06-2019 15:50
    Same.  I hold 5 rooms under random names.  I've asked a few hotels to automatically put a number of rooms under my name.  Some hotels are ok with it and some aren't.  Hotels know what you're doing and they don't care for it but there's nothing they can do.  I mean either way they'll get their money whether its through a reservation or through attrition but I get what you mean about the extra work it creates.  Unfortunately we do it because we know the behavior of our attendees.  I put a calendar reminder so that I know to cancel the rooms by the cancellation deadline so we're not charged 1 night's stay for any extra rooms.

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    Omayra Colon
    Senior Associate, Meeting Operations
    Housing Partnership Network
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