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Hotel rooms are just like any other commodity and obey the laws of supply and demand. If you take some time to plan and research where you want to stay you can pretty much negotiate a far better rate than most folks pay for their hotel room. If you can be flexible about where to stay, and when to stay, you can save even more money. First, a little inside information on how hotels make their money from Karen, a fomer hotel manager:
"Most hotels have tiered pricing, starting with what they call a "rack rate" that is a best scenario price for any room. This is the rate most people get quoted when they just call off the street. It is also the reate that gets charged when the hotel is full up ("booked") and they know they can get it. For example, the rack rate at the Radisson I used to work at was $109 for a double king. From that rack rate, the next tier of pricing is set. This is usually called a "corporate rate", although the same percentage discount may apply to AARP, AAA, some travel agency bookings, etc. It's usually around 12 - 15% less than the rack rate. Our 1st level discount was $94 for the same double king. The next tier of pricing usually applies to various corporate accounts (all IBM employees, or all Delta employees, etc.) that's another 10% off. This rate is _base_d on a contract with the various companies that assures the hotel a certain number of occupied rooms per year (otherwise known as "room nights"). If at the end of a year the company has not used that quota of "room nights", they are likely to lose their discount status. Again, ours ran around $79 for the double king. The final tier of pricing is the "specialty" tier, also called the "convention rate". This is reserved for things like large parties where a large number of rooms are guaranteed and will be paid for if used or not, employee discounts, etc. This can go as low as 50% of the rate - or lower. But this is a rate that will be hard to get unless you are guaranteeing to occupy 50% of the hotel or more and are willing to pay for the unused rooms anyway.
So the two things that are going to influence your rate are (1) tiers of pricing, (2) number of guests in a room. Usually when you ask for a special rate for a group you're going to get either the 1st level or the 2nd level depending on the # of rooms you're willing to guarantee (percentage wise to the total occupancy of the hotel) and/or the number of other facilities you'll be taking advantage of. For example if you're going to have your reception at the hotel and spend money with them for food and beverage, then you ought to be able to negotiate a better rate on the rooms. Also remember that a lot of hotel pricing also depends on the time of the year. Spring and Fall are big conference/convention times but summer is slow in the tropics. Winter and holidays are very busy as many North Americans are fleeing the cold. So if you schedule your event for an off time, you're going to have a bit more leverage in negotiating rates. Remember that the _object_ of the hotel is to have maximum occupancy at a maximum rate. If there's no one in the, they'll be more willing to offer you a nearly break even rate than to see the rooms sit empty.
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