Wes,
I think everyone on the IAOC was surprised when we first heard that the meeting
hotel insisted that people can only use fax or email to send in their
reservations. We tried to get the hotel to change this, but they would not
budge. This included their rejection of accepting reservations by phone.
Other nearby hotels were much more expensive, so this reservation method was
reluctantly accepted.
You are, of course, free to book online but when I checked earlier today the
rates were higher even without breakfast included (but the cancelation policy
less was severe). Your tradeoff. In this venue, the IETF will receive credit
for your stay if you book on line (or through your corporate travel department).
It also most goes with out saying that there are also many other hotels in
Paris at lower and higher rates.
Bob
On Jan 3, 2012, at 8:52 AM, George, Wes wrote:
Happy New Year, it's time for our triannual hotel complaint thread.
I hate to do it, but I think that there are people who haven't looked at this
yet, and I'm hoping that we can perhaps rectify it before the majority of
folks try to book:
"Instructions for making reservations at Hotel Concorde:
Please fill out the reservations form and fax it directly to the hotel at:
+33 1 57 00 50 79 or email it to cmasson(_at_)concorde-hotels(_dot_)com"
It's 2012, but the IETF and this hotel chain expects us to book reservations
at the main conference hotel by (international) FAX or by *emailing* a form
which includes a credit card number so that the hotel can hold the room and
implement its relatively bizarre prepay/anti-cancellation policy.
Would it be trolling to ask whether anyone verified that "cmasson" has
support for PGP encrypted-email and a proper method of securely storing (and
then destroying after use) the several hundred credit card numbers they are
about to receive?
What person or rate code should we ask for when booking our rooms over the
phone? (hey if I'm going old school, I'm doing it all the way!) Though, given
the above, I'm relatively worried that my credit card number will simply end
up on an unprotected spreadsheet on a PC somewhere in their office even if I
call to book.
More practically, the hotel blocks at the primary hotel typically fill up
quite fast once registration is opened, especially since the overflow hotel
is actually more expensive than the primary. Does the hotel fax/call us back
to tell us that they have no more rooms available for our requested dates, or
is the block open-ended such that they will keep selling rooms in it until
the cutoff regardless of the number?
Evidently "ability to book group rate rooms online" is something that should
be added to our list of hotel requirements. I'm stunned that it's not there
already.
Wes George
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