RATE INCREASE AT OUR 2013 CONFERENCE HOTEL
I need your input. The dates for the 2013 BRG conference are May 2-4, 2013. Based on the response to a survey taken by the 2012 conference attendees, we planned to return to the Embassy Suites in Boston, the location for our 2010 conference. However, we are facing much higher guest room rates than we had in 2010, when we paid $149 per night. The best price we can get for 2013 is $219.
There are several factors for the increase:
1. The travel/entertainment industry has recovered quite a bit from 2009 when we booked our 2010 Boston conference. In 2009, they were desperate to fill rooms because it was at the very bottom of the market/economy. Nobody was traveling. But today, with other downtown hotels filling rooms at much higher rates , the Embassy Suites has significant leverage. (FYI: On their website, they are booking rooms currently at $409.)
2. Our prior Boston conference was 4/22/10-4/24/10. That is a few weeks before graduation season at almost 60 colleges in Metropolitan Boston. Not this time. In 2013, we're coming in May, which is one of four peak months for the area (in addition to June, September and October). Graduations will be going on everywhere, which brings many thousands of extra people to the area. Our exhaustive search has come up with no other hotels in the area that have space available as well as the conference facilities we need at a better rate than the Embassy Suites.
ANOTHER OPTION
The second most popular choice on the survey was to return to the Drury Plaza Riverwalk in San Antonio where we just had our conference in April. The price for San Antonio is $154. Note that our dates in 2013 do NOT fall on Fiesta Week as they did this year. (That could be a good thing or a bad thing.)
I'd like to get your input before making a decision on this. But it needs to happen very soon.
Even though the Boston hotel is more expensive, each room is a two-room suite with two beds (for most rooms) and a sleeper sofa in the living room. You can sleep up to 6 people, so it's easier to share rooms if you are interested in doing that.
EXCITING NEWS:
The 2012 conference attendees loved the ability to get out and be on their own for a longer lunch. Some people ate a quick lunch and went shopping. Some listened to some of the street bands. Others had a leisurely drink in the Irish pub on the Riverwalk. We're going to do that one better next time. For 2013, we will have a different schedule. We will have a long morning of conference presentations from 8:00-1:30 on Thurs, Fri and Sat with no afternoon presentations at all! You will be free to do whatever you want for lunch and enjoy the afternoon and evening with your family and/or your BRG friends. This may create a better opportunity for you to make this a family vacation since there is no need to return to the hotel after lunch.
For Boston, this means that you can take the tours, walk the Freedom trail, take a harbor cruise, try out the restaurants and clubs, go shopping, or whatever you like. For San Antonio, there are Riverwalk cruises, visits to the Alamo, shopping, etc.
But we need your input. Do you want to stay with the Boston plan and fork out the additional money (possibly sharing a room), or would you prefer to go back to San Antonio? Please let me know your opinion ASAP by responding to the following survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7JGJ6XM
Thank you!
-- Susan
