Hi all,
I was talking with a "hotel professional" (who happens also to be my gal ;), and I got some interesting advice on how to deal with hotels if you're organizing a conference. This might be interesting for anyone who might be planning a conference in the future.
And in fact, she mentioned an interest in helping out in the future, to take care of various details.
Ok, so the goal is to book a hotel or two, so that people can mix and easily talk late into the night and get to the meeting on time.
* If you don't know the date yet of your convention, you can ask a hotel when all the fairs/conventions are planned. This has two advantages: 1) You will find out when hotels will be underutilized. Easy booking and low prices. 2) You can get a group discount.
About 2), you decide on a price, estimate # rooms, and aim for some mix of singles and doubles. In German, there's this thing which is called something like "contingency with option", which means before a certain time, guests with a codeword may book a room until a deadline. They will be assured of a room and the discount until that date.
On a room that's Eur80, a good discount might be Eur10 off (that is, Eur70).
NOTE: Someone will need to physically look at the rooms to make sure they aren't coffins...
MfG, Tayssir