next »

[value for money]

In the thread below about the MLA, there have been several references to "good hotel prices".

I'm interested to know what kind of tariffs most people are paying in major conference cities. To start, I'm staying in San Francisco in December for $129 per night whereas my sister was quoted $229 per night in Philadelphia for a conference this month.

[conference grrl]

What I want to know is, where does all of that conference money go? I mean, I know that some of our fees cover venue rental, insurance, etc., but I've been to some conferences recently that seemed outrageously expensive. Cna anyone involved in the financial side of organizing/running these things give us a run-down?

[theater guy]

ATHE and ASTR run very good conferences. Or should I say they have professional conference planners do the logistical work...and the conference fees aren;t that much.

AERA has 12,000 delegates coming to it. They run the conferences in house and their fees are also not very high.

Both of these approaches give great value for the money.

CG, what do you think of as high?

[to conference grrl]

just from my own example - i was involved in putting together a conference that attracted roughly 500-600 people a few years back (pretty good for the size of the particular subfield that was being highlighted). The conference was spread out over 3 days, and charged on average 150 bucks per person (i say average b/c of different rates for students and faculty, late registration charges, etc.). At that rate, it would have generated about 75k-80k from registration fees alone... and all of this was pumped back into the conference in some fashion (fees for room rentals, speaker fees, processing of credit card information, database maintenance, printing of the program, posters/other advertising, catering for meals, coffee/tea/soda at breaks, technology concerns [i.e., LCD projectors, VCR/DVD, etc.]).  There were no association fees factored into the conference (nor was there any reliance on outside funding), as it was a stand-alone event separate from an association.

I think 150 is pretty good for registration fees (and about the average I have to dish out to attend the conferences in my area).  Anything over that and my eye raises a bit, too, wondering where the money is going in the end.

[history anon]

The AHA is pretty good about this, I think;  they manage to get big blocks of rooms for around $100 a night (still more than I'd want to pay, but not outrageous), and the registration fees are about the same.  I believe there's a discounted rate for students and the unemployed as well.  I can see how they need the money, as they have to reserve a lot of ballrooms, conference rooms, etc., which I'm sure isn't cheap.  Perspectives ran an interesting article on this earlier this fall--they're also able to negotiate good deals by choosing snowbelt cities in early January (who else would want to go to Philadelphia right after New Year's?)  
I haven't organized a conference, but I know people who have;  for smaller conferences, the dues are really vital to make sure there's enough money to cover hotel/conference space, staff, and keynote speakers.  I do think it's good policy to have reduced rates for grad students and those without tenure track/tenured appointments--the latter get paid more and are usually reimbursed for conference expenses anyway.

[Senior Scholar]

The conference's size makes a big difference in its ability to negotiate good prices. If it can fill all of the rooms at a major hotel -- or several -- at a time of year when room occupancy in that city is low, it has the clout to negotiate low prices with each hotel. If it's asking only for (say) 50 rooms at a time when hotels in that city are generally full anyway, it has less leverage -- UNLESS it is also paying for all the meeting rooms and meals at the same smallish hotel (the cost of meeting rooms and, sometimes, meals, comes out of the conference fee, so that people who live in the city or have friends to stay with are also sharing those costs), in which case the small conference may be able to work a very good deal.

Long ago I was on the executive committee of a very small and pleasant academic organization that (then) held its conferences in mid-October, generally staying in hotels but using meeting rooms at the local university. Nice inexpensive arrangement . . . until one year we lost all of our rooms, at the last minute, because we were meeting in a major league city that had made the world series, and could therefore charge four times as much for the block of rooms they had already "reserved" for us. Basic commercial economics, with all its variations, affects academic conferences as well as everything else.

[conference grrl]

Most of the conferences I've been to in the last 2-3 years charged $150-175 for the (early!) registration fee, and one even charged a higher rate of you were a presented than if you were a participant. Then there are the special ticketed lectures or dinner speeches by the keynote speaker or honored guest, ticketed and hugely overpriced cocktail receptions, etc. I know not every conference is like this, so it irks me when some are well planned and well run without the benefit of high fees. One conference I attended last year charged $175, held all of the events in donated university space, and not only didn't provide programs with abstracts or participant information, but also was disorganized and poorly run overall. Just got my hackles up, that's all.

[science traveler]

You are all so lucky! I am in the sciences. A LOW conference fee is something like $600-800. A HIGH conference fee can be $1200-1500!! Explain that! I understand that my research is more expensive than that of an English professor, but talking about it should be the same, no??

I also have to consider hotel rates of ~$100-130 in a major city cheap if I want to stay at the conference hotel. I have seen up to $250! Also, be aware that the "special" conference rate of the hotel is not necessarily cheaper than the normal rate. In my field it is by now common that the "special" rate is higher! The additional money goes to the organizing society as well. So, I never go with the conference rate any more. Check normal rates and check other hotels in the vicinity.

[Velvet Elvis]

I think the original question was about conference hotel pricing.  I generally stay within a block of the conference hotel at whatever cheaper place I can find on hotwire, travelocity, etc.  No major inconvenience, and my travel budget goes further.

As for registration fees, I have a friend who never pays them.  He hasn't been kicked out yet.  I always want to get into the book room, so I pony up.

VE.

[twain]

You are all so lucky! I am in the sciences. A LOW conference fee is something like $600-800. A HIGH conference fee can be $1200-1500!!

I'm also in the natural sciences and attend two national conferences a year. I've NEVER seen a conference fee as high as $600. Normal for me is about $150.

[artsearch]

I always try Expedia, and sometimes I'm able to get a room in the actual conference hotel less expensively than the supposed special rate--especially if booking a package of flight plus hotel.

The chosen locale does make a big difference. As one of "the unemployed" I had to skip a NYC conference, because I couldn't find a way to do it inexpensively without involving potentially scary lodging.

[case_insensitive]

I'm off to our big yearly conference soon. The registration fee, which includes membership in the association, is around $800.  The hotel rooms average about $200. This seems to be the norm for this conference every year regardless of which city. It's such a huge conference we can only meet in the very large cities (SF, DC, Atl, Orlando, Dallas, etc.) usually in a mammoth sized Marriott or Hyatt.  I always share a room with a distant colleague to keep the costs down. We treat it as our once a year research and social meeting with our own pajama party *LAUGH*  I lucked out on a very cheap airfare but with all the food and taxis and such, it'll easily cost $2000 and i'm doing it the CHEAP way and only getting reimbursed for $1000.

[bibliothecula]

My big annual conference just posted hotel rates and they're around $180 for a double room; $270 for a triple. I do think this is high, but it is in Superstar City this year. Like ci, I always share a room with a friend and we hit the sauna and play catch-up. It's as much social as it is professional.

For a long time in grad school I stayed at non-conf hotels, usually a block or three away, but too many late-year meetings in cold climes put me off (actually, it was the day I trudged through a freezing rainstorm and then had to pay $5 to check my coat at the conference hotel that did it). So now I just eat the cost of the difference and chalk it up to comfort and ease.

[untenured]

My annual conference is in Florida this year.  Our executive committee takes extraordinary care to keep prices down for the attendees.  We accomplish this by never having conferences in first-tier cities (i.e. NYC, LA, Chicago).  Also, we often have the conferences in hot climates in the summer (i.e. Albuquerque, Nashville, San Diego).  Our hotel costs are generally under $150/night, which is astounding deal for these hotels which normally charge much more.  We even managed the Four Seasons one year.  If the executive committee jacked up the prices, alot of folks from smaller schools would stay home.

Untenured

[science_expat]

I do San Francisco each winter and the conference fee for 5 days is about $250 for full members (students are much cheaper). A very nice hotel is about $130 per night per room booked through them.