I'm heading to the SEA meetings tomorrow and am wondering where everyone is staying. Not at the conference hotel, it seems. Here is some background:
The [SEA] hotel is overcharging for each room to pay for the conference meeting rooms. When facing a high price, such as in a year with limited travel budgets, consumers tend to shop around. ...
An alternative would be to go ahead and charge a higher registration fee (about another $100, I think). Registration fees are reimbursable by employers and there are no substitutes. You must wear you name badge to gain admittance to the meeting rooms. Then, attendees could feel free to shop around and find the hotel that suits them best.
From the inbox yesterday:
We’re staying at the [non-conference hotel]. It’s a great historic hotel and MUCH cheaper than the conference hotel, and my travel budget is seriously constrained this year. ...
The Western hotel policy is just as stupid. Went to Vancouver this year. Bombarded by emails from WEA telling me I had to book before the deadline to get the “special” conference rate on the hotel room. I just went to the hotel web site, saw the regular rack rate was lower than the “special” rate, got an additional discount for AAA, and saved more than $300 for the 7-night stay. Furthermore, because we stayed 7 nights—which we couldn’t have done at the “special” rate, they gave us a primo room ...
Attention regional economics conference organizers: Demand falls as the price of substitutes falls and the internet makes it easy to find substitutes.
