[comp.org.usenix] $50,000 charge?

jerry@ora.ora.com (Jerry Peek) (06/24/91)

In the Friday morning sessions, there were announcements that Opryland
was trying to charge the Association an extra $50,000 (?) for not renting
enough rooms or something.  What came of that?  Did our budget deficit
just get bigger? :-(

--Jerry Peek, jerry@ora.com or uunet!ora!jerry

henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (06/24/91)

In article <1991Jun24.141110.1531@ora.com> jerry@ora.ora.com (Jerry Peek) writes:
>In the Friday morning sessions, there were announcements that Opryland
>was trying to charge the Association an extra $50,000 (?) for not renting
>enough rooms or something.  What came of that? ...

Conferences usually get function rooms free on condition that their attendees
fill a specific quota of sleeping rooms, but whether Usenix people did or not
apparently depends on just when you counted.  The hotel was trying to claim
that the terms of the deal hadn't been met and Usenix therefore owed rent
for the function rooms.

Last I heard, there were enough counterarguments (e.g. Usenix people being
turned away or charged more than the official rate) that the amount was
expected to drop sharply in further negotiations, although possibly not
to zero.
-- 
"We're thinking about upgrading from    | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
SunOS 4.1.1 to SunOS 3.5."              |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry