If you dont ask, you dont get.

I would think that Gencon could negotiate this when contract time comes around, but I also have to wonder , going back to an original poster, if it is really even their issue.  So long as people are willing to pay, does it matter to any corporation who buys the product.  There is no brownie points if I come every year or Joe smoe replaces me this ear, so there is no incentive on Gencon's part to pressure for lower rooms.

I''d also point to the fact that the VIG group grew this year, which means more rooms went into that special top tier gencon block.  Considering it sells out every year.  One of the reasons that made me think of this subject was looking at this from a business end goal point of view (what i do for a living).   At this rate, the VIG will be the only guests who pick their hote. Everyone else goes into a lottery.  I'm surprised not too many have mentioned that VIGers recently received the right to book 2 rooms on 1 buy.  Gencon would have had to significantly increase that block to offer this perk, and as someone stated, the hotels only have so many rooms "free " to put in blocks, Logic would indicate that Gencon would have had to reallocate rooms from its current block.  

It's also interesting that people metioned comparing this to SCC.  THere, previous year's guests are given the first chance to buy badges and hotels.  

I was told by a VIG companion that their badge no longer allowed them access to purchase a room. So there should have been less rooms taken by the VIG's...

They might've had access to the normal "housing day lottery", but that's it.

GenCon has already secured lower price hotels. The article you refer, for a political convention in a different area, is referring to an attempt by some to lower already agreed upon prices for rooms secured by contract.

"Contracts were signed a short time later, locking in rates. But Republican organizers are now asking hotel operators to lower their rates."

They are talking about the hotels lowering their rates already agreed with by contract--essentially, their convention block.

 We are talking about room rates out of the  convention block. The GOP wasnt trying to get prices lowered for rooms they hadn't contracted.

The only other option you have is to suggest GenCon pressure hotels to get 100% of the inventory. In other words, no room downtown for anyoen who isnt attending GenCon.

Or maybe you want to change your argument and insist that GenCons negotiated block rates are too high..and if do, please move that to another thread, because thats a different subject entirely than your current demand that GenCon control out of block housing.

I'm pretty sure the hotels will never agree to that anyway  And, by some freak chance they did it would only be a small percentage compared to the rooms in block already, and would only help a relatively small few of those who got locked out this year. All it would acomplish is pissing off those who were willing to pay the higher costs for the guarantee of a downtown room. (again, back to my mantra from the last few years, no one wants fairness.)

There's nothing to be done about it, nor should there be..well, other than eliminating the con block completely, and making it a dog-eat-dog, every one for themself fight to get reservations from hotels directly.

Honestly, I'd be happy with that, but thats because I am convinced I'd personally benefit by being able to guarantee myself a room of my choice, well in advance that, perhaps higher, would not be unaffordable or at current rack rates. Could be wrong, but I'm game.

Insisting that things cannot be done....are ineffective when one has not tried. And you should note that in the gOP case, the hotels did NOT price-gouge. Im sure they could have.

And Gencon should try to get as many rooms as possible at the lowest possible rate. That will never be 100%. But they should try for as much as possible.

If you think about the badge prices, 90 for 4 days of 24hr. Gaming , that's about a dollar an hour, so actual badge prices really aren't too bad. I've been going for about 10 years, so yea, prices use to be much lower, but not bad overall. Now, housing/tickets are a different story. But you can do TONS of gaming without spending too much on tickets. 

I thought we were talking about out of convention block rates.

The GOP was not negotiating to lower out of convention block prices. The only prices being discussed in the article were in block ones. Typical that a political party would try to weasel an already signed contract. GenCon has alreay negotiated the convention block room rates, and they are fair rates given the demand. They could easily be higher, and the rooms still filled.

And GenCon did get more rooms in the downtown block in comparison to years past.  They have met any reasonable expectation by consumers in that area.  They can't force the hotels to relaese all of them (Nor shoudl they. That would be bad behavior: again, other people need rooms too.)

There is no such thing as price gouging in this situation, as long as the hotel doesnt exceed any rack rate required by local/state law.

If you want to argue that the in block rates are too high, well tough luck. If you want a cheap room, stay out of the downtown area.

Any arguement that the prices are too high fail the simple logic test that people keep takign the rooms, and attendance keeps rising. and that will be the only argument GenCon, Indy, or the Hotels listen too. Emails, letters, angry words of protest mean nothing. To quote the bards of AC/DC "Money Talks".

GenCon has every reason to try and negotiate those rates lower, and I'm certain the current rates are the best they can do. (The less spent on rooms = more money spent at Con). You can't dodge supply and demand. The hotels could make more money be refusing to put more rooms in the block, and selling them at higher than the convention rate. (I'd accept that, and pay a higher rate, to a point, just to remove the uncertainty of the lottery.)

Same problem will happen at any acceptable venue. When a convention comes to town, or a big ball game, prices go up, and you can't prevent that. We could go to inferior cities for a cheaper cost  but I really dont want GenCon to lower the enjoyment of the convention just to make it cheaper. 

The one thing I can guarantee is that room rates will not decrease if attendance keeps rising, and the convention block contains all or the majority of downtown space.

Good luck overthrowing capitalism, and convincing other people they should make less money to make you happier.

Just because the out of block prices are higher than in block or non GenCon (or other big event) times doesn't mean that the hotels are price gouging.

From wikipedia:

Price gouging is a pejorative term referring to when a seller spikes the prices of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair, and is considered exploitative, potentially to an unethical extent. Usually this event occurs after a demand or supply shock: common examples include price increases of basic necessities afterhurricanes or other natural disasters. In precise, legal usage, it is the name of a crime that applies in some jurisdictions of the United States during civil emergencies. In less precise usage, it can refer either to prices obtained by practices inconsistent with a competitive free market, or to windfall profits. 

The hotel pricing is competitive free market, and the profits are not windfall (not unexpected). 

Again, GenCon has no reason to pressure the hotels to lower their prices: the high cost of downtown hotel rooms has not reduced attendance.  The hotels have no reason to lower their prices: the high price of rooms has not resulted in unsold rooms.

Hotels everywhere decrease the number of rooms available at discounted rates when there is a large event or other high demand.  They increase the number of discounted rate rooms when there is low demand.

Airlines do the same thing.

Oh, they are definately gouging, and I'm 100 percent sure that if it was worth the money anyone could take this "housing authority" through the legal rangling and there'd be something monopoly about it. It is definately gouging (and colusion) but that is neither hear nor there. Considering the value of the object is 1/4 of the price during the year.  

The airlines have been taken to task on their prices before. 

And of course, if you ran a hotel buisnes, you would always keep prices the same, and never vary them even if you know a certain weekend would mean that your hotel would be booked solid, without a doubt, right?

It must be easy! GenCon just refuses to do it, right? All they have to do is ask, and the hotels would give in. (Don't let that pesky contracted to 2020 thing troubel anyone.) Because you know so much more than people who do this as a profession.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
 

There's also precedence that supports this. To raise the price is business to triple the price in the same form as other partners is colusion and gouging.  Intellectual bullying/bashing isn't cool and certainly not the point of the discussion.  Let's agree that prices triple in price for con goers (more so than any time of the year) and that Gencon can sway them with negotiatons.  The fact that Gencon profits off of this increase in cost (with their VIG program) gives an indication that high hotel prices are not important to them. 

They are only discounting it less.

The "rack rate" is the "rack rate", and it doesn't change. All that changes from day to day is how much they're willing to give you as a discount off the "retail price" (the rack rate).

And you might argue that's a semantic difference, but it's not.