[ANSTHRLD] KWHSS 2009

[kobrien at texas.net]

> But please remember that there are more hotels in the DFW area than just
> around the Airport...Remember that the BOD was held in Grapevine and the
> Embassy was a rather nice hotel, so there are alternatives than just at
> the airport.

I meant in the general area of the airport, not just at the airport.

Regarding Embassy Suites, yeah, I was at that BoD meeting.  And the room 
prices, even with the event rate, was in the area of $150 a night - which 
tends to be prohibatively high for KWHS attendees.  If the room-night rate 
can be less than $100, your number of attendees will jump dramatically.  If 
you can get it down into the $60-$70 range, your numbers will jump even more.

I haven't scouted hotels in the DFW area.  So, there may be a couple that (1) 
have good function space, (2) have good service, (3) provide courtesy 
shuttles to the airport, and (4) are reasonably priced.  But I honestly don't 
know.  Hotels tend to charge what the market will bear.  And, given the 
conventions/events/etc. held in the DFW area, that can both help and hurt us 
for a KWHS venue.  There may be more choices, but the average rates for those 
choices may be higher.  That's what St. Louis encountered.  They got lucky, 
though, in that the city provided an event bidding service that they could 
submit to and different hotels would bid the event.  That's how they found a 
reasonably priced one that met our needs.

Mari