Hillsborough (Florida) hotels balk at request to lower rates for GOP convention

[seafan]

Source: St. Petersburg Times

TAMPA — Organizers for the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa could be in for a tough time negotiating better deals with local hotels.

At a meeting of the Hillsborough County Hotel and Motel Association on Thursday, Executive Director Bob Morrison said he's continuing to talk with convention officials. But he told the managers of Hillsborough hotels they need not budge on rates in year-old contracts for rooms during the August 2012 convention. Morrison said he's not aware of any hotel charging more than allowed under the city's convention bid.

''Almost to a person, they were 20 to 60 percent below what they could have charged,'' he said.

Last week, convention organizers told Hillsborough and Pinellas hotel managers that some contracted rates were too high. RNC officials said hoteliers needed to ditch year-old contracts.
What's more, they handed out forms to some hotels with lower "requested rates'' and asked the hotels to accept the new rates by today.

.....

After the meeting, three property executives said they won't accept changes to their deals.
"Our position is we will comply with the terms of the contract," said Mary Scott, general manager of the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina. The 717-room property in downtown Tampa is the county's largest hotel.

.....

Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/hillsborough-hotels-balk-at-request-to-lower-rates-for-gop-convention/1199977

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Here is the backstory:

Despite contracts, GOP Convention officials tell Tampa hotels they want cheaper rooms, higher fees, October 28, 2011


Hold your ground, hotel executives. You have year-old signed contracts in your hands. The GOP must be taught a very important lesson. They can take their "forms" and shove them.


Oddly enough, we the people cannot negotiate for better drug prices because of the GOP's intransigence and greed, but ripping up established contracts with Florida hotels in order to dictate better rates for themselves for their convention is somehow just fine and dandy.


Give these people a very rude awakening.


And that doesn't even consider how much the GOP would suffer by ticking off Florida (a nice swing state) if Tampa shows them the door.


Make these creeps pay through the nose.


We are sick of them.

[Ship of Fools]

1. Hear, hear! I'm with ya ...

[rfranklin]

2. GOP: Contracts are sacred...well, at least for corporate executives with golden parachutes...

Unions and hotel managers can eat shit however...

[WCGreen]

3. Fuck, let them sleep in their limos....

[young but wise]

4. K&R.

Fuck those Bastards

[GreenTea]

5. Republican greed meets republican corporate greed....Fuck 'em ALL!

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Free markets, free enterprise, Baby!

[dtexdem]

7. They should significantly raise the prices:

after all, the GOP is made up of a bunch of disgusting, untrustworthy people. Who knows what damage they might do to hotel rooms?

;-)

[zbdent]

8. I don't see how the GOP's deposit check bounced ...

but that's what probably happened ...

[Kingofalldems]

9. Looks like the repubs want wage cuts

[greiner3]

10. Searching Expedia.com;

For the rates at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina I found an arbitrary booking date is $174.00. There are only 7 hotels listed in all of Tampa for a higher price. I do not know what discount the Republicans received in their original deal but only the higher muckier mucks could afford luxury like this for an extended stay anyway.

So some of the 1%ers will have to pay another $10/night for their week's stay. I won't lose any sleep over this.

[Iliyah]

11. The gop can afford it

greedy snobs and now they are asking for a discount rate - assholes.

[Daemonaquila]

15. But how are they going to pay for all the hookers and blow?!?!?

Won't anyone think of the poor rethuglicans? Won't anyone think of how much economic damage the hotels are doing to the local porn and drug economy by overcharging for shelter?

[Vogon_Glory]

25. They'll Have To Make Do With Melons

They'll have to make do with melons instead of hookers (Assuming, of course, that some conscientious Obama officials have continued to enforce food safety laws by the time the melons hit the grocers' shelves).

:evilgrin:

We all have had to make sacrifices. They can make them, too.

[fantomas]

12. Pay-per-view porn will more than make up the difference

The repugs will be jonesin to get back to their room and do "research".

[caseymoz]

13. I'd say the hotel holds all the cards here.

I'm trying to figure out why the GOP would be pulling this. I can't believe they'd be strapped for cash.

[Daemonaquila]

14. It's called FREE ENTERPRISE, Rethug jerkoffs.

If you want to live by the free enterprise system, then die by the free enterprise system. You negotiated for a price, and you got the price. You don't get to dictate that the people you contract with have to accept a change just because you want one. What are you going to do, boycott your own convention? Threaten to not use the city next convention? No leverage, sorry. Just more entitled 1%ers throwing their weight around, except that this time they don't have any weight to throw.

[JNelson6563]

16. These guys are hard-core assholes.

[liberal N proud]

17. Generally when there are large events in an area, prices go up.

It's called supply and demand.

[tabasco]

18. Supply and demand.

Let the free market rule!

[Roy Rolling]

19. Entitlement? Socialism?

Lemme get this straight. The Republicans want a handout from the hotels after they signed a contract at a much-reduced rate? And, they want to negotiate for all of the rooms in the city so that everyone of their members pays the same amount like a communist economic system does? What happened to each member negotiationg their own rate in the free market?

It sounds like they just want an entitlement for their own people while waging class warfare against the hotels.

[santamargarita]

20. Most Republicans skip out on the bill anyway - like the do on everything else.

:puke:

[LeftyMom]

21. They're just going to spend the savings on hookers and blow anyhow.

Either way the local economy benefits. :sarcasm:

[brentspeak]

22. Tough. A contract is a contract.

And if the GOP loves the free market so much, they'll accept whatever rates the local hotel market dictates for their convention.

[Vogon_Glory]

23. If The GOPsters Choose To Represent The One Percent, They Should Pay Similar Rates

If the GOPster delegates choose to represent the interests of the one percent over the ninety-nine percent, they should pay the same sorts of premium hotel rates that the one percent pays when they frequent their very fancy digs.

I hope that the Hillsborough County Hotel and Motel Association not only charges the rate the Rethuglies signed, but raises room prices.

[Gin Blossom]

24. Oooh, sounds like it's time for the magic of the "invisible hand"! nt

[DonCoquixote]

26. From A Tampa boy

who goes to downtown, first off, they expect us to put up $50 million in security. We are supposed to gte money from the feds, but keep in mind, this is the state that turned down high speed rail. So we are already looking at a real chance we will lose money AS IS.

As far as the geography, The Tampa convention center is on an island, with has a road, and a trolley on that road. Most of the Hotels are linked to that trolley (the same one the GOP wants to kill the funds for.) What that means is that All the Hotels in Tampa could very well grab the GOP by the (censored) because it would be very easy to choke off access to that center. Add to the fact that there will be a lot of GOP idiots driving their SUVs, and you will have chaos, completely regardless of whether Occupy Tampa is active.

Of course, if you make arrangements to be at the hotels closest to the center, than you can ride that trolley all over downtown and laugh at the idiots..did I mention this trolley goes right to the hotel door?, as well as to Ybor city, aka Bar central? You could get drunk as a skunk and NEVER have to drive.

BUT, I bring this up to show why the hotels have leverage. The choice of hotel can mean the difference between getting stuck in a madhouse, and not having to drive at ALL. That is why you make contracts, that is also why, if you break contracts, said hotels could charge a LOT more than 170 dollars a bloody room!

And let's not even get into what will face people who think they can commute from St. Petersburg or Orlando. They will learn first-hand that, even on a GOOD day, the commute in Central Florida is a nightmare of clogged traffic and lousy parking. Of course, the convention will not be a good day, and if they think that they can even find parking in half an hour, they are fools!

If I was a rich man, and this contract fell, imagine OWS getting rooms at the hotel, as they would have a tactical advantage over everyone else. They would not even have to park! Oh well, guess this is what happens when you worship the free market. But of course, we all know that free market means "rule by White Anglo Saxon protestant males who are rich."

[T_i_B]

27. Now this is a proper Hillborough Hotel!

It's not too far from Hillsborough stadium (home to the very mighty Sheffield Wednesday), has it's own brewery and is part of the famous Kelham Island pub crawl!

http://www.hillsborough-hotel.co.uk/

[glowing]

28. At my hotel in Clearwater, we have no contracts... We jacked the rates.

If all of Tampa is full of wing-nuts, then we will get people who can't or don't want to be in downtown Tampa that week.. As well as people coming in to sell vendor items and protest. I'm actually surprised the hotels didn't increase the rates by double like they would for a Super Bowl weekend... They are being extremely nice in contracting that low for their rooms... Especially in downtown where the hotels are located..

I'm actually surprised they would pick Tampa because of the space issues... They would have been better off going to Orlando.

[DonCoquixote]

30. Orlando

Orlando, for all the GOP that have come from there, is actually becoming more Blue, thanks to Puerto Ricans and Gays moving into there. Tampa can siphon a LOT of the Old Redneck vote, and the "I moved here because New Yawk wuz chargin too much taxes!" vote.

As far Clearwater, they are going to have a fun time going over the bay to Tampa. I bet the Scientologists will open up their hotels for business.

[DonCoquixote]

31. Also

It is apparent they wanted a town they could blackmail with this attempt to get cut rates..If they tried this to Orlando, well, do you really think Orlando would worry about empty hotel rooms?, not a chance. Plus nobody in Florida dares try to muscle Disney, even the GOP here in Florida are not so stupid as to make an enemy of Mickey Mouse. Tampa was picked because when she hosts the Super Bowl, she bends over and, well...gives the hosts whatever they want, and lets them stick the bill to her because it gives them the excuse to cut budgets (fire teachers and cops.)

[quakerboy]

29. Get it in writing

Its a contract. Get their release from the contract in writing. Then you can charge whatever you darn well feel like