arly in August, IAPD President Deborah Ragsdale, Vice President Peter DelGado and I sent letters to IAPD member company leaders, key contacts and convention exhibitors communicating the process of contracting with hotels for large events, the legal and financial risks the association takes, the benefits of staying in the room block and how they can help. I am now sharing this message with you.

The great benefits of staying in IAPD’s hotel room blocks remain the same.

IAPD works hard to give our convention attendees an excellent experience at the IAPD Annual Convention. Each year, we commit to a certain number of room nights when contracting with the hotel. Doing so, ensures you and your team have ample time to secure your room reservations before those rooms become available for sale to the public at the current going rates.

The benefits include:

• Better hotel rates
• Easy access to convention attendees for maximized networking and easy access to meetings
• Helps IAPD to better predict and plan for future years’ hotel room blocks so we can provide the best event experience for attendees (see below)

If you have been part of IAPD for some time, or participate in other associations or industry trade shows, you may have experienced a hotel room block selling out, preventing you from securing a room. Attending that convention or show becomes inconvenient and networking becomes more difficult as you now have to travel back and forth between the venue and your off-site hotel, spending extra time and money to do so.

The Risk IAPD Takes

Many are not aware of the risk IAPD takes on when it contracts a hotel for a convention. It is even greater since the pandemic, as the hotels suffered greatly during the pandemic. In fact, many hotels never reopened after the pandemic. Those that did, now require associations like IAPD to pay nearly the entire cost of the convention, in payments, starting a year in advance of the meeting. Previously, the association paid the bill 30 days after the event. Now, if there are issues that create disputes with rooms or service, it is near impossible for the association to get its money back after the event.

IAPD is approximately a US$3 million not-for-profit trade association (about the size of a single distribution branch location) and signs US$500,000+ contracts with hotels that consist of food and beverage minimums and meeting room rentals, as well as guarantees on attendee hotel room nights. We guarantee certain spending amounts for each of these categories. These contracts must be signed several years in advance and rely on data and patterns to predict attendance (all these patterns have changed since the pandemic).

Each annual convention and hotel contract comes with financial risk for IAPD:

• IAPD must meet 80% of its committed hotel room block and if it does not, it pays the difference to the hotel (IAPD paid $13,500 in hotel attrition fees for the 2022 IAPD Annual Convention in Tampa, FL, USA).
• When IAPD convention delegates choose to stay at a different hotel, cancel or shorten their stays without advance notice to IAPD; IAPD is then charged for the hotel rooms if the number of rooms filled drops below 80% of the hotel room block. Aside from the fees IAPD must pay to the hotel, IAPD delegates staying off property or shortening their stays may lead to IAPD not being able to contract the same number of room nights at future IAPD conventions. Therefore, attendees may not be able to secure their reservation at the designated convention hotel due to limited availability in the future.

The Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. IAPD Convention delegates will receive a special room rate of US$269 per night for a single/double room. You must book your room by Monday, September 25, 2023, to receive this special rate. After September 25, the room block will close, and the room rate will increase to the going rate.

Thank you in advance for booking your stay at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. Please continue to do so and encourage others to do the same. The hotel room block is already 64% reserved (compared to 27% this time last year!) and we are months away from the October convention. So, reserve your rooms now, register early for the convention and, as soon as you know your exact travel plans, let the hotel know to release the rooms nights you won’t use so we have an accurate count leading into the convention and others can secure their rooms. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s IAPD Annual Convention + connecX!