Let's Get Real, was: PTG Needs The Money

[Wimblees@aol.com]

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In a message dated 3/13/03 5:33:13 PM Central Standard Time, 
Pianorebuilding@aol.com writes:

> Don't know where you're coming from.  The PTG, by their own admission has 
> not 
> been getting deals by taking the worst booking dates of the year.  Nolan 
> printed it in one of his messages.  At Reno, techs were getting 40% lower 
> room rates walking in off the street and not letting the hotel know they 
> were 
> PTG.  The PTG registrants paid more.  In July, Vegas and Reno practically 
> give hotel rooms away to get the business.  The PTG got the royal runaround 
> 
> in Chicago.  Do you remember the Yamaha party room was cut in half just 
> prior 
> to the event so it could be rented to a wedding party.  Yamaha spent all 
> that 
> money and we were crammed in there like sardines.  We didn't get any deal 
> in 
> Chicago.  Now, those are facts.  We shouldn't be arguing about facts.
> 
> It's easy to blame everything on the prior boards and presidents.  The last 
> 
> several boards have done that.  We elected the currrent group to correct 
> problems, not make them worse.  Loyalty to the PTG is great.  We all need 
> to 
> support our own organization.  But blind loyalty is another matter, and we 
> certainly shouldn't be enabling the kind of decisions that are making it 
> harder for some of us to attend, and turning off the support of our 
> suppliers 
> and exhibitors.  Still haven't heard any defense for that.
> Bill
> 
> 

Bill

You really don't have any idea of what your talking about. The PTG signs a 
contract for how much space it needs, and what the room rates will be. The 
hotel has to stick to the contract as much as the PTG does. But hotels have a 
lot more leverage than the PTG. One thing you have to understand, we are a 
very small organization, compared to other groups that come into a hotel. 
Because of the way we operate, we demand all of the meeting rooms, but we do 
not occupy all the sleeping rooms. So while we want a lot, we don't give much 
in return. So if the hotel can sell space to someone with more money, they'll 
do it. 

The PTG got screwed in Reno. And we got doubly screwed in Chicago. But you 
think we just let that happen without saying anything? You have no idea what 
the Board and the institute committee did behind the scenes to get things 
resolved. We did get some concessions, by not being charged for some things 
we should have paid for. But that didn't help the space problems at the time. 
The hotel basically put it to us, BIG TIME. But it would have been much worse 
if Alan and Nolan hadn't worked very hard to get what we did. And for what 
it's worth, something else you probably don't know, is that the hotel in 
Chicago and Dallas are owned by the same firm. We (The Board and the home 
office), tried VERY HARD, to work out some sort of deal to get Dallas to 
change the dates, as compensation for screwing us in Chicago. All we could do 
is try. But the hotel decided we weren't big time enough to cave in to our 
demands. 

I would suggest that before you complain more, that you volunteer to run a 
weekend seminar for your chapter. Then maybe you'll have a little more 
respect for the people who work behind the scenes, and the PTG.

Wim 

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