Saturday, April 05, 2008
Media worried about Denver hotel availabilty
WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com
The media is getting antsy about the allocation of hotels to the 2008 Democratic National Convention:
Some say Denver is risking a barrage of grumpy press reports during the Democratic National Convention if it can’t find more hotel rooms for the folks who buy ink by the barrel. With more than four months until the August convention, some of the country’s biggest news outlets have yet to secure temporary barracks for the armies they’re sending to cover the conclusion of this year’s dramatic presidential primary.
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Some media logistic planners have gone into panic mode lately after the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) notified them that they might get only a fraction of the rooms they have requested.”…Some national television networks and The Associated Press, have reserved big blocks of hotel rooms on their own. But other outlets, including The New York Times, USA Today, Reuters and others, have requested dozens of hotel rooms via the DNCC. So far they’ve been allotted only a fraction of the rooms, various sources said.
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Theoretically, there are another 25,000 hotel rooms in the six-county metro area. However, as of this week, many hotels reported being booked solid for convention week, and even some low-budget facilities were advertising New York-style prices. For example, the travel site Expedia.com listed the modest Budget Host Inn near Six Flags Elitch Gardens, which currently costs $65 per night, for $429 per night the last week of August. A hotel manager … said owners had not decided whether to be open or proceed with a planned renovation that week.
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Richard Sharf, president and chief executive officer for the Denver Metro Convention…..speculated that DNCC officials were holding extra rooms until they find out whether they need space for the Florida and Michigan delegations, or for either one or two top candidates after the last primaries in June. – Rocky Mountain News
A couple of things stand out: First, when initial hotel allocations were done, the DNCC did not expect two active candidates at the convention, which is causing higher demand for hotel rooms. Second, what’s up with a hotel planning renovations the week of the convention? Talk about missing an opportunity!
Posted by Matt at 1:38 PM 
There is also a local gaming convention (Tacticon) that normally runs that weekend in Denver (I live about 30 minutes west of Denver and normally hit that convention with my business). They may have some hotel rooms currently reserved although last I heard they were planning on changing the date for this year since the hotel situation is so screwy. If they do have a room block reserved, it is normally in the 200-300 room range and freeing it up may offer some more room availability on one of the hotels that is immediately adjacent to I-25 (major highway running through the middle of Denver).
Aside from that, the issue is that most of the hotels fairly close to the convention are full. If the media had transportation of their own of some sort they’d have no problem getting rooms within a 20 minute drive as there are a multitude of hotels situated right along the two major highways that go through Denver (I-70 and I-25).
BTW, been lurking here for quite a while, thanks for the blog, I use it as a general reference and have recommended it to quite a few others.
Tom…
Using the “Motel 6 Rule”, there are still rates available at the normal rack rate near the airport, in Fort Lupton, and in Greeley. All of the others have declared themselves “unavailable”. For the RNC, you have rack rate rooms in Roseville, 8 miles from St. Paul, and no other locations accepting reservations.
Tacticon is labor day weekend…starting the Friday before instead of the usual Thursday…if folks still need rooms a week after the convention…not much you can do.
With worldcon being down town at the beginning of August…it’s going to be a full summer.