The Hyatt Regency Montréal is the conference hotel of ooPSLA 2007. You will notice two things:
- It's really an expensive hotel (for Americans) these days
- There is some weird ooPSLA discount for staying there
A couple of years ago, ACM negotiated a deal with Hyatt and the Palais des congrès de Montréal: ooPSLA gets a discount on the convention center if we fill up a certain number of room-nights. And at the time of that negotiation, the exchange rate between the US and Canada was such that the (currently) high room rate was not so bad. But the exchange rate went bad.
However, the negotiated discount still holds. This means that if you—saving yourself some money—stay someplace else, and enough people do that, ooPSLA needs to pay a penalty. ACM requires us to not lose money, so that means that the penalty is built into the cost to you of ooPSLA. To be fair, though, if we just did that and you stayed at the Hyatt anyway, you would be paying twice, which wouldn't be fair. So we put in place a hotel discount: If you stay at the Hyatt, you get as a discount the penalty built into the ooPSLA fee structure.
A screw case is for people who live close enough to the convention center to stay at home. Why should you have to stay at a hotel? And if you wouldn't have to stay at a hotel, why would you have to pay the hotel penalty? Well, the penalty is not for you staying at another hotel, but for not staying at the conference hotel. Here's how I would approach it:
Romantic getaway. I've stayed at the hotel, and it's not bad. And it's near old Montréal, near the Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, and near Chinatown. I would take someone special (like a spouse) and stay there anyway. At least for a few nights. The discount covers some of the cost, and you get to be special—or you can pretend to be.
Anyhow, that's the story with the hotel. To get the discount, use the ooPSLA registration code G-CM18 when you book your hotel accommodations at Hyatt.com.
I'll be staying there, so maybe we can check...