Reply to complaints about USENIX accomodations

[utzoo!decvax!wivax!dyer]

I forwarded the complaints about USENIX arrangements to Suzanne Macnary,
and she replied to the particular individuals who wrote.  However, I
think her reply will be of interest to all on net.usenix, so here 'tis:


>From smacnary at BBN-UNIX Mon Jun 21 20:17:37 1982
Via: decvax!ucbvax
Date: 21 Jun 1982 15:17:44 EDT (Monday)
From: Suzanne Macnary <smacnary at BBN-UNIX>
To: decvax!wivax!dyer at Berkeley

Hello,

I am the USENIX Conference Coordinator working in conjunction with Rogal
Boston on the summer UNIX* Users Conference.

In answer to your message, I'd like to let you know some of the reasons that
hotel accomodations have been handled the way they have.  There are several.

  - The only hotels in the Boston area that were willing to give us a block
    of rooms were the Copley Plaza and the Sheraton Boston.  This is an 
    extremely busy time in Boston and we felt it was important to be sure of
    confirmed accomodations for conference attendees.

  - Room registration in Santa Monica was handled directly by the hotels 
    through the Chamber of Commerce. The people in charge of that conference
    found this situation confusing in terms of too many people handling too
    many different things. A lot of people were unsure of how to get a room,
    and were disappointed at not being able to stay at Conference headquarters.
    It was recommended that we try to limit the number of hotels in Boston, and
    also that we try to reserve blocks of rooms in advance, which we did.

  - In researching other hotels in the immediate area, I found the prices to
    be approximently the same, and some even more expensive. (For example,
    the  Howard Johnson's 57 costs $80 for a single, $90
    for a double). The Hotel Essex, which you mentioned as costing $35 is
    a fair distance from the Copley and the Sheraton, which can be viewed as
    an inconvienience.  It is also in a less desirable area.

I personally have not received many calls about alternative hotels, but am
more than glad to give out a list to anyone who is interested. 


Sincerely,

Suzanne MacNary