If your department plans multiple meetings and/or events annually, consider using one hotel or a specific hotel chain and negotiate the rates as one entity to obtain lower room rates. To avoid costly attrition penalties that may be in the contract, be conservative in your estimation of the total rooms required. For example, at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, the university, as a whole, utilizes only 70% of the initial inventory room block so, when signing agreements, you may be better served by requesting 30% less rooms than what you think you may need.
