news to me

by truthseeker1969 13 Replies latest jw experiences

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  truthseeker1969

  I just heard this within the last day.

  I had no clue that the society had a travel agancy within its offices!

  Anyhoo, in the area I live they called numerous hotels for deals for the convention and the GM whom I know through friends told me that they play hardball in getting the maximum commission possible for refering people. He said the average is about 10 to 15 percent of the room cost. The society apparently wanted to block 30 rooms for the people (block ) and have them book through the society at the "special convention rate" and then have the hotel put in a non-disclosure rate policy with no receipt at check out, pretty much the way expedia etc do it.

  He arranged for a $89.00 rate per night but refused their demand for 25 percent booking fee.

  He discovered that the rank and file were being charged 109.00 per night after someone called to book saying they missed the block arrangment and wondered if the "could get the special 109.00 rate being offered". So not only were they wanting 22.50 per room commission they were also getting a 20 dollar per room rip off fee.

  He said that the society are well known for this and for demanding they get what they want or they go else where. He told his staff to ask the guests how they got the 'special deal of 89.00" as a way of getting round the non receipt disclosure policy. Most of them were furious and he did get a call asking who told them the rate etc.

  I just wonder how many other companies are being ripped off like this and how many rank and file know what is going on.

  I know as fact in 1986 a circuit assembly was being held locally where I lived and for the two days it cost 2500.00 and in 1987 it was 2760.00 and the society said it was too much and went to other places for the dates. It ended up that nowhere else would house them for the amount they wanted to pay and the had to book a hall with a seating capacity of 4000 for a cicuit with 1100 people, cost 3230.00 for the two days.

  It was miles further from the other place and there were constant reminders of "how much it cost the society to put this assembly on"

  Anyone else hear of other examples?
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  Broken Promises

  So ppl are calling Bethel to make booking arrangements and paying them for the rooms?

  I haven't heard of that before. We used to call the motel directly.
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  clearpoison

  There is actually no news here. Any decent conference arranger would just do this very same.

  CP
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  WTWizard

  No wonder the witlesses are told to book directly from the list, and not go online or use hotels not on the list. If you were to go online, you would probably be able to get a better deal on a motel (that is probably in better condition) than you could through the Washtowel Slaveholdery. Of course, it would still be a waste of whatever you still had to spend.
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  DaCheech

  I remember having an assembly in Canada and having to book a hotel.

  we had to travel 1hr. from the hotel to the assembly. what a waste of our time.

  no wonder they're rich.

  I haven't felt guilty about not donating a penny in their contribution boxes for close to a decade!
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  outsmartthesystem

  I recall many years ago throwing out the hint to a group of witness "friends" that the society gained some sort of over-ride commission on our hotel costs......otherwise.....why would they insist that we only stay at the hotels on the list? I was met with looks of amazement and disgust. Most witnesses think such a scenario is an impossibility. The funny thing is.....even if it was proven that the society was in fact skimming an over-ride commission off of each booking, all the sheeple would defend them by saying...."there's nothing WRONG with it....besides....we got a good deal on the room".

  remember witnesses - first deny. If that fails....come up with a way to justify why the action is ok
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  3dogs1husband

  this makes sooooooooo much sense....ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
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  ex360shipper

  This doesn't make sense, don't the JW's call the hotel directly from the list and pay the hotel when they leave? Thats how we always did it.
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  watson

  They should just do a satelite feed to the K Halls, and charge admission. Would just have to do one Convention presentation in each major time zone/continent. They would have real control over the content too!

  I'd gladly pay the entrance fee to avoid having to leave my home/bed and travel to some distant metropolis, go out to eat, fight traffic etc.
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  clearpoison

  Even though the arrangement would be based on direct booking and direct payment with listed hotel, the hotel needs to pay comission, sales incentive, whatever you want to call it, to organizing party, just to get to the list. Part of the agreed comissions can be collected in form of free rooms or other services in hotel.

  That above described method of using central booking source for bookings, pre-charging the rooms and actually having lower net-net price level with the hotel is regular method used by many hotel aggregators.

  All these are very common practises in business when we are talking about conference hotel booking arrangements or allotment based hotel room procurement.

  CP