District convention hotels

by YellowLab 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  YellowLab

  It's been a number of years since I've been to a district convention. Do they still have the preferred hotels list they distribute in January? I remember how some would purposely leave the hall early that night so they could get home and call in their reservations before everyone else. We had a big congregation so they filled up fast. Of course you'd never want to attend a non-approved hotel, otherwise you'd be disrespecting Jehovah's provision!

  Ah, the memories of leaving the hotel early in the morning to reserve seats. Don't forget to pick up a cheese or apple danish and a Shasta for breakfast while you're there! LOL

  YellowLab
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  cruzanheart

  Ah, yes, those were the days! I swear most people in the know (i.e., elders and their wives and friends) made the reservations BEFORE the announcement, because it seemed like no matter how early I called they were always filled up! One year we actually got in the primo hotel across the street from the convention center, and ended up on the Concierge floor because the original room they gave us was right next door to some very noisy renovations and we complained. Well, guess who was on the Concierge floor, which included a private elevator and daily breakfast? Several circuit and district overseers, as well as some of the more well-connected of the flock. I could tell quite a few of them were unpleasantly surprised to be sharing their floor with us peasants, but it couldn't be helped.

  Nina
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  RubaDub

  I always avoided them. I would try to get a place near the beach or something and not have to worry about what I'm wearing or doing. I know a lot of people feel the same way and just find excuses to get to another place.

  *****Rub a Dub
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  elumn8

  god sighs at the sight of your conventions; the love of these people are true from the outside of the cup, although dirty and disgusting the inside of it is. Your governing body has fallen asleep. For they are believed to be the last of the annointed but only because they wish it they are false. New ones will arrise, because of what the governing body has hid and shut the gates of heaven.
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  YellowLab

  cruzanheart, what city was your convention? That sounds a lot like our convention in Madison, WI. There was a Sheraton directly across the street from the convention center where the top floor was reserved for important people/large gatherings. One year the hotel lost our reservation so we got to stay up on that floor. Could only get to it by inserting a special key in the elevator. Kinda like luxury treatment during the convention!
• 

  RubaDub

  Elumn8

  Are your shorts too tight ?

  *****Rub a Dub
• 

  LB

  We stayed at approved hotels a couple of times. The last was when I went to pay and discovered that people off the street were getting the rooms cheaper than we were. That did it for me. I went to the brothers at the convention the next day to report it and they shook their heads. I did manage to get the cheaper rates but it was laughable.
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  Quotes

  <<Thoughts of Hotel Group Sales Coordinator>>

  Hhhhmmm large group, asking for a block at a lower rate.... their R&F will do exactly what the Mother ship tells them.... hhhmmmmm..... a captive audience that will rent the rooms at whatever rate.... hhhhhmmmm......

  Now speaking to WT drone making the "arrangements

  Yes, our regular room rate {which no one in the history of man has ever paid} is $299 per night. But if you reserve a block, the rate will be only $199 per night. That's a 33% saving off the official rate.

  Thinking to himself again

  Oh gosh, I hope they don't notice the huge neon sign on the front which says "$99 per night".... uh oh, I think he may be turning his head... time for a quick distraction...

  speaking to the Bethelite

  Hey, can you please tell me the meaning of life? I mean, what do you think God has in mind for mankind?

  Thinking to himself again

  Whew, it worked!!!! He'll be talking about his fantasy New World and his omnipresent yet always-absent Jahoobee for hours. Yippee!!!! I'm going to get a raise! I just booked an entire block at double the regular rate!

  2 months later at Service Meeting, the following letter is read:

  Brothers, it is important to only use the hotels on the list. A great deal of time and effort has gone into arrangeing special group rates. If you don't work with this system, in the future we won't be able to get the same GREAT RATES!
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  cruzanheart

  Yellow Lab, that convention was in beautiful downtown Ft. Worth, Texas, and I can't remember what type of hotel it was - might have been a Sheraton. The hotel was being greedy, actually desperate, that year because they'd had a tornado blow through downtown and damage many of their rooms but they were still trying to tell everyone they were back in business over the roar of jackhammers and saws.

  Nina
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  cruzanheart

  Okay, gang, I thought of another one. This goes 'way back to 1966, and it was the last time my mother ever used an "approved" list of hotels from the Society. She didn't trust their judgment. We got stuck in a boarding house on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, that was a real pigsty. I was allergic to tobacco smoke and dust at the time, and I got violently ill and had to be taken back home to St. Croix. The people in the boarding house (it was a SMALL boarding house) couldn't understand why the crazy white people stayed only one night and left, so a friend of ours tried to explain. Unfortunately, she didn't get her point across and left those people with the firm conviction that I smoked cigars, not that I was allergic to them! I was 10 years old. And, no, I didn't.

  Nina