Puttin’ On The Ritz

One of those quirks of meeting planning is that sometimes it is the most high-end places that give the biggest discounts for groups. This was especially true at the bottom of the downturn when higher-priced places were especially slow. It unfortunately creates the optical problem of non-profits meeting in nice hotels but makes sense in terms of saving money for NGOs.

This month there was just a meeting on school turnarounds in D.C., where educators from Texas came to work with the University of Virginia’s turnaround initiative.* The meeting was hosted at the Ritz Carlton in Washington, and the hotel deserves a mention for good corporate citizenship: On top of room rates far below the DC mean, they threw in a 10 percent donation to DC Boys Town.

*Though not on the event mentioned here, an organization BW does work with.