Dates and Location and Attrition

Hello everyone:

This year's Championships will occur on November 13, 14 and 15 2009 at the Sheraton On The Falls Hotel in Niagara Falls, ON. This is the same hotel that was used for the 2008 event and many events prior.

Our venue was secured on July 23rd, 2009; much later than usual, due to a complicated negotiation process. One may assume that a hotel in a recession would make a stronger effort to secure business, but sadly, that wasn't the case.

The primary area of delay was not about profit for us but for fear of losing money due to attrition charges.

In 2008, our organization stood to lose a considerable amount of money (over $15,000) due to attrition charges. Attrition charges occur when we don't meet the guestroom quota agreed upon in the contract.

In order to get the ballrooms at a (heavily) discounted rate, we must guarantee so many roomstays over the weekend - particularly on the Saturday night. I don't recall exact figures, but if we were going to be below (I think) 75% then we would have had to pay a bill of about $80,000.

We were near 90% with two weeks to go but for whatever reason, many people cancelled their bookings in the final week and we fell to about 77% (c. $18,000 penalty). We managed to get the hotel to credit us for Oireachtas families who stayed there but didn't book within the block and that helped a bit more. Still, we paid a bigger than expected rent for the ballrooms and an unexpected attrition fee for our un-met contract. We can't afford to do that each year, obviously. We try hard to not have to raise fees even though our costs go up each year.

As a note of information, the Western Canadian region hosted a National Championship in Vancouver but lost so much money in attrition charges that it ruined their association and they subsequently dropped out of the rotation for hosting that event. Eastern Canada is the next smallest region and we don't want the same to happen to us. The last Florida nationals had the same thing happen to them which is why they have a new fee structure for 2010, but I am not here to discuss their decisions...

Due to last minute cancellations last year, we had no choice but to go with a one-night non-refundable clause for all bookings this year. Not expecting a surge or drop in entries, we assume the competition sizes will be about the same, so the schedule will remain as it was in 2008. This assumption will help everyone plan better. We realise that no one has or wants to risk losing this deposit should something occur, but in trying to plan an event, we need security of knowing you will support it.

In response to requests to seek out less expensive hotels, remember that they come with fewer facilities that we otherwise take for granted. We are looking at proposals for Windsor, Collingwood, Ottawa and Montreal for the coming years. There is interest and opposition from dance families for every one of those choices already. The GTA is often mentioned as a possible choice since it is fairly local for the majority of the region, but that is the exact reason why we can't have the event in the GTA (unless it is heavily sponsored). If people don't stay in the hotel because they live so close by, then we don't get a discount on the ballrooms.

So in closing, we hope you will understand our position and make the best choice possible.

See you at the O,

Ryan Carroll,
on behalf of the Executive committee of the Irish Dance Teachers Association of Eastern Canada