Looks like the $119 rate on the web site requires prepayment of the full room charge. The AAA rate doesn't.
Those prepay non-refundable hotel reservations are a new thing in the travel business (I worked in travel for 7years). I first ran into them when booking my trip to WV in September. The catch is that the ENTIRE STAY is non refundable if you have to cancel, not the one night which has been the norm. I'd recommend against taking that chance,myself.
And FYI either the rates on Marriot's site have changed, or John in NC checked differnt day combinations than I did. AAA's site gave me a quote of $129/night for a week's stay, which is what we want so I can play native guide for the out of town gang.
A FYI to anyone else who wants to book extra days for tourism in NYC: They told me that the con had blocked the 10th-20th, but the only nights still avaliable at con rate were the 13-17th, or Thursday thru Monday. They claimed the only rate avaliable for the remaining nights was the NONREFUNDABLE $159/night.
Oh and another fact people who have never attended a con in this area need to know is the NON avaliability of outside restaurants unless you have a car. I've been general dogsbody or committee on a number of cons which used both the Holiday Inns and the Ramada at this airport, so I know for a fact that food outside of the hotels is NOT walkable. What we did at Eclecticon was include in the hotel contract that they would take people to the airport for food runs, but its anyone's guess whether this hotel will be that accomodating.
Jeannie
