I ran into this in Orlando, too. They did say they would refund the deposit if I canceled within a certain time frame before the conference, but the risk I suppose is that there might be some snafu and then you would wind up hassling with the hotel at long-distance rates to get your money back. IAC, I chose not to do it.

My guess is that hotels probably get a lot of last-minute cancellations from people who have signed up for conferences, and they're simply trying to hedge their bets and not wind up with a bunch of empty rooms on conference day. I share your sentiments but there's probably nothing to do but grin and bear it.

So, are you going to Palm Springs??

>set vent on
>
>I made a reservation last June at the La Quinta Palm Springs Resort Hotel in California for the next VFP DevCon. At the time of my reservation, I was not informed of the requirement of a deposit that was billed to my credit card for the amount of $127 (one night's rate). I have never in my life been required to front any hotel (resort or otherwise) an interest free loan for 10 months. This is absolutely shameful.
>
>I have stayed at the Conference hotels for 2 of the last 3 DevCons, and they never hit me with a deposit.
>
>I have always slammed Advisor and the organizors for always selecting these high dollar resort areas for the conferences, but this is absolutely ridiculous to select a hotel that requires a deposit to hold a reservation. If they receive reservation for 500 rooms, this amounts to a $63,500 interest free loan to La Quinta.
>
>I went to www.laquinta.com and fired off a respectable complaint about this practice. I plan to do the same with Advisor and whoever else. I hope many of you will do the same if it is happening to you. I called the Hotel and the Conference hotline to complain, but all those weasels would say was there was nothing they could do about it, or in the case of the hotel, it was their standard policy.
>
>What a crock of farm animal leavings!
>
>Signed,
>
>Livid in Dallas
>
>set vent off