Louisiana Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators

Site Selection Report

March 9, 2007

The Site Selection Committee has evaluated hotel sites for the 2008 LASFAA Spring Conference and the 2008 LASFAA Fall Conference. The following options are being considered for these conferences:

2008 LASFAA Spring Conference, March 19-20, 2008

Alexandria, Louisiana

Best Western Inn & Suites

2720 W. MacArthur Drive

Pros

-Room Rate is $73 for King/Doubles (additional $10 charge per person over two occupants)

-Room Rate is $87 for Deluxe 2 room suites

-Free Hot Continental Breakfast for in house guests

-$300 room rental fee

-Airport shuttle at no charge

Cons

-The suites are the nicest rooms available at a reasonable price but there are only 50 available and the other rooms aren’t as nice.

-There were a lot of complaints when the Fall Conference was held several years ago about the sleeping rooms. The majority of them haven’t been updated since then.

-The meeting space is tight for our size group.

Holiday Inn Convention Centre

701 4th Street

Pros

-Room Rate is $70 for single or double occupancy

-Complimentary Hospitality Room

-Complimentary room per every 50 rooms booked

-Meeting space rental is on a sliding scale based on food consumption(should range from $0 - $500).

-Meeting space is tight but has better flow than Best Western

-Rooms recently renovated this year.

Cons

-Not as nice of a hotel as we usually book for conferences.

Committee Recommendation:

Based on pricing, location, and meeting space logistics, we recommend the Holiday Inn Convention Centre.

2008 LASFAA Fall Conference

Baton Rouge, LA

As was reported at the October 2007 Board meeting, three hotels, Baton RougeCapitalCenter, Marriott Baton Rouge, and the Sheraton Baton Rouge were contacted at that time to determine feasibility of hosting the conference. After reviewing the proposal from the Baton RougeHiltonCapitalCenter, it was determined that they could not accommodate the size of our conference related to meeting space and room rate. We were then considering the Marriott Baton Rouge and the Sheraton Baton Rouge.

Since then, I visited with another hotel, The Holiday Inn Select Executive Center, formerly the Radisson Hotel (we had a previous conference there) to provide the board a comparison of three hotels that could accommodate our conference. Attached is a side-by-side comparison of key features of our conference to consider for each hotel.

Based on pricing, location, and meeting space logistics, we recommend the Holiday Inn Select.

Respectfully submitted by:Johanna Miller, Chair, Capital One Bank

Judith Vidrine, Co-Chair, Sallie Mae

Paige Hendricks, edamerica