No Vacancy

A couple of years ago, Jeremy Figoten had no problem finding first-choice hotel rooms for his association's 5,000-attendee annual meeting. Times have definitely changed. “In the past, hotels would try to work with us,” explains Figoten, director of meetings and expositions at the National Apartment Association, Alexandria, Va. “Now they say: ‘You want most of our meeting space but [only] about half or three quarters of our rooms? We'll pass because we can get a piece of business where we can