by Frank Lin

NLGJA may not meet its contracted room-block obligations to the Hilton Washington, members of the executive board said Friday, putting the organization at risk of serious financial penalties.

NLGJA is obliged to sell a certain amount of room nights in the hotel in exchange for the free use of meeting halls and other convention-related benefits. Estimates compiled 2 1/2 weeks ago showed that NLGJA had sold significantly fewer room nights than the previously agreed upon number, according to the organization's executive director, David Barre.

"We're definitely slow on our numbers," Barre said.

NLGJA is still waiting for a final tally from the hotel, which may include convention attendees who booked a room through another service and have yet to be accounted for.

"People may not have used the NLGJA code when they were booking their rooms," Barre said. "There are many reasons why some rooms may not have been accounted for."

Remarks Barre made during Wednesday's executive board meeting placed the potential penalty in the "tens of thousands of dollars."

"We're waiting to see what the final bill looks like," Barre said. "It's still too soon to tell."

Any financial penalties would place a strain on the convention's budget, which is already not expected to generate enough revenue to cover its expenses.

"We didn't leave any room for fines or penalties in our budget," Barre said. "Ideally, we were hoping to break even."

The executive board is also hoping to renegotiate contracts it had signed last year with Hyatt Hotels and Resorts to hold the 2009 convention in Montreal, and the 2010 convention in San Francisco.

"These contracts were signed before I came on board," said Barre, who began as executive director last August. "Canceling them isn't really an option because of the heavy penalties that we would face."

Instead, Barre has had informal discussions with a representative of Hyatt Hotels to renegotiate the terms of their contract. For instance, Barre said the organization is considering moving next year's convention from Montreal to a U.S. city accessible by jetBlue Airways, a sponsoring partner of NLGJA's annual convention. Barre also hopes that the two-year contract with Hyatt could be revised so that NLGJA is not obligated to sell as many rooms.

"We don't want to overpromise and then not deliver," Barre said. "The number of room nights we've booked in Montreal next year is slightly lower than what we've booked here, but not by much."

According to David Steinberg, treasurer of the executive board, Hyatt Hotels was chosen for its reasonable room rates in San Francisco.

"When we booked the rooms in San Francisco over a year ago, the economy was in a different state," Steinberg said. "Most newspapers had not experienced as much downsizing."

As for how to resolve NLGJA's failure to meet its contractual obligations at the Hilton, Barre said he hoped to present alternative compensation plans to the hotel.

"I plan on talking to Hilton's corporate sales office and seeing what they say," Barre said.

When reached for comment, representatives from the Hilton Washington sales office deferred to the hotel's executive office. The executive office did not respond by press time.