Alumni Events for AAOS

[Amber Cox]

Anyone else having trouble with reimbursements, etc. from the hotels where their Alumni events were supposed to take place during AAOS? The Hilton has been less than accommodating with this process.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I booked our Alumni event at the Hyatt and they are charging us $2000.00 cancellation fee and they have not been accommodating and in fact, rather rude & nasty.

[Courtney Matlach]

Our event was booked at Rosen Centre. I reached out to my contact yesterday and all she could say was they are working out the details and she would be in touch soon. All we had paid so far was the deposit and final payment was due next week. We are hoping to only have to forfeit the deposit.

[Deidre Macklen]

Yes, the Hilton charged us a cancellation fee as well. We are very frustrated because this was beyond our control – not a good business practice.

[Amber Cox]

We plan to bring this up to AAOS since we have to go through them to book a room for our functions every year. If everyone is having the same issues it might be a good idea to reach out to them as well. Here is the contact information for the person who confirmed our meeting spaces this year.

Justin Clark EMAIL: clark@aaos.org
Meetings Coordinator | Integrated Operations
p. (847) 384-4177 | f. (847) 268-9677
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
9400 West Higgins Road | Rosemont, IL 60018

[Jennifer Francis]

Yes, Hilton charged us as well 75% Cancellation Fee. I even called the Hilton Guest Assistance and they said it is up to the hotel that we should speak with the manager and guest assistance only handle room reservations not banquet event orders.

[Anonymous]

I booked at Double Tree SeaWorld and was told I needed to contact the AAOS Housing Coordinator. Double Tree is not able to cancel my reservation due to restrictions from AAOS, as we are required to book housing through them. Double Tree was unable to give me the name of the AAOS Housing Coordinator. Still trying to find out who to contact to get a refund, but it looks like that may not happen.

[Rhonda B Smith]

My hotel is giving me the run around as well so I thought I would try the email address that someone else posted for the AAOS housing. They promptly replied as follows (notice the “please don’t contact us in the last line!):

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us about the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon’s 2020 Annual Meeting. As you’re aware, the Academy Board of Directors made the difficult decision to cancel the
2020 Annual Meeting scheduled for March 24-28, 2020 at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center.
Our team, like many of you, had been eagerly anticipating and preparing for this year’s meeting. But, the ongoing spread of coronavirus has been a serious concern for us all, and its implications have substantially affected the logistics of the meeting.
We are working with the Academy’s Annual Meeting hotel partners to cancel each AAOS reservation.
Within the next two weeks, you will receive a refund for your deposit.
Please know that it may take your
financial institute three to five business days to post the refund to your account.
The good news is that there is no further action on your part. We thank you for your commitment to AAOS and look forward to seeing you at AAOS 2021! Please visit http://www.AAOS.org/annualmeeting for regular updates.
If you have further questions or concerns, please don’t contact us Our operation hours are Monday- Friday 8am-5pm CST.

[Anonymous]

All of the instructions I have seen say you must contact the hotels directly. My room was at the Rosen Plaza and I canceled it yesterday with no problem. They also told me they were in the process of canceling all rooms for AAOS.

My alumni event was there also and they reached out to me to make sure we were canceling our event. I just received this email from my contact there:

“Rosen Hotels and Resorts is working with everyone to manage the cancellation fees associated with this disappointing occurrence. At this time our contract places your obligation at 100% of your estimated food and beverage and meeting room rental charges. While the loss of revenues is significant for our organization and our associates are deeply impacted, in good faith, we have come to the decision to waive the cancellation fees with the hopes that you will continue to patronize our company and our city.”

This was completely unexpected as I thought we would, at the very least, forfeit our deposit.

[Anonymous]

In regard to the hotel reservations, I was told by MCI (the group that handled hotel reservations for the AAOS) that you need to call the hotel to get a cancellation number. You can then e-mail them at: aaos@mcievents.com. They need the following information: 1. cancellation number 2. Record ID: 3. name on reservation 4. Date of check-in. You can also call them with the information at: 1-800-931-6026 or 1-972-349-5558.

[Monica Welsh]

Our alumni event was scheduled at Top Golf in Orlando. They suggested using Top Golf in San Diego for next year’s alumni event. My deposit would have gone towards that event. Unfortunately, there isn’t a TopGolf in San Diego so I’ll have to forfeit the deposit of $1684. 🙁

[Anonymous]

I had a room reserved at Rosen hotel as well and had no problems canceling and getting my deposit back even though it may take up to 60 days to appear as credit on my credit card. Hilton is not making a good business decision considering how many people the forum will reach. I will definitely not do business with them based on what I have read here.

[Michelle Auger]

I just cancelled at the DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando at SeaWorld and this is their message.

Unfortunately, at this time we are still honoring our contractual cancellation policy. With that being said the total amount due would be $1,500.00, We are however honoring this cancellation as a credit for a future event booked by the end of 2020.

[Laurel Lewis]

Re: Sally’s Post
To cancel my room at the Rosen Hotel, I followed the same protocol that you did and had no problems: Call the hotel, get cancellation number, call the AAOS 800#, give them the cancellation number to receive my one night hold for the room. Not sure when I will get it but I cannot imagine what a disaster it is in Orlando as they have had other conferences cancel, as well.
I am lucky not to have an Alumni Event to cancel so best wishes to you all on that issue.
~Laurel

[Tammy L. Smith, C-TAGME]

I had the Hyatt Regency Orlando booked. They had the audacity to email me today to say they are charging the card on file an additional $500.00 to meet their minimum since I cancelled. My solution? I cancelled the credit card! At least they got 500 less!

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