Hotels in Phoenix

["Barbara Benson" <bbenson@delta.uwindsor.ca>]

Hello - Did I get a shock today.  I faxed a hotel reservation request 
last week for the 4 C's conf. and was told that I should phone this 
week to confirm a hotel and room rate for my advance request.  (Iknew 
already that it would be impossible to get out of Phoenix back to 
Detroit on Sunday and would need to wait until Monday.)  But I didn;t 
know that hotels were booked solid and that they could only find 
rooms in the Holiday Inn-Airport at a rate of $139.00 + the 10.065 
room tax !! which is way over our travel policy limit for hotel 
accommodations.  I asked him if that was a conference rate and he 
said the hotels are being very independent because they know 
everything is booked.  He is going to put me on a waiting list in 
case of cancellations but he told me that there are probably 15 or 
more ahead of me.  This is turning into a mighty pricey proposition!  
Does anyone know anything about this or are there any ways around it?
Thanks.  Barb