Vendors used to require a guaranteed head count two weeks ahead of the event.  With harder economic times, they have become less lax on letting us slide and are now usually requiring it a month ahead for most.  ICOM is still only requiring 2 weeks notice of cancellation and then charging only half of our cancellation costs.  

In the case of hotel rooms, we have blocked a certain number of rooms to accommodate everyone.  We have to do this as much as a year in advance in some cases.  We can reduce that number by a certain percentage but only up until 30 days before the start of the meeting.  This is standard hotel policy for group bookings.  Cancelling at the last minute means that ICOM pays for your room even though you did not use it.  The hotel charges us for each room we have blocked whether we fill it or not because they have taken that room out of their inventory and not sold it to someone else or to another group while it was reserved.  We also pay the hotel for all of the food and beverage consumed there.  This is based on a guarantee from the registrations as well.  

Restaurants order their food from their suppliers at least 30 days ahead so for a group they need to know how many people they need to order food for and how much wait staff they need to schedule, which they also do a month ahead of time.  So when we give the guarantee to the restaurants two weeks ahead, we will pay for that many meals whether the meal is eaten or not.

Please be mindful that cancelling at the last minute is not as simple as if you were to cancel a hotel room you booked for yourself where you can cancel with 24 hours notice or a restaurant reservation for two.  Because everyone involved; hotels, restaurants, bus companies, etc., have their own planning to do to accommodate us, they require advance guarantees of people.  If 10 people cancel two days before the meeting (and that has happened), that’s 10 meals every restaurant planned and ordered food for from their suppliers 30 days in advance for example. That’s a lot of uneaten food and beverage that the restaurant has paid their suppliers for and already had delivered. They are going to pass that cost on to ICOM.  That’s why we have to charge at least 50% for late cancellations as it’s not fair for the members who attend the meeting to absorb those costs to pay for the ones that weren’t.

This policy also helps to recuperate some of the costs to the host agency for producing any gift bags they may have put together that were left over due to cancellations.

You will find this cancellation policy stated in the ICOM Policies and the ICOM ByLaws, as well as on the payment and verification form of the meeting registration site.