Booking your reservation outside of the hotel room block via Internet travel sites or “shopping” for lower rates at nearby hotels has a long-term negative impact on the 2026 SHIFT Conference. Hotels place financial penalties on organizations for each room not used within their negotiated block of rooms thus making it harder for us to negotiate lower rates for our attendees in the future, which we are committed to doing. By filling the block of reduced rate rooms that we have negotiated, we are able to meet our contracted hotel obligations to avoid any financial penalties to the organization and we are able to use this history as a strong negotiation tool to keep our rates for attendees low year after year. We appreciate your support of Shift Work Forward by booking hotel rooms within our official block.