BEWARE of the newly designed Early Departure Fee in hotel contracts which state that if any of your guests depart prior to their scheduled departure date a fee equal to the room rate will be added to your master bill, or to be paid by the early departing guests on his/her credit card.

I Don’t Like This One At All!  How can one guarantee that a family emergency may force you to depart prior to the scheduled group departure date, or for any other number of reasons.

My knowledge and background in hotel contract negotiations has taught me that this new clause is vague and not beneficial to your meeting budget.
Therefore, I recommend asking the hotel to delete it from the contract.

I have learned over the years in hospitality contract law classes that contracts cannot be vague and I believe that trying to enforce an Early Departure Fee is vague in that you can’t guarantee that a guest may have to depart early due to unforeseen circumstances.