³ Making Your Hotel Reservation: Arrangements have been made to secure adequate hotel rooms near the convention sites. Each year, we are happy to provide you with information on how you can make rooming arrangements for the convention, and we appreciate very much your cooperation and support. The local Rooming Department has prepared a Recommended Lodging List of hotels that are now ready to accept reservations. Please follow the instructions in this insert in the box entitled “Steps in Making Your Hotel Reservation.” Because of fire and safety regulations, you should arrange for no more than four persons in each room. If a particular hotel will permit more than four persons to a room, this will be clearly indicated on the Recommended Lodging List.

⁴ Hotels available for your convention appear on the first Recommended Lodging List. When these hotels are filled, a revised list of hotels will be sent to your congregation. We are asking that once you make a reservation, please keep that reservation. Do not switch your reservation to another hotel, even if one that is closer or more desirable appears on a later list. Additional hotels are added because there are brothers and sisters who still need rooms, not to provide more choices for those who already have rooms reserved. Following this direction gives us the opportunity to demonstrate our love for our Christian brothers.​—1 Cor. 10:24; 1 Tim. 6:8.

⁵ If you have called all the hotels on the list and no rooms are available, please inform your congregation secretary. He will contact the Rooming Department, using the address or telephone number shown at the top of each list. Frequently, hotels on the list will make additional rooms available closer to the time of the convention. When the Rooming Department has arranged this, these hotels will appear on a revised list. Please wait for the new list rather than make a reservation at a hotel not on the list.

⁶ Sending Deposits to Hotels: The only way to guarantee a room reservation is to make sure that the hotel receives your deposit. For each room reserved, a one-night deposit must be made within ten days of making your reservation. Without a deposit, the hotel has the right to give your room to someone else.

⁷ Handling Hotel Problems: If you experience a problem with a hotel at any time, the local Rooming Department wants to know about it in order to assist you. For any difficulties experienced before or after the convention, you may write or call the Rooming Department, using the address or telephone number shown at the top of the Recommended Lodging List. If a problem arises during the convention, you should go to the convention Rooming Department and bring the matter to their attention so that it can be resolved before you check out of the hotel.

⁸ Attending Another Convention: If you plan to attend a convention other than the one to which your congregation is assigned, the congregation secretary can provide you with the address of the convention headquarters for the convention you will be attending. When you write for rooming or other information, enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your request. If there is more than one convention held in that city, be sure to indicate the dates for the convention you will attend.

⁹ Caring for Those With Special Needs: Please be alert to the special needs of the elderly, the infirm, those in full-time service, or others in your congregation who may require assistance in attending the convention. Relatives, the elders, and others in the congregation who are aware of the unique circumstances of those with special needs can lovingly help them make the necessary arrangements.​—Compare 1 Timothy 5:4.

¹⁰ The Society’s Special Needs Room Request form outlines the qualifications for submitting this form. This provision is only for publishers in good standing, including those with well-behaved children, who have been approved by the Congregation Service Committee. These requests should be sent to the Rooming Department as soon as possible, using the convention address shown on the reverse side of the form.

¹¹ Expressing Appreciation: One Witness family wrote to the manager of the hotel where they stayed: “Your hotel was the best hotel our family has ever stayed at. The rooms were thoroughly cleaned and fully supplied with everything we could possibly have needed. We enjoyed such a pleasant weekend because of the cooperation of everyone at your hotel. We want to thank you for participating with the Watchtower Convention arrangements by providing us rates we could afford.” Are you also grateful for the many arrangements made in your behalf? The Society is pleased to provide comfortable, affordable accommodations during the convention period, allowing us all to focus on the spiritual benefits of the convention and the program.

¹² It is encouraging to hear the praise given to Jehovah’s name because of the fine conduct of our brothers and sisters at the conventions. A hotel worker said: “Your delegates are the finest people we have here.” Another commented: “We love taking reservations from your people. They are all polite and have the right information ready. And they are the easiest group to work with.” The manager of a restaurant said: “We enjoy having a group of people in town that we can be proud of.” The restaurant gave a 10-percent discount to any delegates wearing a convention lapel badge! And a hotel manager stated: “It has been a pleasure having your people in our hotel.” These expressions are a fine testimony from people on the outside. The good reputation we have gained glorifies Jehovah and makes him proud of us.​—1 Thess. 4:12; 1 Pet. 2:12.

¹³ We encourage you to make your arrangements now to attend all three days of the 1999 “God’s Prophetic Word” District Convention. We look forward with you to hearing the spiritual “joyful cry and thanksgiving” of those worshiping God as a united throng. (Ps. 42:4) May Jehovah bless all the arrangements being made for our continued spiritual enrichment!

Steps in Making Your Hotel Reservation

1. Call hotels during regular business hours (in January, if possible).

2. Inform the hotel that you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses attending the Watchtower Convention.

3. Provide the dates you will stay in the hotel.

4. Be sure that you are receiving the room rate(s) shown on the Recommended Lodging List. Do not accept a higher rate.

5. If rooms are not available, call another hotel on the list.

6. Make your reservation, and ask for a confirmation number.

7. Make your deposit by credit card, check, or money order. Do NOT send cash. If deposit is made by

Credit card: Instruct the hotel to charge the deposit to your card immediately.

Check or money order: Write the confirmation number on the front, and mail within ten days.

Also Please Observe:

◆ Stay only in hotels on the Recommended Lodging List.

◆ Reserve room(s) only for yourself or for people with whom you have made specific arrangements.

◆ Keep your first reservation.