World Social Science Association
Formerly the Western Social Science Association
Scholarship, Service, Collegiality
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Conference Hotel
Hotel Information
Tempe Mission Palms
East 5th Street
Tempe, AZ 85281
United States
Click here to go to the webpage that the hotel has set up specifically for room reservations for persons attending the WSSA conference. (If you phone for reservations, instead of making them online, you must ask for the Western Social Science, or WSSA, conference rate; if you do not ask, you will be charged the regular rate).
The last day to reserve a room at the conference rate is March 21, 2023. After the "last day", the regular rate, which will be quite a bit more at that point, will be charged.
Conference guestroom rates
Single: $209.00 USD per night
Double: $209.00 USD per night
All room rates are subject to the state and local taxes in effect at the time of check-out. As of July 2020, those taxes equalled as additional 14.75% of the room rates.
Because all nearby hotels are fully booked, due to several other large events taking place in Tempe at the same time, the hotel expects that there will be persons unconnected with WSSA in any way who will attempt to "steal" some of the rooms from the WSSA block of rooms. Therefore we urge you to make your reservations as early as possible, to ensure that there will be enough rooms for all of our attendees.
PHX Sky Train to the Valley Metro Light Rail
Take the free PHX Sky Train® from Terminal 3 or 4 to the 44th Street PHX Sky Train® Station. From there, follow the walkway with moving sidewalks on level 2 to the elevator and escalator down to the Valley Metro Rail platform at 44th Street and Washington. The PHX Sky Train® is designed for travelers with luggage and runs seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Frequency
Trains arrive every 12-20 minutes depending on day and time.
NOTE: The best stops for getting to the Missions Palms Hotel is stop #10021 (Mill Ave./3rd St.) and #10022 (Veterans Way/College Ave.). Both are just a few blocks away from the hotel.
Valley Metro Rail operates from early morning to late at night:
Monday – Thursday: 4 a.m. – midnight
Friday: 4 a.m. – 2 a.m.
Saturday: 5 a.m. – 2 a.m.
Sunday: 5 a.m. – 11 p.m.
For time at specific stops, please see the maps and schedules for Valley Metro Rail.
Phoenix Airport Map
Click Image to Enlarge
A message from WSSA President Jussi P. Laine:
Where should you stay in Tempe?
With AirBnB, Vrbo, and dozens of discount services, it is tempting to take advantage of them to save money when attending the WSSA. Aside from the many nightmare stories that have come to light in the last three years, there are several compelling reasons to stay at Tempe Mission Palms. Many downtown properties in the Phoenix/Tempe have already filled, and finding a room from March 21 to April 12 will be nearly impossible. Saving a little money could be quite costly and result in picking up a few dollars now only to lose c-notes later.
Many attendees might not realize it, but there is an even more important reason to stay at the Tempe Mission Palms. Attendees’ stays at the conference hotel make it possible for us to put on the conference. The room block reserved for the conference is basically part of a trade-off for the event space for conference. We use over two dozen meeting rooms at our annual meeting. We get these meeting rooms at reduced charge or no charge to the WSSA only if we fill a certain number of guestrooms, which is specified in the contract with the hotel. If we do not fill the guestrooms, we pay a huge penalty--in the tens of thousands of dollars fyi. This is standard practice in the hotel industry. In several cases in the past, our failure to meet our room quota resulted in huge penalties that the WSSA had to pay. A low room take also makes it difficult for us to book hotels for future years because prospective hotels demand evidence of past room takes. When attendees stay at other hotels, AirBnBs, or Vrbos etc., the hotel suffers, but the WSSA suffers more.
It is important that all attendees rent rooms at the conference hotel. Otherwise, the WSSA will be seriously impacted by the financial burden of the penalities. Of course, you can choose not to stay at the conference hotel, but will there be a future WSSA conference for you to attend? In short, decide stay at the Tempe Mission Palms. The WSSA can benefit even from stays of one or two nights in the conference hotel. Thank you.
Sincerely Yours,
Jussi P. Laine, Ph.D., WSSA President
