Climate Week NYC 2026 runs September 20 to 27 in New York City. Climate Group hosts the week in coordination with the UN General Assembly, and by the organization's own count it draws more than 100,000 people to more than 1,000 events across the city. The Opening Ceremony starts the program on the morning of Monday, September 21.
Whoever holds the rooms for a group that week signs a room block. A room block is a contract. Here is what to pin down before you sign it.
What a block commits you to
A block sets aside a number of rooms at an agreed rate for a set window of dates. The hotel holds those rooms for your group, and no other guest can take them until a name sits on the room.
Confirm five numbers in writing: how many rooms are held, which room types, the nightly rate, the first and last night of the hold, and the date the hold ends. Put them on one page. A number that exists only in a sales conversation is a number you cannot enforce.
Read the deposit terms before you sign
Ask for the deposit amount, the date it is due, and where it is applied. Ask whether it is refundable, and under what conditions it stops being refundable. Ask whether it is charged per room or as one lump sum, and whether it comes off the final bill or off the first night.
Then ask who signs. Put the signing name and the name on the master account on the contract before the deposit moves, because those two names decide who argues about the bill in November.
The attrition clause
Attrition is the shortfall your group pays when it uses fewer rooms than the block promised. Ask for the attrition percentage in writing, the date the shortfall is measured, and the rate the shortfall is charged at. Ask whether the shortfall counts rooms or room nights, because the two produce different invoices.
Ask for the cancellation schedule at the same time: a table of dates and percentages, so your group can see what a change costs at each stage of the year. Ask for the force majeure clause in plain language.
Put the cut-off date in writing
The cut-off date is when unsold rooms in your block go back to the hotel. Get the date, the exact time and the time zone. Ask what happens to your rate after the cut-off, and whether a late name still gets the group rate.
Diarise the cut-off two weeks earlier than the hotel's date. The final week before release is when your stragglers answer email, and the rooms you release are rooms you cannot get back if the week is busy.
Ask what happens when the dates move
Group dates move. Ask now what the hotel will do about it: whether the block can be re-dated, whether the rate carries across to the new dates, whether the deposit follows, and how much notice the hotel requires. Get the answer into the contract.
Ask about shoulder nights while you are at it. The 2026 program opens with the Opening Ceremony on the morning of Monday, September 21, and it closes on the 27th. Ask for the 19th and the 28th at the group rate before the block is written.
Settle the rooming list and the billing rule
Ask for the rooming list deadline and the name-change deadline on the day you sign. Ask how single and double occupancy are billed, and who pays for incidentals that a guest charges to the room. Decide whether the group pays for rooms while guests pay for everything else, or whether the whole stay runs on one master account. Write the decision down.
The one confirmation to get in writing
Before you commit, get one written confirmation from the property that states your total exposure: the number of room nights you are responsible for, the rate used to calculate a shortfall, the date that shortfall is measured, and the deposit amount with its refund conditions.
One document, from the hotel, naming all four. That page decides whether the block is manageable and whether the invoice arrives in October with an explanation you have never seen.