diff --git a/Authors b/Authors
index 848ab544325..7f312fcebd8 100644
--- a/Authors
+++ b/Authors
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ John Tran <jtran@attinteractive.com>
 Jonathan Bryce <jbryce@jbryce.com>
 Jordan Rinke <jordan@openstack.org>
 Joseph Suh <jsuh@isi.edu>
+Joseph W. Breu <breu@breu.org>
 Josh Durgin <joshd@hq.newdream.net>
 Josh Kearney <josh@jk0.org>
 Josh Kleinpeter <josh@kleinpeter.org>
@@ -133,6 +134,7 @@ Vasiliy Shlykov <vash@vasiliyshlykov.org>
 Vishvananda Ishaya <vishvananda@gmail.com>
 Vivek Y S <vivek.ys@gmail.com>
 Vladimir Popovski <vladimir@zadarastorage.com>
+William Kelly <william.kelly@rackspace.com>
 William Wolf <throughnothing@gmail.com>
 Yoshiaki Tamura <yoshi@midokura.jp>
 Youcef Laribi <Youcef.Laribi@eu.citrix.com>
diff --git a/nova/scheduler/simple.py b/nova/scheduler/simple.py
index 050edf3f547..6fed16841d6 100644
--- a/nova/scheduler/simple.py
+++ b/nova/scheduler/simple.py
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@
                      "maximum number of volume gigabytes to allow per host")
 flags.DEFINE_integer("max_networks", 1000,
                      "maximum number of networks to allow per host")
+flags.DEFINE_string('default_schedule_zone', None,
+                    'zone to use when user doesnt specify one')
 
 
 class SimpleScheduler(chance.ChanceScheduler):
@@ -45,7 +47,7 @@ def _schedule_instance(self, context, instance_opts, *_args, **_kwargs):
 
         availability_zone = instance_opts.get('availability_zone')
 
-        zone, host = None, None
+        zone, host = FLAGS.default_schedule_zone, None
         if availability_zone:
             zone, _x, host = availability_zone.partition(':')