Kristin, I'm sorry I wasn't around to make your party, but I'm glad it was good! Now I'm just going to have to meet you on my trip to the West Coast!

Debet, I have a meeting on Thursday morning with Sheila Fonseca of Holiday Inn. And I'm musing on a few things, which I'd love some general clarification on.

My thinking is that we get more general "how much things are going to cost" and "what will we get/have access to" information for the city vote, rather than the full breakdown, so we have more of an aggregate view of the city, rather than pinning all our (or someone [not you. Random someone. Kristin] pinning all their) hopes on a specific proposal, which may not end up panning out.

I don't think I'm following this. In re the proposal not panning out, speaking just for me, if I post it up with numbers, there's no chance of it not panning out, should that be the choice opted for in a vote: that's a guarantee the given hotel makes. So I don't understand the idea behind vague-versus-specific, in the proposal. The whole purpose of the proposals I'm asking the hotels to provide is to be as down to the penny specific about costs and access as is humanly possible ahead of time.

Basically, if I post up three proposals just before the vote, with numbers attached, those numbers are locked down. I'll have the numbers given by the hotel itself. So, the "what we have access to" and "how much things cost" will be right there, and I'm assuming they'll be right there for all three cities.

Also, the three cities in this particular mix at the moment - SF, Seattle, Vegas - aren't unknown quantities. SF and Seattle, at least, not only have a nice chunk of b.org people populating them and the surrounding areas, they're both cities that have seen b.org visitors in either a trickle or a steady stream for a good long time. They're familiar. Vegas is different - the costs there vary hugely, depending on where you stay. But for Seattle and SF, not really.

So, please ma'am, could you clarify what you're looking for before the city vote?

And, when are we looking at doing the city vote, anyway? With one firm hotel proposal in hand and two more in discussion, I'm wondering when we actually do the vote. Surely, that was the reason we began this ten months before the actual do?

Please to clarify.

Seconding Deb's request for clarification. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what we're deciding on in absence of the specific hotel/hosp options available. I mean, they're not the only things that will count in favor of one city over another, but surely they're a big part of it?

I think I have to agree with Deb and brenda. Choosing a city is largely dependent on what sort of cash will need to be spent on the hotel, plus travel to that city.

The more we know about each city, the better-informed decision we can make. So I say, get the hotel information for each city locked down before we vote which city. We can research travel to each city ourselves and do the math. Expenses have to be a consideration for at least some of us, and I imagine a lot of us. And while tourist stuff to do will be considered as a factor, the hotel packages in each city is likely a larger factor in the city-vote.

If we get solid quotes on what a hotel can or will provide for "this" number of people, "this" number, or "that" number, for two or three hotels in each city, it will help us narrow down what we can afford, and the features we want vs. the features we really can't do without. Once we have those in hand, that information will help us choose the city.

Does that make sense? Or am I coming at this completely backward?

When do we want to have a vote? I know I need to get to work on Seattle info, but it tends to get pushed behind all the more immediate stuff on my to-do list in the absence of a deadline.

My thinking is that we get more general "how much things are going to cost" and "what will we get/have access to" information for the city vote, rather than the full breakdown

I don't understand how we would get "how much are things going to cost" information without getting proposals from hotels. That's the biggest expense, so we need to know it.

Actually last year the biggest expense for most individuals turned out to be travel.

ND, that's probably going to be the case no matter what. But if you have buffista JackStraw, who is low on cash flow but has frequent flyer miles, the hotel is going to be a factor. Not to mention the add-ons: in Vegas, the cheaper hotels are off the strip, but if you're downtown and want to go play on the strip itself, you either need to allot masses of time to deal with the Vegas public transport system, or else you need wheels. So that's something to consider: is a car going to be needed? How close to action central is the hotel?

That's a hypothetical example, but I can think of more; that one occurred to me because I'm very low in cash flow, but do have FF miles. And the Holiday Inn, for instance, is offering rooms that sleep four as part of our proposal, at $119 a night. That's less than $30 a night for people who who low in dough and willing to quad up.

I did book-related trips this spring, and wouldn't have been able to do Cleveland, for instance, without knowing ahead what the hotel was going to cost. The airfare wasn't the biggie, because I used miles.

All right, then.

The hotel cost is one of the biggest expenses, and may in some circumstances possibly comprise the biggest expense for some people depending on roommate or lack thereof as well as how many nights the person is staying and what airfare they can find, if indeed they fly and don't drive, and therefore it's an important factor for the people for whom cost is an issue as to whether or not they can attend to know in making a vote for the city.

Yep. What Tep said, absolutely.

I think I'm just trying to understand the value of general, broad spectrum information (more vague and subject to change) as opposed to knowing ahead specific information.