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.

I'm not arguing at all that hotel cost is a big factor. Just pointing out that the airfare is what really kicked a lot of folks asses last year.

Not DebetEsse, but I think the idea was that the point people go ahead and gather proposals and any other information they can get, but rather than filling this thread with proposals from each hotel in all three cities, to somehow provide information that covers the whole city. Like, hotels in range 109-129 rather than listing each hotel and its rates. Maybe.

That probably didn't clarify anything. Never mind.

Like, hotels in range 109-129 rather than listing each hotel and its rates.

Um - okay, my brain is apparently draining. Because didn't we have a discussion in which we - the point people - were asked to look in that specific price range anyway, as the top end? And if that's the rate range we're looking at, all the hotels for all the cities are going to be in that range anyway.

So I'm still clueless as to the virtue or benefit of vague information versus specific.