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.

Just pointing out that the airfare is what really kicked a lot of folks asses last year.

Yep. Air fare. Among other things. For me, anyway.

Otherwise I would have gone and slept on someone's floor and eaten table scraps just to hang with my beloved peeps.

The thing about air fare - or train or bus or car or any other form of travel - is that that information is surely outside the purview of the point person. If we have people coming from say three countries and nineteen cities, finding those particular rates by necessity have to be in the lap of the person doing the travelling. For one thing, if you aren't using FF miles, those rates can change dramatically from day to day.

Those numbers were just made up by me. I knew that wouldn't clarify.

The thing with specific information is that it can easily become overwhelming. I know that if we have full porposals from 4 different hotels in 3 cities, I'm going to get confused. What I am in favor of is the point people (who will have much specific information) presenting only the essential information to the rest of us, not everything they know.

And maybe that is totally wrongheaded and not what we should do at all. I don't know.

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

That wouldn't be enough information for me.

Travel is a big part of the cost for most. Hotel is the second big factor. And most of us are at least a little concerned with bang-for-the-buck. Having the hotel information, in some level of detail - cost for rooms, cost for suite, link to hotel, various hotel amenities - comes as close as we can get to giving everyone the information they need to make the final calculation on which city they'd prefer. Right? So I can add T + H + A(menities) + C(ity I like for nebulous reasons) and come up with my vote = That one! (Thac one?)

does anyone have webspace where they could host a spreadsheet (is it laura who hosts the F2F page) The spreadsheet could contain info such as location, price, hospitality suite pricing, internet, website, etc. Then, each person could look at as much or as little info as they wanted.

If I had my druther's, I'd like to see (at some point) one post for each city with say three hotel options with bullet point level of detail. If those were compiled and posted in Press, I don't think it would be too much hardship to keep up with.

So I can add T + H + A(menities) + C(ity I like for nebulous reasons) and come up with my vote = That one! (Thac one?)

I love brenda's THAC calculation and is exactly the one I use. Of course, I'm not articulate or mathy enough to write it out like that, but it's what I do all nicely put.

That being said, May 20th was one of my can't do it weekends, so unless the other plans fall through, I probably can't go.

Bullet points I could deal with.

Every proposal from every hotel in every city I could not.

I like brenda's breakdown.

I mean, the bullet point breakdown she's proposing to post, not that she should or would, you know, break down herself. 'Cause that would be unfortunate. Sad-making, bad, and unhelpful.

But yes, I want to see firm financial and amenity-providing details from two or three hotels in each prospective city before I choose a city. I can look for travel costs to each of those cities on my own, and do the math.