Yup, this. I appreciate the diligence to keep costs down, but we also need to be realistic.

I'm going to toss in something from my years of convention-going that people may not be aware of. Hotels on the lower end of the price scale? Do NOT handle freaks well, and are usually located in areas where, even if there isn't a lot of crime, are not especially comfortable to walk around/to the corner store.

"Freaks" does not just mean eccentrically-dressed goths. In this context, it applies to all of us. Because those cheaper hotels & motels? Don't usually handle event crowds, even small ones, and having a group of people who are all obviously together makes them unsure of what to do, and the staff usually defaults to being very, very difficult. Including adding extra fees if they even suspect more than the registered number of people are staying in a room, random knocks on doors with suspicious "What are you people doing?" questions or "You're being noisy" comments (even if you aren't).

While I appreciate the need to offer an inexpensive alternative, I wanted to make sure people were aware of what some of the problems I'VE seen when event groups stay at the local Motel 6.

From the look of things, at least in SF and Vegas, it's going to come down to X amount of money if you want to hit all the bullet points on the amenities requirement list. From what Susan was saying, her early look at Seattle was a similar situation: the Comfort Inn, Susan, wasn't it? Was at just over $100 a night.

Vegas, there's always Summerlin, which has a couple of very nice hotels. Of course, if you stay in Summerlin and want to do anything at all that Vegas is famous for offering, it's a twenty-minute drive minimum, or hoping for public transport.

What about just off the strip? Or a mile from the strip using the shuttles?

I'm guessing the Seattle options won't be precisely downtown either, though there are some close possibilities from what I've seen so far.

It's nice to be in the dead center of everything, but is it really completely necessary? (And I ask this a person who lives in the dead center of everything and clearly likes that). Friday night we go out. Saturday is some sort of jaunt or two and can be a leisurely to and fro. Saturday night we, essentially, stay in. Sunday, again, is leisurely.

And Jilli nails yet another intangible that has to be considered.

It's nice to be in the dead center of everything, but is it really completely necessary? (And I ask this a person who lives in the dead center of everything and clearly likes that).

San Francisco is a tiny city. It's 7 miles by 7 miles. It's surrounded by water on three sides. There is no outlying. Our hotel prices aren't high or low by central or outlying, they're by neighbourhood. The Wharf Holiday Inn, without the views offered by the Holiday Inn Civic Center, is $45 a night more expensive. It's the hood.

From what Susan was saying, her early look at Seattle was a similar situation: the Comfort Inn, Susan, wasn't it? Was at just over $100 a night.

Yup. And that's before taxes.

The thing with Seattle, IMO, is that once you go very far out of central, you're really non-central. We don't have a subway, just buses, which are slower and less convenient. We have heavy traffic, and the geography of the place, with the city itself long and skinny and some of the major suburbs on the other side of a big lake, and with all the hills and waterways that make it so beautiful, limits the number of alternate routes. So unless we take the attitude that we just want a good hotel, and seeing Seattle doesn't matter, I think we want either downtown, the Seattle Center area, or maybe near the UW campus--anywhere else is too out of the way. Jilli and Plei may disagree, but that's my take.

Maybe we could just steer clear of speaking for anyone else. Stating your own opinion is fine. Saying a lot of people tends to lead to problems.

Could not possibly agree more with this. Really. I've tried. I am at 100% agreement with Nicole.

So unless we take the attitude that we just want a good hotel, and seeing Seattle doesn't matter, I think we want either downtown, the Seattle Center area, or maybe near the UW campus--anywhere else is too out of the way. Jilli and Plei may disagree, but that's my take.

No disagreement here. NONE.

just buses, which are slower and less convenient.

That is ... well, maybe not an understatement, but close.

I am at 100% agreement with Nicole.

a lot of people are! oh, wait . . . :)

a lot of people are! oh, wait . . . :)

Snerk. Right? I was going to write Nicole speaks for me... about not speaking for other people... d'oh! It got all logic loopy.