Isn't the less expensive hospitality suite also the less expensive rooms though? (I could be mistaken about that, in which case the rest of my post matters less).
It seems like nearly every year people have to bail pretty late in the game because they can't afford it. Then there is some noise about keeping prices down next year. Then next year comes and we don't really keep that in the forefront of the discussion and we slippery slope into the nicer options. I think this ends up hurting attendance.
If the choice is between $74.95 rooms and a $125 hospitality suite the first weekend or $95.00 rooms and a $250 hospitality suite the second weekend I really think we'll have less "Agh, I just can't do it!" if we go with the first weekend.
And as nice as nice stuff is, "Moar Buffistas" is a little better.
Room prices are $95 each for either weekend.
Room prices are $95 each for either weekend.
This seems like a very reasonable price to me.
Nebbermind then.
And $95 IS reasonable, but $75 would be better.
(But since its not the case, see above re: nebbermind)
What happened with the $74.95 hotel then? Agh, forget it. I'll re-re-read.
I'm on my phone so not easy to look up but that might have been the hotel that said no alcohol and off site prom. The Marriott was slightly cheaper before the wireless Internet and parking were negotiated into the room prices.
And realistically, very few major cities have rooms that cheap. $95/night is a steal for a Marriott in a nice city, IMO. Besides, it would suck for the locals not to be able to attend.
Like I said, I agree that $95 is great. I just thought we had a cheaper option and I wish we would make a point of keeping prices as cheap as possible because I'm 99% sure we would get better attendance if we made that a priority.
Maybe next year.
I think the price of flights to F2F locations is probably more of a problem for people money wise than the cost of the hotel usually is.
I was just going to say that, SJ. $20 difference for hotel rooms is much less a variable than the cost of flights.
As for attendance, interest it seems to be waning every year. Perhaps the novelty has simply worm off for a number of people? There might well simply be a group of hardcore enthusiasts who would be served very well by planning for them by them and not worrying too much about those who choose not to attend.
