FIRST Championship Housing Available

[Tyler Olds]

Good evening everyone,

I noticed on the FIRST Championship page that the link for Championship housing preferences was posted.

I went through this process and it is quite different. You will need to select eight (8) hotels as preferences.

Here's the Championship link (http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/first-championship).

Here's the direct link to Championship Housing Registration. (http://registration.experientevent.com/ShowROB152/DefaultTeams.aspx)

[Doug Frisk]

I just got the information a couple of days ago, unfortunately the hotel I want isn't available for volunteers. Yeah, I said that right, there are rooms available in the FIRST block, but volunteers aren't allowed at the Marriott Renaissance next to the convention center.

[RoboMom]

I just got the information a couple of days ago, unfortunately the hotel I want isn't available for volunteers. Yeah, I said that right, there are rooms available in the FIRST block, but volunteers aren't allowed at the Marriott Renaissance next to the convention center.

I'm a volunteer. I booked there.
Perhaps it filled?

[Doug Frisk]

I'm a volunteer. I booked there.
Perhaps it filled?

I'm going to posit that you may have registered as a member of a team who also volunteers at Championships, where I register as a volunteer unassociated with any particular team. It turns out the process of hotel selection is significantly different depending on which group you fit into.

[RoboMom]

They are all my teams. I am not affiliated with any one team.

[Koko Ed]

I don't like booking with FIRST. I don't think what they have to offer is very helpful at all and I wouldn't recommend volunteers booking via FIRST.
I do it myself through booking sites instead.

[jds2001]

I don't like booking with FIRST. I don't think what they have to offer is very helpful at all and I wouldn't recommend volunteers booking via FIRST.
I do it myself through booking sites instead.

I booked through FIRST (as a standalone volunteer - at the Hilton at the Ballpark) because if I didn't book in the FIRST block, the hotel was completely sold out, and I'm HHonors Gold at any rate :)

I used to live in STL (many moons ago), this will be my first CMP event. Looking forward to it!!!

[Dave Campbell]

We just qualified for the CMP event! So excited! One problem, Experient only has hotels >30 miles away from the EJD...Seriously? With 1/6th of the capacity already registered for the FRC CMP (99 teams registered as of this post) and ALL of the local hotels are completely booked? Not right. The teams that qualify should have priority booking privileges, imho.:confused:

[Caleb Sykes]

The teams that qualify should have priority booking privileges, imho.:confused:

Over whom?

[Hallry]

Over whom?

I'm assuming he means teams that book hotels with hopes of qualifying for St. Louis before they actually do qualify.

[Alex2614]

We just qualified for the CMP event! So excited! One problem, Experient only has hotels >30 miles away from the EJD...Seriously? With 1/6th of the capacity already registered for the FRC CMP (99 teams registered as of this post) and ALL of the local hotels are completely booked? Not right. The teams that qualify should have priority booking privileges, imho.:confused:

The reason most of these teams do this is because, if they qualify at a later regional or district championship, the teams that qualified at earlier events would get priority, so that's not really fair either. I.e. ALL of the district teams will be stuck 30 miles away, and the teams that qualified week 1 will be walking distance. We usually pre-book rooms for this reason. This year, we waited until February, and we are staying further away. But, as more events happen, and those teams that pre-booked and didn't make it drop out, rooms will open up. So, we are checking back every week to see what rooms have become available.

I.e. if we wait until our week 6 event to book, we may not get anything remotely close. So, we book early, and if we end up not making it, we give that block of rooms up, and another team can have them.

So, just keep checking. Because even after you book with your 8 choices, you can pay a small fee and you can get a different hotel. That is what we plan to do. We'll pay the fee if it means getting a walking distance hotel.

[Dave Campbell]

Agreed Alex and Caleb. I see your points. There are also awesome presentations at the conference for teams who do not qualify or get a slot via the standby list...My apologies, I'm just frustrated with the process of booking rooms this year - it seemed easier before when we could get rooms with more than 1 bed per room, which seems to be all that is available for now. I'll have to keep checking back.

[Doug Frisk]

Agreed Alex and Caleb. I see your points. There are also awesome presentations at the conference for teams who do not qualify or get a slot via the standby list...My apologies, I'm just frustrated with the process of booking rooms this year - it seemed easier before when we could get rooms with more than 1 bed per room, which seems to be all that is available for now. I'll have to keep checking back.

Hopefully they can improve the process next year.

I'm still trying to get into the Marriott Renaissance as a single volunteer and have been for over a month. Speaking of which it's time for my Monday afternoon call to Experient to remind them I still want a room in that hotel.

[jds2001]

It seems somewhat unfair to me that as a single volunteer, I got in the Hilton at the Ballpark (in a room with 2 beds, which I don't need, no less!) before week 1

However, does anyone know how this works? I have HHonors Gold. so was somewhat concerned that I didn't see the reservation online in my HHonors account. I called Hilton and they can find nothing by my name as having a room at that hotel. Does Experient only provide the list later to the actual hotels?

[Doug Frisk]

It seems somewhat unfair to me that as a single volunteer, I got in the Hilton at the Ballpark (in a room with 2 beds, which I don't need, no less!) before week 1

However, does anyone know how this works? I have HHonors Gold. so was somewhat concerned that I didn't see the reservation online in my HHonors account. I called Hilton and they can find nothing by my name as having a room at that hotel. Does Experient only provide the list later to the actual hotels?

If the last couple of years are a guide, the information doesn't make it to the hotel until 2 or so weeks prior to the championships.

Volunteers are in a weird place this year as far as hotels go. It seems they blocked off space in 8 hotels specifically for volunteers but with that they're restricting volunteers to only those 8 hotels. But with that, you can feel fine about having a 2 bed room since it was carved out for volunteer use.

[Andrew Schreiber]

If the last couple of years are a guide, the information doesn't make it to the hotel until 2 or so weeks prior to the championships.

Volunteers are in a weird place this year as far as hotels go. It seems they blocked off space in 8 hotels specifically for volunteers but with that they're restricting volunteers to only those 8 hotels. But with that, you can feel fine about having a 2 bed room since it was carved out for volunteer use.

I'd also check back occasionally since some volunteer rolls got mixed up as to what hotels they want you in.

That being said, I've got my hotel booked and I'm all set. Didn't have issues with booking yet. We'll see if they give me any trouble once I'm actually there.

[Karthik]

However, does anyone know how this works? I have HHonors Gold. so was somewhat concerned that I didn't see the reservation online in my HHonors account. I called Hilton and they can find nothing by my name as having a room at that hotel. Does Experient only provide the list later to the actual hotels?

It's very hit and miss. Some years I've been able to collect Hilton points for my stays booked through FIRST's system, other years I have not. You'll have to talk to the hotel staff and ask them to add your HHonors number to your stay when you check in. There's a possibility that Experient negotiated their rate with the hotel with the caveat that no HHonors points would be handed out, or that they would collect all the points themselves.

[Alex2614]

Agreed Alex and Caleb. I see your points. There are also awesome presentations at the conference for teams who do not qualify or get a slot via the standby list...My apologies, I'm just frustrated with the process of booking rooms this year - it seemed easier before when we could get rooms with more than 1 bed per room, which seems to be all that is available for now. I'll have to keep checking back.

There lies one of the many side effects of expanding the championship as much as they did.

No need to apologize; we booked several weeks ago before bag day and are stuck out at the airport for now. It's frustrating.

[Koko Ed]

There lies one of the many side effects of expanding the championship as much as they did.

No need to apologize; we booked several weeks ago before bag day and are stuck out at the airport for now. It's frustrating.

If you're stuck out at the airport you can take the metro in to get to the Jones Dome if you don't have transportation so that's not so bad.

[Alex2614]

If you're stuck out at the airport you can take the metro in to get to the Jones Dome if you don't have transportation so that's not so bad.

No, it's not. We stayed at Union Station our first couple years in STL. But when you have as big of a team as we do, logistics are more challenging when dealing with the metro. For example, there aren't many eating places near our hotel, so we will have to be super careful about meals and gathering everyone before we head back to the hotel.

I mean, it's not the end of the world, really. Just have to come up with new strategies for logistics.

[Koko Ed]

No, it's not. We stayed at Union Station our first couple years in STL. But when you have as big of a team as we do, logistics are more challenging when dealing with the metro. For example, there aren't many eating places near our hotel, so we will have to be super careful about meals and gathering everyone before we head back to the hotel.

I mean, it's not the end of the world, really. Just have to come up with new strategies for logistics.

There are alot more places to eat by the airport than there is by the Dome.

[PayneTrain]

There are alot more places to eat by the airport than there is by the Dome.

I find that the further you get from the dome, the better the food options in most cases. We stayed 10 miles out last year and the only time it was hard to feed people was during the event.

[Chi Meson]

If you come to St. Louis by bus, you usually need to put up your driver in a room as well. Usually you are paying for that driver for the entire time, so remember you can use that bus for shuttling back and forth each day, including to restaurants that can handle sudden influxes of 20 to 40 people.

Our hotel for Champs (I'd give us a 90% probability right now of qualifying) is an annoying 2.5 miles from the Dome, and 0.9 from the metro. Right on the other side of the line of convenience.

[Alex2614]

If you come to St. Louis by bus, you usually need to put up your driver in a room as well. Usually you are paying for that driver for the entire time, so remember you can use that bus for shuttling back and forth each day, including to restaurants that can handle sudden influxes of 20 to 40 people.

Our hotel for Champs (I'd give us a 90% probability right now of qualifying) is an annoying 2.5 miles from the Dome, and 0.9 from the metro. Right on the other side of the line of convenience.

Unfortunately we can't afford a bus, but we spent an hour or so when we picked hotels to make sure what we picked are on the right side of the line, and walkable to eating. Some are not walkable because lack of sidewalks and a freeway dividing them.

Unfortunately many teams are stuck without a bus even if we are staying many many miles away.

[Sean Schuff]

Just checked into housing today and found that there are only 15 hotels available to choose from and all but one offer single bed rooms only. With a crew of about 80 heading to St. Louis in about six weeks, this is quite frustrating.

Based on what I'm reading here, our best bet in the future is to reserve a large block of rooms as early as possible and sit on them hoping to qualify for the championship. If we don't qualify, we drop the rooms (Any penalty to doing that?) and let someone else pick up the pieces. If we qualify, we're all set.

It may seem to be the shrewd thing to do but it doesn't seem very gracious.

[Alex2614]

Just checked into housing today and found that there are only 15 hotels available to choose from and all but one offer single bed rooms only. With a crew of about 80 heading to St. Louis in about six weeks, this is quite frustrating.

Based on what I'm reading here, our best bet in the future is to reserve a large block of rooms as early as possible and sit on them hoping to qualify for the championship. If we don't qualify, we drop the rooms (Any penalty to doing that?) and let someone else pick up the pieces. If we qualify, we're all set.

It may seem to be the shrewd thing to do but it doesn't seem very gracious.

This is exactly what we have done, and we are still out by the airport. There is a $100 penalty I believe for canceling your reservation, which we plan on doing if a closer hotel opens up from someone not qualifying. We booked before bag day.

It is frustrating that they didn't think about this kind of stuff when they decided to double the size of the championship, when there were already problems with hotel availability.

[robochick1319]

Does anyone know if we are required to book rooms through FIRST housing in order to attend the Finale? Any info on when/what the Finale is?

I know they want everyone attending the event to register, regardless of whether or not you are requesting a block of rooms.

[Dale(294engr]]

Hopefully they can improve the process next year.

I'm still trying to get into the Marriott Renaissance as a single volunteer and have been for over a month. Speaking of which it's time for my Monday afternoon call to Experient to remind them I still want a room in that hotel.

PM me I'm a Volunteer (RI) and have a booking there, if you are interested in sharing. ... Dale (at large, with a bunch of fav's)

[Chi Meson]

Just checked into housing today and found that there are only 15 hotels available to choose from and all but one offer single bed rooms only. With a crew of about 80 heading to St. Louis in about six weeks, this is quite frustrating.

Based on what I'm reading here, our best bet in the future is to reserve a large block of rooms as early as possible and sit on them hoping to qualify for the championship. If we don't qualify, we drop the rooms (Any penalty to doing that?) and let someone else pick up the pieces. If we qualify, we're all set.

It may seem to be the shrewd thing to do but it doesn't seem very gracious.

No, that's exactly what you need to do. We reserved a block of 9 rooms, each sleeps 6 (nominally). I think we will only need 4 or 5 of them. The plan is to share a bus with another team from NE, and we can also share the extra hotel rooms (at cost).

[Chi Meson]

Does anyone know if we are required to book rooms through FIRST housing in order to attend the Finale? Any info on when/what the Finale is?

I know they want everyone attending the event to register, regardless of whether or not you are requesting a block of rooms.

I heard that the final was a fiasco in 2013. How was it last year?

[Tyler Olds]

This is exactly what we have done, and we are still out by the airport. There is a $100 penalty I believe for canceling your reservation, which we plan on doing if a closer hotel opens up from someone not qualifying. We booked before bag day.

It is frustrating that they didn't think about this kind of stuff when they decided to double the size of the championship, when there were already problems with hotel availability.

I spoke to the representative for housing yesterday and there is no cancellation fee if done within 72 hours. He recommended that you did it in a week to avoid issues. Steele (the previous company) used to charge $10 per cancelled room.

[Koko Ed]

I heard that the final was a fiasco in 2013. How was it last year?

I enjoyed it. I spent most of the time hanging out in the rave. It was very loud and a little bit scary (the floor was rippling when the beat dropped and the kids bounced) but very very cool. I would be surprised if they did the rave again.

[MrJohnston]

Silly me. I thought I could attempt to book rooms two weeks before we could possibly qualify and get something... Experient has put me on a "wait list" with no promises... I've contacted about 20 hotels and found nothing. Aargh.

[Rick]

If you do not secure hotel rooms when they first are available, you will not be able to walk to the dome.

The travel situation in St. Louis is a great lesson in opportunity cost for students. You might lose a $500 deposit on a $250pp bus, but if you don't secure the bus with the deposit, you could be looking at $750pp flights.

<rant>St. Louis hotels and airport cannot handle a 600 FRC team championship never mind an FTC and FLL championship on top of it.

I cringe at the thought of STL on Sunday leaving champs.

I really hope we have a new city for 2018 with a proper airport.</rant>

[BrendanB]

If you do not secure hotel rooms when they first are available, you will not be able to walk to the dome.

The travel situation in St. Louis is a great lesson in opportunity cost for students. You might lose a $500 deposit on a $250pp bus, but if you don't secure the bus with the deposit, you could be looking at $750pp flights.

<rant>St. Louis hotels and airport cannot handle a 600 FRC team championship never mind an FTC and FLL championship on top of it.

I cringe at the thought of STL on Sunday leaving champs.

I really hope we have a new city for 2018 with a proper airport.</rant>

There are so many small logistics I don't even want to think about creating more mess.

Don't even consider getting to team load in after 2pm on Wednesday its just going to be a giant mess of buses.

[PayneTrain]

There are so many small logistics I don't even want to think about creating more mess.

Don't even consider getting to team load in after 2pm on Wednesday its just going to be a giant mess of buses.

Oh team load-in was such a special disaster last year with 400 teams, y'all have fun with the extra 200.

[Libby K]

Silly me. I thought I could attempt to book rooms two weeks before we could possibly qualify and get something... Experient has put me on a "wait list" with no promises... I've contacted about 20 hotels and found nothing. Aargh.

You're lucky - we haven't heard back from Experient at all...

We tried to follow the 'rules' and not reserve until we were sure we were going.

I foresee a lot of teams who booked before qualifying, and ended up not qualifying, dropping their rooms and creating more availability. Lucky break for the Week 6 & 7 qualifying teams who'll get blocks at great hotels.

Not so much for those who waited to know if they were actually going before putting themselves in.

[MrJohnston]

You're lucky - we haven't heard back from Experient at all...

We tried to follow the 'rules' and not reserve until we were sure we were going.

I foresee a lot of teams who booked before qualifying, and ended up not qualifying, dropping their rooms and creating more availability. Lucky break for the Week 6 & 7 qualifying teams who'll get blocks at great hotels.

Not so much for those who waited to know if they were actually going before putting themselves in.

I called Experient so that I could "hear back" from them.... Follow the "rules"? If there were "rules," why did Experient inform me that I needed to call on January 5 (before anybody had even built a robot - except Ri3D) if I wanted to have rooms for Champs?

I have got to think that there is a better way to do this? Giving teams some sort of "code" to use when they qualify that would be particular to that one team and is required for making reservations might help? Or, don't open up the registration process at all until a much later date - in late March, perhaps? I have got to think that there is a lot of "extra labor" involved in the current system as teams that end up not going, cancel. When rooms become available teams jump from one reservation to a "better one." Etc.

I do know this: Unless the system changes, I'm going to be making my reservation very early next year...

[Libby K]

I called Experient so that I could "hear back" from them.... Follow the "rules"? If there were "rules," why did Experient inform me that I needed to call on January 5 (before anybody had even built a robot - except Ri3D) if I wanted to have rooms for Champs?

I have got to think that there is a better way to do this? Giving teams some sort of "code" to use when they qualify that would be particular to that one team and is required for making reservations might help? Or, don't open up the registration process at all until a much later date - in late March, perhaps? I have got to think that there is a lot of "extra labor" involved in the current system as teams that end up not going, cancel. When rooms become available teams jump from one reservation to a "better one." Etc.

I do know this: Unless the system changes, I'm going to be making my reservation very early next year...

Sorry - wording choice was poor on my part. There were, obviously, no rules. We were just trying to not to take spots away from teams that would actually qualify/be able to commit earlier than we possibly could, instead of blocking them out of spaces they could use. That's all I meant. (Follow the way it should be done, I suppose.)

I agree - there's a lot missing from the current system. Either open it only to teams who qualify during a certain date range, use a 'code' as you mentioned... there are quite a few solutions that would be better than this.

Edit:: I find it interesting they were receptive to your call. We've called a few times and they essentially shut us down, saying "Everything has to be done online, I can't help you over the phone." Guess we got the wrong person on the wrong day...

[Chi Meson]

I have to say that I'm rather "OK" with the results. I have had some of the issues mentioned by previous posters, but ultimatlely I prefer this system far beyond the horrifically inaccessable Steele Meeting folk that left me high and dry on three occasions.

They have returned my emails quickly and answered my question completely.

I am less impressed with the more recently revealed "travel resource program". I think that there's a guy on the other side who is essentially doing the same thing I can do with my own computer.

In short, we have decent hotel rooms, but I wonder how we'll get there?

[jds2001]

Oh team load-in was such a special disaster last year with 400 teams, y'all have fun with the extra 200.

Well, from some other threads it seems as though there may have been more than the allotment of reps per team at least for some teams. Perhaps better enforcement of that limit will make things (at least a little) better?

[BrendanB]

Well, from some other threads it seems as though there may have been more than the allotment of reps per team at least for some teams. Perhaps better enforcement of that limit will make things (at least a little) better?

What makes it tough is that a few hours later the pits open entirely so the venue is decently full with team members waiting outside until the pits open completely. Plus for teams who travel via bus even it doesn't make a difference if they send 5 people or 55 the giant charter bus is still taking the to the venue to unload their equipment plus traffic starts setting in.

Its not a perfect system its just a part of the reality that around the dome becomes even more gridlocked.

[Bgreen1591]

Since we all are having trouble booking, and from what I have read this goes all the way back to Bag day. Teams only see 20mile away hotels with single beds. My question is, who has all these rooms blocked?

[IndySam]

With the FLL and FTC pits not being there I hope they will open more of the doors so load in can take place more quickly.

[Garciadealba]

Hi, first time posting. I went in to the housing online system and selected 8 options by the airport and all options had a 1 bed rooms, on the bottom I wrote on the comments that I needed 2 bed rooms. I got response that we were set up at the Marriot and this was not an option from all the hotels that I selected, in fact, the Marriot was not within all the possible options to chose from. I think that if you write in the coments your needs, experient will look for them.

[Wetzel]

I booked outside Experient when I realized what a mess it was, but continued the process anyways. I booked a block in a Hilton property that is closer than Experient got around to giving us, and for less. Will try with Experient more to get a hotel walking distance, but am not hopeful.

[KelliV]

I see a lot of Experient critiques here and just wanted to chime in that I book through them for NAB Show in Vegas and have had zero issues. Just give them some time to figure out FIRST. I have high hopes that in the future they will be great.