Steele Meetings in 2015?

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by JB987

We all would probably prefer to deal directly with hotels. Problem for many of us is that every hotel closest to venue is 100% reserved by FIRST agency handling bookings...forcing us again into millisecond race to click mouse in time to access desired hotel on booking website.Still can't figure out how Moe manages to book the Drury every year Hope the new agency website can handle the volume...and hope the date and time for the bookings is posted better than previous years. And yes, we did sign up for email notification...

Yes the monopoly on hotels within 20 minutes of the dome is a big frustration.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Yes the monopoly on hotels within 20 minutes of the dome is a big frustration.

It was also an issue for regionals. We saw hotel prices increase by $20-50/night when Steele took over bookings for regionals, compared to when we booked the exact same hotels directly in the past. I'm sure the convenience factor of using Steele is very appealing for some teams, however there are many others who'd prefer just to work directly with the hotels and not pay the premium for Steele's service.

[JB987]

Originally Posted by Karthik

It was also an issue for regionals. We saw hotel prices increase by $20-50/night when Steele took over bookings for regionals, compared to when we booked the exact same hotels directly in the past. I'm sure the convenience factor of using Steele is very appealing for some teams, however there are many others who'd prefer just to work directly with the hotels and not pay the premium for Steele's service.

+1

[Adrienne E.]

Originally Posted by Karthik

It was also an issue for regionals. We saw hotel prices increase by $20-50/night when Steele took over bookings for regionals, compared to when we booked the exact same hotels directly in the past. I'm sure the convenience factor of using Steele is very appealing for some teams, however there are many others who'd prefer just to work directly with the hotels and not pay the premium for Steele's service.

+1

We have had multiple issues, the biggest of which was showing up in Atlanta in 2010 and the hotel didn't have our 22 room reservation (I still owe Joanne Pruniak for helping me through that).

To piggy back on many others, we have had problems with refunds, and most recently them mistakenly charging my personal credit card $11,000 because they made me put it in that information even though we were paying by check. The refund didn't process before my statement came out and it was a huge problem for me.

I prefer to deal directly with hotels for all of our regionals, but they make this nearly impossible at worlds. I have been in contact with a few hotels in St. Louis and many are already 100% booked for FIRST which is frustrating.
I would hope a new company will solve some of these problems, but some of them are just the nature of these events.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Karthik

It was also an issue for regionals. We saw hotel prices increase by $20-50/night when Steele took over bookings for regionals, compared to when we booked the exact same hotels directly in the past. I'm sure the convenience factor of using Steele is very appealing for some teams, however there are many others who'd prefer just to work directly with the hotels and not pay the premium for Steele's service.

Yep, we stayed at one of our events and because we booked in the fall we paid $30 less per night compared to the teams who went through Steele.

In 2013 we stayed 20 minutes outside the city. It wasn't a bad commute but for $68 per night at a Hampton Inn it was well worth it compared to going through Steele.

[Rick]

Emails for district event hotels seem to be rolling out to main contacts today. However, I cannot find any information for volunteer lodging. Does anybody have information on this?

[Rosiebotboss]

Volunteer lodgiing will be rolling out soon as well. (That's what the FSM were told, because we need to book rooms too.)