FIRST Championship Housing Available

[Alex2614]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[Chi Meson]

Originally Posted by 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.

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

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Chi Meson

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.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally Posted by Alex2614

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.

[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]

Originally Posted by Ricksta

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]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

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.

[jds2001]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

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]

Originally Posted by jds2001

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.