Steele Meeting and CMP reservations

[JB987]

We just made reservations for CMP and once again our choices for close by hotels was limited. I can't seem to find any notices published indicating when Steele Meetings was to open for CMP reservations this time. Not that it has made a difference in the past when we did know the minute sign ups started... We still missed out on most popular hotels like Drury CC. What's the trick?

[Cory]

7 AM Monday November 18th.

We were pissed we missed it last year (when FIRST did not send any notice) and emailed to get put on the list to be notified of when it would open.

We got the Hampton Inn. Wanted the Embassy Suites but it wasn't available for team purchase.

I just searched my email and it appears that not only did FIRST not make any reference to signing up with Steele in order to be notified of the upcoming reservation system opening (which they did do last year), they have not made a single mention of Championship hotel reservations, period.

[JB987]

Thought we were on Steele Meetings notification list but it didn't seem to matter this time Corey. Thanks for confirmation. We wound up with Mayfair just behind Renaissance so still pretty close. Decent hotel and undergoing facelift I hear. No breakfast though...

[Jon Jack]

We had a very similar situation this year and last year. FIRST makes no mention of it anywhere and the only way to know is to call and pester Steele. We emailed Steele ahead of time and they said it was opening in mid-December. We asked to get into the Hampton Inn and the person on the phone said they had us down on the list of teams that wanted that hotel. Then we got an email an email around November 15th saying that it was opening November 18th. No mention of us being on the list for the Hampton Inn. When we logged in at 7:01am on November 18th all the close hotels were taken with the exception of the Crown Plaza.

It seems like every year Steele is getting more an more disorganized...

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Jon Jack

We had a very similar situation this year and last year. FIRST makes no mention of it anywhere and the only way to know is to call and pester Steele. We emailed Steele ahead of time and they said it was opening in mid-December. We asked to get into the Hampton Inn and the person on the phone said they had us down on the list of teams that wanted that hotel. Then we got an email an email around November 15th saying that it was opening November 18th. No mention of us being on the list for the Hampton Inn. When we logged in at 7:01am on November 18th all the close hotels were taken with the exception of the Crown Plaza.

It seems like every year Steele is getting more an more disorganized...

The concept of calling to be put on a list for reservations for a hotel that can't be booked until weeks/months later sounds fundamentally unfair. Sounds like Steele does not have their stuff together.