Another announcement
I will be personally providing trips from BWI Airport to whichever hotel ends up being picked for the discount rate to cater to those of you flying in from OOS. I will be charging a fee, but nowhere near the amount of a Taxi. Bwi airport is an hour from Frederick, so a taxi would be hefty. I will be providing trips for most likely ~$15 per person each way. I will pick people up on Friday and drop them off on Tuesday at the airport, so people can get their tickets for those days. (I'm flexible, if I have to do some late night trips I can.)
I've spent the day looking into hotels/motels that I can get discount rates from if I can guarantee 50+ rooms, but I need some input from players. Unfortunately due to Frederick's ideal location (right inbetween DC and Baltimore) hotels aren't very cheap.
The BEST option I have right now preaches
quality/convenience rather than cheapness. It looks really promising, and is the Hampton Inn. The rates are usually $140/night, but I got them to take them down to $99 a night. I know this is somewhat expensive, but on top of it being a very nice hotel, having a spa+indoor pool, and a full breakfast there is a shuttle which runs across all of Frederick COMPLIMENTARY to the Hotel. The venue is inside the shuttle radius. This means players without cars won't have to worry about finding a ride from the hotel to the tournament or other places they would like to go.
So imagine this guys... You fly in, get picked up, taken to a hotel, shuttled to an amazing tournament there and back everyday, then get driven back to the airport when the tournament is over. No stress about rides or how you're going to get places, if you're going to be late, etc.
-OR-
Right now the
cheapest rooms I can find look like they're going to be about $55 per night for 2 beds. This however is an Econo Lodge, which as we all know isn't the best place to stay around. If people choose this I will probably try to do my own shuttle service for maybe like $5 per person each time they need to be driven to/from the venue. This would probably end up being more expensive than just paying for the better room w/ the shuttle service.
Let me know what you guys think. My main goal is to minimize confusion and stress of getting rides from airports and such and eliminate problems like Genesis is having with people not having housing, not being able to get rides, etc. If anyone knows me they know I like to get things sorted out ahead of time so everything can run as smooth as possible!
So bottom line is...
Would you guys prefer to spend like $10 a person and stay at somewhere not very nice or comfortable and try to figure out their own rides or spend $20 a person and stay at a nice hotel with a spa/breakfast/pool/shuttle service?
Would people want me to provide them rides to the venue/hotel from the airport? Let me know guys, I'm trying to make this as easy as possible for everyone, I want everyone to have a really great time and not stress about their plans!