Venue for Atlanta NAC

[RETLAG]

With the USFA website down, I can't find out what the venue is going to be for the Atlanta NAC. Can anyone enlighten me? While you're at it, any suggestions for nearby hotels?

[Craig]

The Atlanta NAC will be at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Craig

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Any idea about the starting times?

[mlr2fence]

Try the websites for THS and the Georgia World Congress Center, I know that Westin, Wyndham and Embassy Suites are nearby.

[Dee EffEll]

Try the websites for THS and the Georgia World Congress Center, I know that Westin, Wyndham and Embassy Suites are nearby.

My Advice: stay as far away from the THS people as you can. They did their level best to hose my reservations for Palm Springs last year. I made a reservation directly with the Wyndam, complete with getting a reservation number in return for my credit card info. I got a phone message from THS 3 days before the event to the effect they had *cancelled* my reservation because I didn't go through them and they are the *official* USFA provider.

It worked out in the end (Wyndam made things right after an hour on the phone with them), but the THS-USFA deal has to be the unholiest of unions. I *will not* use THS, ever.

[i'mnottelling]

My Advice: stay as far away from the THS people as you can. They did their level best to hose my reservations for Palm Springs last year. I made a reservation directly with the Wyndam, complete with getting a reservation number in return for my credit card info. I got a phone message from THS 3 days before the event to the effect they had *cancelled* my reservation because I didn't go through them and they are the *official* USFA provider.

It worked out in the end (Wyndam made things right after an hour on the phone with them), but the THS-USFA deal has to be the unholiest of unions. I *will not* use THS, ever.

What gives THS the authority to cancel your reservation? The reservation that YOU made is between you and the Wyndam. The THS has no business cancelling a reservation they didn't make.

The USFA needs to part ways with the THS.

i'mnt

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

What gives THS the authority to cancel your reservation? The reservation that YOU made is between you and the Wyndam. The THS has no business cancelling a reservation they didn't make.

The USFA needs to part ways with the THS.

i'mnt

Bout to say.... thats not fair!

[Dee EffEll]

What gives THS the authority to cancel your reservation? The reservation that YOU made is between you and the Wyndam. The THS has no business cancelling a reservation they didn't make.

My point exactly. Turns out the Wyndam, in the long run agreed with me. Took an hour on the phone to 3 supervisors in locations far far from me, for me to convince them of this.

The USFA needs to part ways with the THS.

i'mnt

Yep. Apparently, someone at the USFA is taking an interest. I got a survey regarding my experience at nationals in Charlotte. From the wording of the questions, it was pretty clear someone at the USFA was interested in the quality at the host hotel. Fairly, I do appreciate the USFA's interest. Nice of them to ask the fencers what they want. They did a survey at the event in Palm Springs as well. Kudos to whoever is doing the asking.

[Emfuser]

I have looked at this relationship with suspicion. It seems that THS made a deal that always selects friggin 5-star hotels or other needlessly expensive lodgings for us. It seems awfully clear that they're more interested in lining the pockets of their "friendly" business partners than they are their clients.

How about those of us that don't want to spend that sort of dough just to sleep? I'm working a day shift on the 9th, hauling my butt straight to ATL after work, not getting a full nights sleep, and getting right up to fence the next day. I'm not paying $130/night for that.

[Emfuser]

Craig, since you're there, can you tell us a good *cheap* place to stay that's near the GWCC?

[Dee EffEll]

I have looked at this relationship with suspicion. It seems that THS made a deal that always selects friggin 5-star hotels or other needlessly expensive lodgings for us. It seems awfully clear that they're more interested in lining the pockets of their "friendly" business partners than they are their clients.

How about those of us that don't want to spend that sort of dough just to sleep? I'm working a day shift on the 9th, hauling my butt straight to ATL after work, not getting a full nights sleep, and getting right up to fence the next day. I'm not paying $130/night for that.

Well, understand that the USFA selects only one venue hotel for convenience. And the venue hotel is where they put the directors and BC. They can't expect refs they already pay shockingly low per diem rates to stay in a fleabag.

But yeah, unless the convenience of the venue hotel is so obvious as to make it reasonable to pay the usual $120/night (like it makes it so we don't have to rent a car), I stay elsewhere.

[oiuyt]

Just for reference, all three of the hotels listed by THS are for $99.00/night.

Note sure where these quotes of $120 and $130 are coming from, my experience is that since THS became involved nearly every hotel has been in the $80-90 range with a VERY few as high as $100 (as is the case in Atlanta). For the couple of seasons preceeding THS involvement the prices typically were in the $90-110 range. Hotel prices have dropped with THS.

Whether or not there are OTHER problems (cancelling reservations) is a separate issue. Complain about them, sure. Complain about the rates, no.

Can you do better on your own than THS? Probably. But at least the default is better than it was. Given that THS costs the USFA (or fencers) nothing, we're better off with them than we were before.

-B :)

[oiuyt]

Okay, I just went through the THS site looking at hotels for all announced NACs. Looks like the host hotel will always be $99 this season.

For December the overflow hotel is $79.

For January the overflow hotels range from $75-90.

For JO's the overflow hotels range from $65-99.

I believe all hotels listed are at least AAA 3-diamond hotels.

-B :)

[fencerX]

Given that THS costs the USFA (or fencers) nothing,

Oh, don't be silly. It isn't a given that THS costs nothing. Instead it's a given that THS isn't working for free. Just because they aren't being paid directly by the USFA or fencers, doesn't mean THS costs fencers nothing -- in the end the money THS makes comes out of the pockets of fencers booking hotel rooms through them. THS obviously knows how it makes its money and that's why they've tried to screw with reservations made at the various "host" hotels that didn't go through them.

[oiuyt]

I still assert that the average cost of hotel expenses to the USFA and the fencers attending NACs has decreased since THS started working with us. Whether that's attributable to cost savings that the USFA wasn't able to accualize for whatever reason (economy of scale, inexpertise, whatever), a downturn in the hotel industry, or even just random variation, the fact remains that we now spend less than we did without THS. Okay, if the reduced cost isn't connected with THS then THS might be unneeded, but the USFA contracted with THS with the intention of reducing costs and costs are now lower and I'm, therefore, willing to give THS the benefit of the doubt and believe that their actions have something to do with it.

Does THS make money off of the deal? Yes, of course. I believe that they are claiming a portion of the money that was previously left on the table by the USFA and individual members, with another portion being returned to the USFA and members in the form of reduced rates.

Looking back at my statement, I suppose I could modify it to be THS costs nothing directly. All of the indirect costs are included in the rates charged, which are currently averaging lower than before THS. So whatever portion of the rate you want to attribute to indirect THS costs, it's less than the reduction in base cost.

-B :)

[Dee EffEll]

Just for reference, all three of the hotels listed by THS are for $99.00/night.

Note sure where these quotes of $120 and $130 are coming from, my experience is that since THS became involved nearly every hotel has been in the $80-90 range with a VERY few as high as $100 (as is the case in Atlanta). For the couple of seasons preceeding THS involvement the prices typically were in the $90-110 range. Hotel prices have dropped with THS.
-B

Is that $99 before the usual 20% tax? Remember, most places have out-of-towners type taxes. Try making the reservation and see what the total is.

[CvilleFencer]

The site for the Richmond NAC is easy to get to and there are tons of decent hotels out there. If you take a 2 star about a 10-15 minute drive from the site then you can get it for 40-50 dollars a nite. NO need to spend a fortune to stay in Richmond. I will be happy to give out recomendations if you let me know exactly what you are looking for and how far you are will to drive or taxi to the venue.

[oiuyt]

Is that $99 before the usual 20% tax? Remember, most places have out-of-towners type taxes. Try making the reservation and see what the total is. :cry:

Apples-to-apples. All of the prices I've cited have come from the same sources. The prices listed pre-tax. The prices are, on average, lower now with THS than before without them, unless there's a "THS-tax" which gets added on. :eyeroll: If it's $99+tax now and $110+tax before, I'd prefer the now situation, regardless of what the final numbers are, barring extreme changes in the tax portion (which are largely uncontrollable by us in any case and frequently a percentage of the base charge).

If I were paying my way to NACs I'd be likely to look around for other, cheaper, convenient, alternatives to the host hotel and only use the host when I couldn't find anything with worthwhile price savings. Until I started reffing every national event I attended this was my practice (and still has been on occasion since). So for the most part the host hotel just set an upper-limit for what I needed to spend. The lower that upper limit the better of I (or any other fencer) is. With THS that upper limit has averaged lower than in the preceeding years. Yet people complain about the host hotels costing too much. Just doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, I thoguht they were too expensive, so I frequently went elsewhere for accomidations. That option is still available to everyone. The situation is now better for thsoe that cannot or will not spend the effort and accept the negative downsides of doing so. This is a good thing.

I'm done with this. I've outlined my position and why I think THS has made the situation better. I may revisit the topic on another thread at some point in the future, but I'm going to leave it alone here for now. I've seen nothing here that comes close to showing that -- finanacially -- THS has hurt the USFA or fencers. I agree that arguments against their activities with regards to cancelling reservations not invovling them are wrong. As mentioned earlier, feel free to complain about them for that. Just don't complain that they're costing us money.

-B :)