24T42 Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Since it has been 10 years since I planned a National event, I was wondering if you would give me some idea about current prices? What have you paid recently for -Host hotel/night?Banquet prices?I know that your answer will depend on -1. - where the event was located, and 2. - was it a tour or car show.Just out of curiosity, was there a price you just thought too high and so passed on going?Thanks is advance.Judy Edwards1999 Vintage Tour Chair2009 Vintage Tour Chair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Over a 100 views and no posts. Hmnn!I am not asking you to name the show/tour - only what price you paid. I am just trying to see if the prices I am getting are competitive.If you don't want to post on the forum, you can always email me at - brassnickel@gmail.com Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R W Burgess Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 I'm not ignoring you, Judy.Most hotels/motels I stay at are less than $100.00. That's why I consider Philly a great deal, and Hershey?? Well, let's gets into that. Hope that helps.Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Peterson Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Yup. Around $100/night is what I consider affordable, and I often experience that AACA National events get that rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Shaw Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Frankly, I think several tours are becoming overpriced. There is a national tour this summer within easy driving range where I live, but the registration fees are too high for me:"Registration Fee. This fee includes all activities planned during the week. Included are also hospitality costs (food and drinks), administrative expenses, insurance, dash plaques, tour information, awards, etc. There will be 5 lunches and 2 dinners. A late fee of $25.00 must be added for registrations after May 16, 2009."Registration for Driver $253.00 x _________ = $ __________Additional Registration $193.00 x _________ = $ __________Children Registration 17 & under $170.00 x _________ = $ __________Standard roome with two beds are $99 per nite for five nights = $500.00 + hotel taxes.....For only two people the total cost will be over $1000.00 for five days of touring."Perhaps the tour leaders do not negotiate pricing with hotels and/or rely too much on hotel catering where hotels typically charge relatively high prices for food and services. I prefer pay-as-you-go tours where I can buy what I want off the menu and order from two or three selections for the awards dinner. I prefer three full days of touring with maybe an evening warm up run on arrival and an optional half day tour on departure day. Five days of touring in pre-1916 cars is fun, but a little goes a long way....My 2 cents... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Peterson Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Mark,You might want to point out that event to which you refer is NOT an AACA event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Thanks everyone for your responses. I would say that we definitely going to be competitive. The host hotel rate is $69.95/night plus tax. Each room will have a microwave, refrigerator and you get a free continental breakfast. The hotel even has a guest laundry.Our banquet is looking to be in the $15-20 price range. This will be an all you can eat Carolina pig-picking with 3 meats, 3 vegetables, bread , tea and dessert. I know the key to be successful is affordability. Other than Philly, I don't make it to many National events. Most of our attendance is day trips. I just wanted to make sure we were on the right track and it appears that we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Peterson Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Sign me up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R W Burgess Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Mark, you needed to have slipped down to Sonora, CA for their Western Tour(Too late now). The registration fee was only like $108.00 for the 4 day tour. Room rates were very reasonable. Air flight from Richmond Virginia even better at around $318.00. (get them while they're still in business. ) At any rate, as the other poster mentioned, having tourers eat on their own for most of these AACA Tours or having picnics can really make a tour affordable, in my opinion.Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Roth Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Judy,You have once again created a winner, but then everything you do seems to have been well planned and thought-out. Affordability has become a more notable factor.Your 1999 Vintage tour was excellent from location to pricing, to fun factor to your fantastic TOUR BOOK.Count us IN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest windjamer Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Judy im not in to touring,if I was I would say sign me up in a heartbeat.Your tour sounds VARY affordable to me and I must admit being simi retired/retarded Im (I cant spell echonomacal)cheep(cheap-RWB). I think as soon as the hotels find out a group is comeing the price gos up. Hotels in Bufalow for the AGNM averaged $100. a night. The same bed was $69.-$79.the week befor and after. I want to sleep there, I dont want to pay the morgage. $ 40.00 a head for a chicken dinner is to me a little steep. I can have steak the trimings and a beer at outback steakhouse for less than that. Like I said, Im cheep (Cheap-RWB).(cant spell that outher word) just my 2 cents. BTW, I wasted a hundred bucks on the bed in Bufalow. I would have gotten a better nights sleep in the back of my truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R W Burgess Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Dick, you can't spell "cheap" either, but I won't hold it against you. Folks, don't get upset. Dick and I are friends who can mess with each other. Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Dobbin Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 I've been away from the Forum so I missed making an early comment.Costs seem high for that VMCCA Tour you mentioned, but we enjoy them anyway. What we look for is a full hookup campground nearby. I hate to drive my house and still have to rent a room. In all our years of touring we find about 15-20% of the tourists come in motor homes. Six nights is a little long without fresh water and a sewer. Sometimes the host will arrange for a pump out mid-week (at our cost) and provide a water tap to refill with fresh H20.Your Vintage tour sounds good, need a 34 Ford? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share Posted March 10, 2009 Paul,Unfortunately the Vintage Tour is for cars 1931 and older or else I would yes. In 1999, we lucked out with the RV parking. The 1999 Vintage Tour was also home based in Fuquay-Varina, NC. Across the street from the host hotel there was a vacant lot waiting development. We got permission to park the RV homes there. The Town was nice enough to install a temporary power pole, at their expense, so that power would be available. They brought trash cans so that took care of the garbage issue. But the property had sewer cutoffs so the Town set one up as a dump station. All this at the low cost of nothing to the RVer. I don't we will be that lucky this time as Fuquay has experience an explosion of growth in the last ten years and vacant lots are hard to find. I can't promise anything but we are working on it. It is great to work with a small town that wants you back. For 10 years they have been after us to come.On Wednesday night, the downtown merchants are blocking off Main Street and providing a free hamburger/hot dog dinner for the tourers. They will have the local Dixieland band performing. In 1999, it was estimated that 6,500 people came to Fuquay to look at the 34 cars that were registered. The police said they hadn't seen that large of a traffic jam in Fuquay ever.We are making every effort to keep costs down. I would say that at least 80% of the places we will visit will be free of charge. So the only expense will be lunch. Because of the very rural nature of the NC back roads we will be traveling, we most often have to go with a catered lunch. The only food available in most small towns is fast food and none of them can handle the number of tour people involved in lunch. However, you can opt out of the lunch and choose a place for lunch that you would like. In the tour book (instead of written instructions, I do a graphic snapshot of each intersection) I list the food options that you will run across in any day's touring. So finding lunch should not be a problem.Please check the Brass-Nickel Touring Region web site for updates. I recently posted the information about the host hotel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72caddy Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Late to the topic, but my .02I travel the coutry for work and usually stay at Hamptons, Hamptom Inns, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Marriotts, and occasionally a Hilton. Our travel department work deligently to get the best rates - we are also a gov contractor. So we get a good rate but usually get the handicap rooms by the elevator (noisey).These usually have a breakfest, good parking lot lighting, sometimes security. If you can get a room rate below $100 a night in a big city you are doing good. In smaller towns the price can vary greatly (70's to 90's).Sorry, can't help on the other costs. I have never been on a tour - heck I can't even make the week club meetings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share Posted March 10, 2009 Here is a sample page from the 1999 Vintage Tour Book.Ever effort is made to identify gas stations, restrooms and restaurants that you will encounter along the route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R W Burgess Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Can't beat your tour booklets, Judy. They should be required reading in the AACA Policies and Procedures Manual. Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novaman Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 The hotel rate sound great. I think it about what the Sentimental Tour including the free breakfast was but I don't think there was a microwave in the rooms.One thing that gets me is going to a national meet and having to pay to park the trailer. I'm already paying $25 to enter the car in the show, why should I have to lay out another $10 -$25 to park the trailer? That's like having a $50 entry fee.This was slightly touched on at Philly. The person's comment was more towards that fact AACA is trying to recruit young people (pre-21) but doesn't to much to help the young adults that are through school, and trying to afford a place to live, raise a family, etc. Events are usually priced where they can't afford to attend. I'm one of them. If it wasn't for my parents, I wouldn't be able to attend much of anything. It's be the Spring Meet in Charlotte 'cause it's only 1-1/2 hr away. The awards banquet in Philly I skipped because I can't afford the $40 or so for just 1 meal. Nor could I afford the three night stay by myself. We (AACA regions & members) need to remember the younger folks with families when planning events. I understand there is only so much you can do to cut costs. One of the main reasons those on the Sentimental Tour got a refund was at the last minute, the Alamance County Tourism folks chipped in and bought everyone's closing dinner. Exhaust every avenue of gaining outside finicanal help.(Sorry I didn;t intend on writing a book here nor try to hijack the thread.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R W Burgess Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thanks David, was wondering where that money came from. A nice gesture! Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share Posted March 10, 2009 David,You didn't hijack the thread. All comments, pro and con, are welcomed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novaman Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 I knew it wasn't a true hijack but I did take us on a tangent that some could conceive to be an attempt at it. But I did feel it needed to be brought up.Judy, how do you do your direction pages for the tour book? I wanted to do something simlar for the Sentimental Tour but ran into time issues that prevented me from trying. (I had thursday's route laid out. a week before the the tour I got a call from a member saying there is now a detour- bridge out. two or three days before the tour I'm out running the route with the detour double checking the directions and find they freshly tarred and graveled one of the roads so it was back to rewritting the instrustions again plus getting the rest of the tour book together. That's why when everyone got thier books there was no Thursday route in it.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 12, 2009 Author Share Posted March 12, 2009 David,I am not exactly sure what you mean by "... how do you do your direction pages for the tour book? " I am having a dull brain day today.We had to delay the handing out of tour books by about a hour because we had some last minute changes to one of the routes. (This must be a common problem). I just printed a new page (fortunately the numbering didn't get messed up) and then replaced the bad page. This wasn't easy as the books had already been assembled and were spiral bound. This year, I am going to with a Rollabind system. It lays completely flat and the pages turn 360 degrees. In case of having to change or add pages is a snap to use. Rollabind allows the users to replace, refill, interchange and rearrange pages without the trouble of having to take out other pages in the reorganization process. Yea! <object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOXp2nD5mE8"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOXp2nD5mE8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object> Did that answer your question? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R W Burgess Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Just the You-Tube impressed the heck out of me! Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 13, 2009 Author Share Posted March 13, 2009 Wayne,Glad you liked it. It is a pretty slick system of organizing papers. Since I discovered it a few years ago, I use it for all my Ebay stuff, tatting patterns, photo albums, recipes, Board minutes, treasury reports, address books, etc. You can make any size book you want. It should be perfect for tour books. The true test will be in October on the Vintage Tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R W Burgess Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Thanks, I expect to be there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCHinson Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Judy and Wayne, I will plan to see you there....On another note, Judy, what is up with the Brass-Nickel Website? I can't seem to get it to open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 14, 2009 Author Share Posted March 14, 2009 We would be delighted to have you join us for the Tour. We have had a good response so I am hoping it will be a sell-out - at least for a Vintage Tour!The Brass-Nickel web site is working in Firefox but is down in Explorer. I will TRY to fix it tomorrow. Keep you posted on my progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24T42 Posted March 29, 2009 Author Share Posted March 29, 2009 I have fixed the problem with the Brass-Nickel web site. It should be working in Explorer now. Please let me know if it will not open for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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