Question about tour preferences

[MCHinson]

A sort of hypothetical question....

Let's assume that I am helping to plan an upcoming tour (since I am)...

If you were contemplating coming to Coastal Southeastern North Carolina for a three day tour early next May, would you prefer that the host hotel be...

a relatively new Hampton Inn in town (about 5 miles from the ocean) priced at $79 dollars per night, or would you rather spend the time in a local multistory (with elevators) non-chain ocean front hotel for $119 per night ?

As a local, I don't spend much time beachfront, or walking on the beach, but we are sort of thinking that visitors to the area might be more interested in that than we are.

[R W Burgess]

My personal opinion, Matt! I come to tours to tour. Then, of course, I'm not much of a beach man anymore.

I'd say if members want to hit the beach, they could drive to a public beach and enjoy the sunshine. Most AACA members are a chincy bunch, myself included. Saving money on hotel/motel fees are important to them.

Almost $40.00 a night for three days buys a lot of good food! Yum!

Wayne

[oldcarfudd]

Assuming either hotel is decent, with good food on premises or nearby, my choice would be the one with the shortest and safest distance to back roads for touring. I drive brass-era cars, and it warts my liver to go on a tour and find I have to do 5 miles of city driving, with strip malls and lights, at the beginning and end of each day's run. If I were driving a 50s or 60s car, the traffic would be less of an impediment.

If the hotels are essentially equal in this regard, I'd opt for the beach hotel. If I'm going to drag a trailer several hundred miles to a tour, I'd like to be close to something scenic that's representative of the area I'm visiting and different from what I can see at home.

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ

[Marty Roth]

The expensive hotel will probably also have an expensive breakfast. The chain includes breakfast, and when you are taking a spouse and maybe a grandchild or two, this adds up

Also, most of us who tour also earn or use points for the chain motels.

If there is ever a dispute with the facility, the chain will be more likely to resolve issues to the satisfaction of the party.

As you know, We come to tour, and a few extra miles is no big deal. I drive Brass, Nickle, and Chrome -- driving is driving !

I vote for the Chain, and look forward to driving the tour -- see you then (and sooner - too !! )

Edited September 16, 2010 by Marty Roth
crs (see edit history)

[MCHinson]

Just got back from a recon mission...

Still need opinions. The jury is still out, and we are trying to negotiate the rates down at the Beachfront hotel. The non-beach front hotel is actually closer to the beach than I thought, probably more like 2 or 3 miles, rather than 5 miles.

The Beachfront hotel is actually a bit nicer and the room price includes a full breakfast buffet, which is a much nicer and larger than the chain hotel's included continental breakfast.

The beachfront and the other hotel actually are both about the same location from proposed tour routes so the mileage is not really going to be different between the two.

Please keep the comments coming.

[Bill Boudway]

Hi,

I'd go with the Hampton.

The money saved would buy a really nice dinner.

Thanks for asking.

[mrspeedyt]

the cheap one looks the same as the expensive one when you are sleeping....

[Earl B.]

I'm for saving the money for food... and I do LOVE to eat!!! So, the Hampton sounds good to me ...B

[Marty Roth]

Staying at the Hampton will earn enough member points to cover the couple of additional nights on the road for our 2000-plus mile round trip to get to your tour --- Count us in!

Hampton Inn works for us

[Paul Dobbin]

My vote is the cheaper chain, assuming the tour itself will show us the sites,

including lots of beach.

Suggestion: List a nice beachfront restaurant for us to visit during our visit.

Remember not all the tourists always stay in or dine at the host hotel, the

breakfast beach folks may opt to stay elsewhere as they choose.

Is there a campground close by for the 10-15% who come in RV's?

[MCHinson]

Thanks for the input. Keep it coming. We are evaluating some other options as well. The initial thoughts of the committee were focusing on two specific hotels, but we wanted to learn a little bit more about what potential participants would prefer before we committed to anything with either of them as the host hotel.

It is going to be almost impossible to find one affordable host hotel that is large enough to hold everybody so there will most likely be two primary hotels, as well as information about others in the tour information.

There is also a KOA campground nearby, as well as a few other smaller campgrounds in the area. We will include the campground information in the tour information as well.

[Guest reatta1991]

We'd be driving the 67 Buick, but we'd go along with Oldcarfudd that the one closest to the touring roads would be best. We hate traffic...and it's all to easy ending up leading "half a group" for a while, till the two halves get back together!

However, if both venues are approximately equally deep in stop-and-go traffic, then go with the cheapest. Like the others have said, $40 a night buys a lot of food (for participants or their cars!)