Second Amendment Blog Bash

I’ve had some questions, and figured I’d post here to let everyone know what they can do for cheap housing. (Here’s the link to the housing program.)

First, there is a $99/night hotel - the Executive Inn. However, for anyone who lists a check-out date of Monday, May 19, they cannot see it as an option. After several phone calls, I finally figured out that there’s a reason for this, but not one that should stop you from taking advantage of it if you want the lower rate at the closer hotel, but want to leave on Monday.

You will need to sign up online, but set your check-out date for Sunday. Reserve the room, and get your acknowledgment number. Call the Conference Direct folks at 866-799-8878, and tell them you’re having trouble modifying your reservation online. Give them your acknowledgment number and name so they call pull it. If your operator is new, they may try to tell you that the hotel is booked Sunday night. As of now, that is far from the case. They have now sold out of the Sunday night room block. However, don’t be alarmed, read on.

Basically, the hotel didn’t sign up to have their rooms blocked off by the housing agent Sunday night because they weren’t sure of demand. The Conference Direct operator can put in a request to extend the reservation to a Monday check-out, and as of now, they are all being approved because the hotel has lots of open rooms on Sunday night. (I have confirmed this directly with the hotel as well.)  They should be able to put in a request and have an answer within a day or two.  At this time, they do seem to be granting extensions without issue, just delay.

However, there’s another trick around this.  The hotel has open rooms outside of the room block for now.  If you go straight to the Executive Inn website and choose either Friday through Monday or Thursday through Monday, you’ll pay more.  But for those of you who would like to stay until Monday and save a little money, you can order the $99 rate through NRA and check-out on Sunday.  But you can reserve a room directly with the hotel for Sunday night at only $79 (right now) and check back in while you’re downstairs at the desk.

Second, we have folks who would like to split rooms to cut costs. I think a little spontaneous order is the best way to solve this problem, so I’m un-moderating comments and suggest you guys use this post to put up requests/offers/etc.

Third, we’ve had questions about where most bloggers will be staying. From what I can tell, people are congregating at the Executive Inn because of the $99/night room rate and close location. Because demand for rooms is going to pick up when the March issues of the magazines hit, I didn’t want to designate one hotel and have people feel left out because they may end up at another one. I will also ask folks about their hotel in advance so I can put together a hotel list for fellow bloggers if people are interested in a few post-show beverages/meals/time to mingle.

For those of you who are looking to stay at another hotel, don’t be intimidated by those listings that say they are 100+ blocks away. The Expo center doesn’t have many hotels nearby. Traditionally, when faced with a location like this, NRA has sponsored shuttle buses to and from partner hotels.

You’re welcome to look for hotels not working with the housing reservation service. There may be better rates. However, I can’t promise that since there will probably be about 60,000+ people descending on Louisville for 3+ days. In addition, I don’t know what transportation to/from the Expo center will be offered.

I hope that answers most questions. Please email me or leave a comment if you have more or experience other difficulties.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am and is filed under Louisville. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.