I did the travel vb with dd. Several stay and play. Only once was we satisfied with hotel. I see it as my money so I choose where to spend it. I am picky about hotels. No one should give u grief for staying at a different hotel. This summer we have several softball tourneys at a location about 2.5 hrs away and we will be using our camper instead of the hotel.
Team travel question
- Thread starter junkball
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This is especially true for the Triple Crown tournaments; however, the rules state that every team must book 30 nights at these tournament selected hotels. So if it's a 5 night/6 day stay, 6 families need to book one room each at the select hotel. I found this out the hard way...last summer, the team waited too long to get block of rooms...ended up with nightly rate of $249/night!! We choked that down, and realized that some families didn't stay there too. That is when I found out about that rule in more detail. So...this summer, DH and DD are staying with team hotel for Colorado tournament (but this one is only $112/night); I rented a house for Reno.
- Dec 7, 2011
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I would review what we did in TB as follows:
1/3 of DD's travel teams over the years had a predominant good group of parents that we would hang with. 2/3 had factions and or intolerable parents that might force me to not want hang with the "primary" parent crowd.
But in 98% of the time we would be in the same hotel. At least giving that appearance of "team" and making a quick cameo with the big parent crowd even if we could not tolerate (or be tolerated... who knows that could have been the case too).
We had some questionable hotels too with moldy ones and ones where, like actually happened, we were having beers in the parking lot in Joplin MO and we ended up in the middle of a pimps business travel routine dropping off and picking up call girls at the lovely hotel we were at! Scary at that time but makes for great funny memories.
1/3 of DD's travel teams over the years had a predominant good group of parents that we would hang with. 2/3 had factions and or intolerable parents that might force me to not want hang with the "primary" parent crowd.
But in 98% of the time we would be in the same hotel. At least giving that appearance of "team" and making a quick cameo with the big parent crowd even if we could not tolerate (or be tolerated... who knows that could have been the case too).
We had some questionable hotels too with moldy ones and ones where, like actually happened, we were having beers in the parking lot in Joplin MO and we ended up in the middle of a pimps business travel routine dropping off and picking up call girls at the lovely hotel we were at! Scary at that time but makes for great funny memories.
- Feb 3, 2011
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For starters, kudos to you for stepping up and helping out. You didn't have to, but you chose to, because you've got a kind heart. I applaud that. That said, if they're just breaking your balls a little bit, I don't know that this is that big of a deal. You've got to have thicker skin than that to go with your kind heart.
Just roll with it. I also have to give kudos to your organizer who found a low-cost hotel for the team. I'll never fault anyone for trying to save money (I'm a non-political fiscal conservative!), but they may not have known that the place they selected would not be up to everyone's standards. Likewise, if you're using points or getting points for a future free stay, you should not feel badly for saving yourself money by going with your "in network" chain.
There's a lot of social benefit to the girls hanging out with one another at the "team hotel". But there's nothing at all wrong with having some pool time or twilight slumber party time and then picking up your DD before curfew and taking her to your family's hotel for the night.
- Feb 3, 2011
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For huge, national tournaments, stay-to-play for the teams allows the tournament organizers to get free rooms for their out-of-town staff, mainly umpires. As a coach, parent, or player, you want the best umpires possible working the most meaningful tournaments, so it's a cost you're willing to live with, even though your gut reaction might be to say "this policy stinks".
- Apr 1, 2010
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For TB we all stay in the same hotel; someone usually sees if we can get a discounted rate for the team.
When DD had an overnight for a high school softball tournament, DH and I stayed at a different hotel.
When DD had an overnight for a high school softball tournament, DH and I stayed at a different hotel.
Staying at another hotel shouldn't be an issue if the family hangs out with the team and doesn't impose on others.
FWIW, I think stay-to-play started out fine - events negotiated favorable rates in a competitive market where they profited without teams having to pay a higher rate. The worst rates seem to be when a for-profit company handles the rooms as they also need to get a cut.
FWIW, I think stay-to-play started out fine - events negotiated favorable rates in a competitive market where they profited without teams having to pay a higher rate. The worst rates seem to be when a for-profit company handles the rooms as they also need to get a cut.
Part of the issue is that when we travel, some of us are local, meaning our team is spread out over 300 miles. So not all of us need to stay in a hotel depending upon where the tournament is.
The other problem is that less than 1/2 our schedule is firm, and the other half is on the fly. The qualifiers we had scheduled have all been taken off since we got our berth, so now we are scheduling based upon where everyone else is playing. For example, this weekend coming up we had two possible locations, but it didn't become obvious until this week which one of the two we would be playing. They are about 250 miles apart.
The other problem is that less than 1/2 our schedule is firm, and the other half is on the fly. The qualifiers we had scheduled have all been taken off since we got our berth, so now we are scheduling based upon where everyone else is playing. For example, this weekend coming up we had two possible locations, but it didn't become obvious until this week which one of the two we would be playing. They are about 250 miles apart.
- Feb 3, 2011
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Not a problem.
Problem. Congratulations on earning your berth already, but IMO your coach needs to give you a firmer plan of what the remainder of the season will be given that you don't have to do any more qualifiers.
In our case, our HC told us BEFORE families even signed on for the season that our #1 goal was to qualify for PGF. If we get a berth, we're going. If we don't qualify, then our fallback plan is to attend Triple Crown and then ASA Nationals which is local for us. The PGF qualifier is going to be an extremely tough tournament and is not until May, but we already know what we'll be doing in the event we miss out on a berth, allowing families to make plans accordingly.
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