Lodging Finder Post!

[revolutionaryjo]

For folks not in easy driving distance of the Twin Cities, you can use this post to find roommates to share a hotel room with or connect up with some of the locals who are able to host some attendees for the weekend!

The GPS Community Center is located at 1121 NE Jackson St., Minneapolis MN 55413. There are quite a few hotels in downtown Minneapolis that are an easy bus ride away. Google Maps should be able to give you the logistical lowdown on that, depending on which hotel you're looking up. Metro Transit also has your back.

Note: You may be tempted to stay at the University Inn off of 4th St as it's the closest hotel to the center, but trust me and do not do the thing. Maybe something has changed in the last decade since I lived in that area, but I know it as a place to avoid and am thus passing on this important info.

Locals, if you have some guest rooms or couch space you're able to spare, please chime in! Any space available at an individual's home is at their discretion, of course.

Comments

Coordinating hotels

[klb]

My thoughts:

-Since the FAQ says the meeting space might not be very quiet, it would be great to find a hotel that is likely to be quiet, so that if things get too noisy at the meeting space we can do some group recording at the hotel.
-For the sake of room parties after hours, it would be AWESOME if those of us planning to stay in hotels picked the same hotel.
-(Also if we did have room parties at hotels and they were far away from the homes of locals, some of those locals could totally crash in my room with me in any available space. I'd like to have at least 1 roommate, but probably there would still be room!)

Re: Coordinating hotels

[reena_jenkins]

Wanna be plane buddies AND hotel buddies? I'd be more than happy to be a roommate.

Re: Coordinating hotels

[klb]

YEP this is indeed what I want! :D

Re: Coordinating hotels

[audrey1nd]

I'm thinking of going, but I won't know if I'm able to until I know what classes I might be teaching in the Fall, but if so, I too would love to be plane buddies and hotel buddies (or if you only want 2 people in the room, just plane buddies is fine).

Re: Coordinating hotels

[klb]

OR

WHAT IF

AIRBNB

And we could all basically stay in a big house together (as many people as wanted to) and podfic as much as we wanted happily ever after all night?

Just for fun I entered in 10 guests and saw this place with 9 bedrooms that can hold up to 16 guests, for example.

Or this place can hold 5 people for what would amount to $38 per person per night.

Or this place can hold 8 people for what would amount to about $32 per person per night...

Not sure about proximity to the meetup space, because I wanted to post first and see if someone points out some reason why it's a bad idea.

Re: Coordinating hotels

[shmaylor]

Location-wise those last two look super close to the meetup space!

Re: Coordinating hotels

[pi]

I'd be interested in Airbnb as that seems way better for my price range and could be quite fun to have a house to gather at.
I've used Airbnb a fair bit and had great luck going by reviews. The 8 person place looks like it might be a great fit if it's close. The 2-5 person appt/loft might be a bit small if we fill to the 5 person capacity? Sad the 16 person place doesn't have reviews it'd be awesome to have 16 of us all together but I'm definitely leery of signing up for anywhere without reviews esp if reviews for other properties by the owner are a mixed bag. I haven't looked into location on any of these.

Re: Coordinating hotels

[paraka]

I'd totally be down for that!

Re: Coordinating hotels

[intransitive]

(this is Kes - can never remember who remembers my weird DW name!)

I have sleep issues that make it hard for me to have roommates, but I definitely want to be in the same hotel as you & others! Happy to offer my room as quiet podficcing space if needed.

What hotels are people looking at?

Re: Coordinating hotels

[klb]

Maybe The Grand Hotel Minneapolis or The Marquette?

According to hipmunk, the former is $159 per night and the latter is $139 per night. Though idk how that factors like having roommates might play into that pricing. I've just been going back and forth between hipmunk and yelp to try to find places that seem good and not too expensive... and eventually google maps to figure out the distance away on public transit would probably be a good thing to crosscheck, too, once options are narrowed down.

Re: Coordinating hotels

[shmaylor]

I really like the idea of trying to get everyone in the same hotel! (Or an Airbnb, but I've never used Airbnb before, so I don't know much about it)

It also looks like there are a bunch of hotels right near each other, so even if there isn't space for everyone in the same hotel, it should still be possible to get everyone within a quarter mile.

If we end up going the hotel route instead of the airbnb route, I'd definitely like a roommate to split costs with, so anyone else that's looking for a roommate, ping me :D

[revolutionaryjo]

I can comfortably fit a couple more people into my house via couch, futon, and air mattress! I am about a 20 minute drive from the GPS Center on the West side of the metro area though, and public transportation is not a viable option. So anyone staying with me is basically dependent on me driving them around.

Not that I don't love you all, but I'd prefer to have folks I've at least met in the real world before stay with me. Let me know if you're interested!

[pi]

Oooh! Me! That would be awesome bc a lot of considerations up so far are a wee bit out of my hoped-for price range. I'd be totally cool with relying on your transportation and would be delighted to hang out with your awesome self!!

[revolutionaryjo]

You got it!

So note to anyone else interested: If you're up for staying with me, brace yourselves for all Raven Cycle and all anime all the time whooooooo. \o/

[revolutionaryjo]

FYI, all my space has been accounted for at this point! If the situation changes, I'll update.

The situation has changed! I have space again for one more person who wouldn't mind sleeping on my large and luxurious couch.

[bessyboo]

Can confirm the comfyness of said couch *thumbs up emoji*

[opalsong]

I'm so late at thinking about lodging -_- Is your couch still available (I am tiny and fit easily on a couch... I think I slept in Bess's basket chair for a visit once...)? If not that's cool (sooooo laaaaaate)!

[itsadrizzit]

I have to confirm with my lovely husband (JonasSollers/WhiteHaru37), but I think we have room for one, maybe two people to stay with us. That said...

1. We are old people and we go to bed at like 10. You're welcome to stay up past that as long as you can be quiet. We've got decent internet and really nice cable with TVs in the living room and the second bedroom, so you can probs entertain yourself pretty easily. HOWEVER! We also get up at like 7am so you have to be okay with that.

2. We don't live that close to the venue, but we do live in a pretty cool neighbourhood with pretty good food (I refer to it as hipster-foodie town). We're in south Minneapolis and it will be about a 20-30 minute drive. However, if you're cool with just heading to the venue when I head to the venue (or if you have your own car) then this shouldn't be an issue.

3. We have 6000 dietary restrictions between us. This means that we cook all the time (and we're good at it) which you can definitely reap the benefits of. It also means that we don't have common foods like cereal, actual milk, bread, soda/pop, junk food, or sometimes alcohol in our house. We can probably get you some with enough notice.

4. I don't drive, but Jonas does. You'll have to petition him to drive you places, but he's kinda a pushover.


We have an extra bedroom with a fold down couch, an air mattress that someone can sleep on, and a kinda broken queen size futon. However, because of apt size I'd say we really can't accommodate more than 2 extras. No one (myself included) sleeps on the couch because it's the first ever piece of big girl furniture I've bought, so it has restrictions.

Like Jo, I'd be more comfortable with someone I've at least interacted with IRL (possibly via Twitter provided we've had more than a few interactions) to stay with me if possible.

LMK if you're cool with this and I'll casually mention to Jonas that some people are going to be staying with us that weekend btw.

If not, that's cool, I'm still happy to deliver an air mattress somewhere and we can probably also do things like help out by making Target/grocery runs for people staying elsewhere.

Friday Arrival & Monday Departure Folks!

[lattice_frames]

Kind of bouncing off of KLB's idea of getting an airbnb house, but for folks who aren't leaving until Monday. KLB, correct me if I'm wrong but y'all are checking out on Sunday right?

As of right now it's p much me and marianas looking for an extra couple folks to fill out a house & we found one that has a hot tub.

THIS ONE has a HOT TUB and a max of 4 people. For three nights that runs $114.25/person total (38.08/night/person)

THIS ONE is cute and super hipstery if a bit pricier at $122/person for 3 nights.

THIS ONE is a bed & a sofa bed for $105.25/person for 3 nights.

If more people are interested, there's THIS ONE that takes up to 8 people, 6 comfortably and for 3 nights runs $167.50 for 4, $147.40 for 5, $133.84 for 6, $124.29 for 7, and $117.13 for 8

I'm not sure who else is still looking for housing or who might be interested in making sure there's a HOT TUB (seriously, c'mon). I'm not much fussed by sharing with someone I've never met (irl or online, though if we've never talked I'd love to chat before showing up together!) and if folks have concerns about cleaning/etc I'd be glad to take that on.

ETA: I thought this one had disappeared, but it's not gone and is $91.75/person

Re: Friday Arrival & Monday Departure Folks!

[elaineofshalott]

I'd maybe be in for this if you still have room for people! Just have to check w/ my boss that I can take that Fri. & Mon. off.

Re: Friday Arrival & Monday Departure Folks!

[lattice_frames]

as of right now, we're still at 2 & you'd make 3! If you know anyone else who's still looking for a spot & you'd like them to join, please send them our way and we can get booking

Re: Friday Arrival & Monday Departure Folks!

[isweedan]

Could I be part of this gourp? :D

[forzandopod]

Considering that podfication is like a month away (!!!!) I figure I should do those important things like book my flight and figure out where I'm staying

So!
I was also thinking airbnb, probably Fri-Mon but I could have some flexibility on the Monday v Sunday side bc I'm going to be staying with friends for a few days. Here is what I have found:

This one has a lot of space with room for up to 8 people with 4 double/queen beds plus two couches. For four people that'd be $123 each or $41/person/night going down ~$10 for each additional person, and if my creeping is accurate like a block from the first airbnb group

This one has 2 queen beds and a couch and can have up to 4 people. $112 each or $37.33/person/night. This one is like two blocks from the OTHER airbnb group :P

This one has three double beds, one of which is a sofa bed. A little bit further away but not bad. $95.25 each or 31.75/person/night

I'm partial to the first one bc more space and we would have the whole house so no potentially disturbing the other floor (or them disturbing us) but that's also a little pricier so I'm up for whatever!

[vassalady]

I would absolutely be up for joining in. (I'd only be staying Friday and Saturday night though, because I need to be back at work first thing Monday.) Have you gotten any other interest yet?

[forzandopod]

No not yet! And depending what other (future, not yet found) people are planning on I could definitely do Fri-Sun as well, but you are most definitely in!