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

[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

[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

[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]

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

Re: Coordinating hotels

[shmaylor]

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

Re: Coordinating hotels

[intransitive]

definitely need to figure out the public transit thing. both those hotels look good to me! sufficiently cheap (with roommates) and they both are run by larger hotel chains that I have good experiences with.

I don't have any experience with Airbnb and would prefer a hotel just for the ability to not worry so much about cleaning or other things?

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

[klb]

Okay, my new proposal is this place which should be SUPER close to the meetup space. I say we get it for four people: you, me, paraka, shmaylor. That would be $474 total, which is $60 per person per night. If a fifth or sixth person wants to get in, they could. Cost goes up with more people, so with 5 people it would be $53 per person per night and with 6 it would be $49 per person per night. I'm assuming the days would be Friday to Sun, which would mean check-in Friday at 3:00 PM and check-out Sunday at 11:00 AM. If people wanted to stay Sunday night and check out Monday morning, that would be something worth discussing, though I personally have to be back at work on Monday so I couldn't.

What do you think? If it looks good and all agree, I could go ahead and book it and if more people wanted to jump in I'm sure we could email the airbnb people to update the numbers later...

[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!

Re: Coordinating hotels

[revolutionaryjo]

I love this idea! So much that I almost don't want to stay at my own house. :) :)

Re: Coordinating hotels

[klb]

My new airbnb proposal

Re: Coordinating hotels

[klb]

My new airbnb proposal

Re: Coordinating hotels

[shmaylor]

That sounds like a great idea! The house looks really nice. I'll also be heading back to work on Monday, so I won't be staying Sunday night either.

My only question about that particular rental is that it looks like it has two queen beds and one queen air mattress. Are people okay with sharing beds? I'm cool with it, but I just wanted to check. Another option would be to bring extra air mattresses. I've got one that would probably fit in my carry-on. (Oh, and I guess there are couches as well, but I am Too Tall for sleeping on couches, so I don't tend to think of them as sleeping spaces)

Re: Coordinating hotels

[klb]

I think those are all good options. I'm cool with sleeping on a couch, and I'm also very comfortable with sharing a queen bed, if there is anyone who doesn't mind sharing with me! If everybody agrees to the rental, then I guess we can figure out the sleeping arrangements from there.

Re: Coordinating hotels

[eosrose]

I'm also down for the hotel plan. I don't mind a roommate, but I'm not confident in stepping outside the comfort zone of a hotel.

Even better if the hotel provides breakfast or is close to some good food choices... Unless we all decide to fundraise for some catering? But I don't think our group will be that big.

We're far enough out that maybe we start getting a headcount and negotiate a group rate for a hotel?

[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!!

Re: Coordinating hotels

[pi]

This is a bit outside my price range, I'm going to take RevolutionaryJo up on their offer down thread since then I can save money for food. I saw Reena offered up thread to be your hotel buddy, perhaps she'll want to join in for Fangirl house excellence?

[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/

Re: Coordinating hotels

[klb]

Nah, Reena opted to stay with a local as well. I guess I'll sit back for a bit and see how things develop and then decide whether to go with airbnb or hotel from there!

Re: Coordinating hotels

[bessyboo]

I located the address of this place with a little bit of creeping and I LOVE THIS IDEA. I love this for multiple reasons, partly selfish:



Because I'd be so close, I have a full size (I think??) air mattress it'd be super easy to get to you guys to use if needed. Also, if people need to stash luggage at my place on Sunday, they'd be welcome to.

I also have a car, which can be taken (either by me or someone else) to make runs to the Target & 24 hour grocery store like 5 minutes up the road, or the liquor store (about 10 minutes in the other direction).

Since there would be at least 4 people here, and me + the 2 people staying with me (and my fannish, podficcing roommate) like 5 blocks away, while it's not quite the "all in the same hotel" feel, it would indeed be a critical mass of fangirls all in a relatively small--certainly walkable--area.