Pursuant to the Poll Fatdog posted regarding this year's possible meet and testing the waters for the idea that we might have our meet at a beach front hotel.... I did some research. Most of what I posted below is in the other thread, but I thought I'd start another, more specific poll in the hopes this will generate more interest. Based on the previous lack of response to Fatdog's poll, I'm starting to wonder if we should even bother.
Anyway, last year I attended a wedding at http://www.postcardinn.com/ and I remember thinking this would be an awesome place for us to have a meet.... Their main banquet room is on the 2nd floor over the lobby and is well away from any rooms. (no noise issues). Plus, there is an outside balcony overlooking the hotel's courtyard and you can see the Gulf of Mexico from there. There is a good BBQ restaurant below, and the decor is surfer-cool. There is a nice pool area and a huge beach bar with live music at night. No shortage of fun for the entire family.
Well, on a whim I called and spoke with their sales office. If we could sell 10 rooms for the Friday night before our meet, at $139.99 per room, then they would reserve the banquet room for us exclusively at no additional charge. No early time limit for us to vacate the room, no tables or chairs to build or break down, etc... And if we book more rooms and/or room nights (like maybe some of you want to come with family and make a real vacation out of this) then we could work a sliding cost scale that decreases the our group's roomrate. Say, for example, if we end up booking 15 rooms it drops to $125 per night. (Weeknights cost less, and they will send me some vacation packages if I ask).
St.Petersburg Beach is an awesome place, easy for the whole family to have a really good time. Easy to get to from either Tampa International or Clearwater/St.Pete airports.
The catch with the Postcard Inn is that they are already booked for a wedding that same weekend we are talking about, so we'd have to do the meet after July 4th, or before June 25th. Or, find another similar location (maybe a bit further up the west coast, or over on the east coast as Ed suggested). There are many such hotels in Florida, but not all of them have a banquet room that would easily accomodate us. Regardless of whether we do the meet at the location above on a different weekend, or if we go for another location that can match that price and give us a meeting room for the day (without time limit):...
Incidentally, the rooms have two beds in them, so those of you who are single and maybe put-off by the $140 per night room cost can maybe share rooms and split that cost....
Anyway, last year I attended a wedding at http://www.postcardinn.com/ and I remember thinking this would be an awesome place for us to have a meet.... Their main banquet room is on the 2nd floor over the lobby and is well away from any rooms. (no noise issues). Plus, there is an outside balcony overlooking the hotel's courtyard and you can see the Gulf of Mexico from there. There is a good BBQ restaurant below, and the decor is surfer-cool. There is a nice pool area and a huge beach bar with live music at night. No shortage of fun for the entire family.
Well, on a whim I called and spoke with their sales office. If we could sell 10 rooms for the Friday night before our meet, at $139.99 per room, then they would reserve the banquet room for us exclusively at no additional charge. No early time limit for us to vacate the room, no tables or chairs to build or break down, etc... And if we book more rooms and/or room nights (like maybe some of you want to come with family and make a real vacation out of this) then we could work a sliding cost scale that decreases the our group's roomrate. Say, for example, if we end up booking 15 rooms it drops to $125 per night. (Weeknights cost less, and they will send me some vacation packages if I ask).
St.Petersburg Beach is an awesome place, easy for the whole family to have a really good time. Easy to get to from either Tampa International or Clearwater/St.Pete airports.
The catch with the Postcard Inn is that they are already booked for a wedding that same weekend we are talking about, so we'd have to do the meet after July 4th, or before June 25th. Or, find another similar location (maybe a bit further up the west coast, or over on the east coast as Ed suggested). There are many such hotels in Florida, but not all of them have a banquet room that would easily accomodate us. Regardless of whether we do the meet at the location above on a different weekend, or if we go for another location that can match that price and give us a meeting room for the day (without time limit):...
Incidentally, the rooms have two beds in them, so those of you who are single and maybe put-off by the $140 per night room cost can maybe share rooms and split that cost....
