Do "non-driving" spouses pay the full registration fee?

[C O D Y]

Re: yo

Agree, we can ALWAYS suggest a lower price per participant.

The price is fine, but how about one on the west side of the counrty! The last 3 have all been closer to the east and south.

VOI 9 LAS VEGAS, BABY!

 

[Steve 00RT/10]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

There is a 15% discount on the VOI fee for regional officers on the registration fee. Regional officers will be required to attend meetings and may be asked to do other administrative stuff. There is no hotel discount.

That seems fair enough

I am still curious about the DC personnel and whether or not we subsidize the machinery they will bring down for us to drive. Running this equipment hard provides invaluable real world experience for DC to better monitor quality control in addition to exposing us all to the product line up close and personal. They would have to pay somebody on a test track to do it. I would hope all this cost is absorbed by the corporation.

Can anybody answer these questions?

Steve

 

[CTViper]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

This will be my first VOI! Just bought a 04 in march. I talked it over with my wife and she said she would go. When i considered going I didn't realise it was going to cost $800 pp Registration Fee. I knew the room rates, Airfare. I was Told around $800 round trip for my Car.(Reliable Transport) Its $830 ea way! I'm told its a group rate! Well I bought a Jaguar XKR from a dealer in Houston and it cost me $700 a year ago to ship to CT. So I don't see a group rate discount! I would go just to be part of a large event like this even if i couldn't use the track. The $1600 will be money well spent on the transport! No speeding tickets$$$ Gas $$$$??? And the BIGGEST thing not having to listen to my wife complain & tell me how to drive for 28 hours driving ea way! I'm close to $4000 and i haven't left yet!!!I could be sitting on a cruise ship or a beach in hawaii! Been there done that! I'm Going to Toronto the end of July for the Prowlin Canada Event (100 Prowler Owners.) Great group of people, only 8 hr drive! Life is about choices. I'm looking forward to VOI #8.

 

[Hisserman]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

Should I spend the $6,000 to go to VOI8 for a couple of days, or . . . spend $4,000 for mods and have another $2,000 for other things?!! Hmmmm . . .

 

[Cudaman]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

I am almost positive at VOI 7 they had a non driver rate of $295.00 all the same privileges( food and drink and night life activities) but they could not drive at the track with the Neons or Gen 3 or Nashville Speedway. But were able to drive the Dodge trucks at the test track slowly. Dodge would not lose out on the opportunity to try to sell us another vehicle. We did beating up on the their vehicles like the Neons and their Vipers and our Vipers with Skip Baber instructors for the extra $ 500.00.


Cudaman

 

[RX VIPER]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

Terry,

You may not want to come to the club meeting on June 8th, because I will talk you into coming to VOI8! Seriously, I do want to talk to you about it before you make up your mind as a definite no. Hope to see you at the Zoo tour next weekend!

Michael

 

[Y2K5SRT]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

There are at least two events held at the exact same venue that are within 60 days of VOI that I have personal knowledge of that are closer to the $100-$110/night range for the hotel rooms as a special "event price". And they don't require you to pre-reserve over 90 days before the event itself. The early departure penalty of $50 is pretty crappy. There's no good reason that there needs to be a required number of nights to stay at a hotel for the event when you're not even required to stay at that same hotel to attend the event. There's certainly room for improvement with this.

I don't disagree with this at all, having done a little research on the subject since your post. The only thing I would add (and it is minimal) is that there is normally a $9.00 per day hotel charge for parking. That is waived for VOI 8 and we will also have security there as well (whether it is hotel security or not, I don't know).

Being in the hotel business myself, I also wish that they could have negotiated a better rate, as this is one of the poorest ones I have seen for conventions at that property. One group (Gold Wing Road Riders Association) is getting $79 for an atrium view, $89 for a lake view, $109 for an upgraded Tower room, and suites for $180. I assume part of their discount is because it is in the heat of the summer months (early July) and Dallas is not as popular then. Granted, this is a beautiful hotel and certainly worth $100 a night, but the $800 per person registration fee would have been a lot easier to swallow if the rooms were $300 cheaper for the stay...

 

[Toddh]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

At least one of the two I mentioned is also getting a parking fee waiver and I would make a substantial wager the other one is, too ;-) I didn't know about the Gold Wing group (so that makes our rate the highest by far of at least 3 different events in the same time window), but I presume the parking fee was waived for them. It was a commonly known concession the hotel was making for everyone booking in the first year.

As I'm sure you're aware being in the hotel business, any group of this size will require security for the event. But this is a cost typically imposed on the event itself and not thrown into the room rate. I presume that's what part of my $800pp goes towards.

There are a ton of different aspects to negotiating convention room rates at different hotels. I don't mean to find fault with VCA on this point without knowing everything that went into the decision on the rate. But Dallas hotels don't charge LA or NYC room rates. I understand that there are hotels within a couple miles of the Gaylord that you can get a nice room at for less than half of the $180 without messing with a group "discount".

It makes for an interesting choice for someone like me who lives in Dallas. I live far enough away from Grapevine that I don't want to drive over there every day of VOI. It's probably around 80 miles round trip. I certainly am not going to stay in a hotel the final Sunday night when I can just drive home and skip the Monday AM traffic and make it to work on time. The $50 penalty increases my rate to nearly $200/night (actually more by the time the stinking taxes are thrown in).

Call me cheap, but I may just gamble that I can find a better rate than that on Expedia, etc. once we get closer to the event. If not, there's a ton of hotels around DFW and I don't mind driving a couple miles back and forth. Both my SO and I can drive and I can leave the Viper in the secured parking at the Gaylord over night and drive my other car back and forth. If the rate was more in line with the other events held at the same venue charged, I wouldn't even be considering this.

 

[99 R/T 10]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

Call me cheap, but I may just gamble that I can find a better rate than that on Expedia, etc. once we get closer to the event. If not, there's a ton of hotels around DFW and I don't mind driving a couple miles back and forth. Both my SO and I can drive and I can leave the Viper in the secured parking at the Gaylord over night and drive my other car back and forth. If the rate was more in line with the other events held at the same venue charged, I wouldn't even be considering this.

I call you thrifty , go over to www.viper-alley.com (w/o the -), we are getting a group buy together at the Harvey Hotel(http://harveyhotel-dfwairport.felcor.com/irvdfw01/index.shtml), I am already staying there. 3.5 miles away.

 

[Toddh]

Re: Hotel discount is not all that great

As an update to my complaining about the early departure penalty, one of our local members confirmed that the $50 is only if you leave before your scheduled departure from your reservation. I've also noticed that the Gaylord Texan has once again extened the early registration discount deadline to July 1 (from May 31, which was extended from May 24). I was over at the hotel last Sunday (just happened to be in the area) and there are 3 other quality new hotels in the immediate vicinity (less than one mile away): Hilton, Embassy Suites, and Amerisuites. I haven't checked on rates at any of them, but for folks looking to price shop, if you stay at one of those you'll be very close to the "main" hotel.