[EuroPython] Accomodation prices

[Laura Creighton]

In a message of Tue, 02 Mar 2004 11:59:50 +0100, Joachim Schmitz writes:
>Hi,
>
>Magnus Lycka said the following on 03/01/04 10:35:
>> Laura Creighton wrote:
>> 
>>>The website to coordinate this [SGS Veckobostäder] isn't quite ready.
>> 
>> 
>> When do you expect this to be on-line? It seems some people
>> are starting to plan their trip in detail now, and it's
>> good for attendees to know as soon as possible whether they
>> will have space there, or need to look at another place.
>I am working on the registration process, and need som ideas how to
>handle this room registration. Here are my ideas so far:
>
>1. to reserve a place in SGS Veckobostäder, one has to register for the
>conference first.

ok, as long as people can register for other people (family members)
who aren't attending the conference.

>
>2. if one books a single bed in a 2-bed or 4-bed room, the next free bed
>in room of that category (with the same sex) will be assigned to you.

This is intolerably heterosexual-centric.  Also heterosexual couples
will want to stay together, even if they want 2 rooms out of a 4.

Moreover, there are people coming to EuroPython who actively dislike
one another.  Murphy's Law says that we will maximise assignments
so that they will all end up sharing with each other. :-(

I'd rather a webpage with a list of people who _want a room in a 4_
and _want a room in a 2_, and _which nights I want to be there_ with
space for a short description, that could be left blank.  The rooms
are non-smoking, but it probably makes sense to house smokers with
smokers, because when the have to go out and smoke, they would like
company, and so they won't awaken non-smokers.  People who write
'party animal' and people who write 'quiet, early sleeper' probably do
not want to share a room. 

>3. if one wants to book a full 2-bed or 4-bed room, one person has to do
>the booking and payment, and he/she has to give the email-addresses of
>the persons sharing the room with him/her. These persons must also have
>registered for the conference before.

No, some of the people will be booking for themselves and their families,
taking a whole 4.

>
>4. possibly the roomassignments will be publicly available, so people
>can rearange the assignement in private mails. But I am not sure how we
>can reflect these rearangements on the public site in a simple and
>secure way.

This is where I enviison using a wiki, and we will lose some on
security.  But once you have your room filled, you can secure that.
If we have a problem with people erasing people's names so that they
can get in on the room they want with the people they like, we can
deal with it then.  I suspect that this will only be a problem if we
have drastically underestimated the number of people who want rooms.

You DON'T want to do this via private mails. It has to be on a
website, or publically posted someplace.  I've been through this
before, and here is why.

Persons T U V and W decide to come to Europython, and talk about
sharing a room.  Person T books this.  Sometime next week, Person T
revises his booking -- now T U V and Q are in, and W is out.  W is or
is not informed by mail ...

Come the day of the conference, some very unhappy Ws have no place to stay.
The conference organisers have to put them up in their own houses.  Since
one of the reasons that people bump others out of the room is that
the have belatedly discovered that W is a jerk, things are even worse
for the conference organisers than is usually the case.  

Room assignments have to be posted at all times, and the posted one
is the one that must be adhered to in case of a dispute.  

>That is the solution I consider the best compromised between relativly
>easy/simple to implement and flexibility for the attendees. Ideas welcome.

It misses the big problem in coordination altogether.  These are not
rooms 'just for the 2 nights in between the conference'.  People are
arriving on different days, and staying for different lengths, based
on when they want to have their Sprints (and some people want to have
a vacation in Göteborg before or after the conference as well).  

We need a way for people who are looking for roommates to advertise
what they want -- and here I think a wiki is best -- and then, when
they get a group formed, then book themselves as a room.

People who haven't formed a group by the last day of booking for
SGS veckobostäder might be subject to arbitrarily getting assigned
to each other, but I hope that little or none of that will be
necessary.

Part of the fun of this is in getting to know other people.  Why not
let that start as a quest to find roommates?

Laura