GUADEC 2017 accommodation survey

[Sam Thursfield <ssssam gmail com>]

Hello
[This is a forward of a message I sent to guadec-list and posted on my
blog; Kat helpfully pointed out that this list would be a much more
appropriate place to send it! Thanks to everyone who has responded
already.]

We are looking at accommodation options for GUADEC 2017 in Manchester
and we would like some feedback from you!

Manchester's hotels fill up quickly in summer so we are going to do one
or more group bookings now to ensure we have enough rooms for everyone.

There are 3 potential locations we've found, each with its own
drawbacks. I've put some details about each place here:
https://wiki.gnome.org/GUADEC/2017/Accommodation

If you are hoping to attend next year's GUADEC, please take a minute
to fill the survey here: https://goo.gl/forms/DYcnQLiBBZSSQlH23

The survey will run until Wednesday 9th Nov.

If you prefer not to use Google Forms, just reply by email. The
questions are as follows:

 Which accommodation option(s) would you choose for GUADEC 2017?

  [ ] Youth hostel (4-bed dorm, £33 per night)
  [ ] University Townhouse (single room, £43 or more per night)
  [ ] Jury's Inn Hotel (sharing a twin room, ~£51 per night)
  [ ] Jury's Inn Hotel (single room, ~£94 per night)
  [ ] I would organise my own accommodation

 How early could you register for the conference & pay for
 accommodation?

  ( ) By 1st March 2017
  ( ) By 1st June 2017
  ( ) By 15th July 2017

 Which nights would you expect to stay at GUADEC 2017?

  [ ] Thursday 27th July 2017
  [ ] Friday 28th July 2017 (core day #1)
  [ ] Saturday 29th July 2017 (core day #2)
  [ ] Sunday 30th July 2017 (core day #3)
  [ ] Monday 31st July 2017 (BOF/workshop day #1)
  [ ] Tuesday 1st August 2017 (BOF/workshop day #2)
  [ ] Wednesday 2nd August 2017 (BOF/workshop day #3)

The reason we're pushing this now is that the University accommodation,
which is very nice and is right next to the venue, would require us to
finalize the booking and pay in full by March 2017. If we made a big
booking there and got the numbers wrong we would face a big financial
loss, for example if we book 100 rooms for 6 nights and everyone only
wants to stay for 5 nights, then GUADEC loses £4300. The other two
options give us much more flexibility, but at a cost of being further
from the venue and requiring people to share rooms.

If anyone has other data that could inform our decision then please
share! I think we haven't done group-booked accommodation for some
years, but it has happened for example in A Coruña -- if anyone has
numbers on how many people stayed each night at previous GUADECs
it would help us a lot!

Thanks
Your friendly GUADEC 2017 local team