Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Let's pin the place to make a group booking, getting a decent list of alternatives for Summit participamts while we find it.

One candidate I found after 10 minutes:

Ibis Amsterdam City West
Room for 1 to 2 persons: 62.33 EUR / day. Breakfast extra: 15.00 EUR / day / person.
2km of nice walk through the park. Public transport to be seen.

BEAT THIS OFFER! :)

http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/home/index.shtml might be a good place to find alternatives.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Thanks Quim.

I'll share a room with someone on friday & saturday night. French nationality not required - there's only 3 of us registered ATM :-)

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Are "hostels" not an option ? There are many more, and closer to the site ?...

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Just propose something concrete. :) In the case of hostels we need to know how many beds they have. I guess he group booking should contemplate at least 60 beds.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Thanks, Quim. I was contacting Kees about this, but I haven't heard back from him yet.

Tim

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Henrietta, our smart assistant, has taken the lead now and is asking for offers. The current plan is:

Ibis Amsterdam City West for the sponsored participants and the big bunch of people happy with a price around 65€/night for a double room.

Art Hotel Amsterdam recommended to those going better for a 4 star hotel. Yes, we expect some visitor with company travel policy and etc.

We have asked for a group reservation offer from Ibis hotel and as soon as they confirm the availability and the reasonable price we will proceed with the booking. Then the team in charge of approving sponsored participants can start filling rooms, and anybody else can go for their own bookings directly to the hotel.

As for cheaper options, community help is needed.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

For those looking for cheaper options, hostel world is a good place to start. http://www.hostelworld.com/hostels/Amsterdam

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

So, being a Maemo Summit virgin... how does this all work? Does each sponsored person get their own room or are they being stuffed in two or three per room?

If it's multiple per room and I get sponsorship... well... I'm REALLY sorry for whomever I end up bunking with. *snOOOOOOOOrrrreee*

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Ibis hotel didn't have enough double rooms with separate beds. I guess we want the Maemo community unite, but within certain limits...

If you are flying with partner that might be a very suitable place. Looking for an alternative as we speak...

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

If you are trying for a single room assignment I would have gone with nocturnal flatulence syndrome. :D

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

If someone wants to go for the more flexible model of covering up to nnn/person and take the extra workload it requires....

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Of course, if we find a cheaper hotel without heat, this might be the perfect option. ;)

Tim

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

And not a problem if your roommate has nocturnal flatulence syndrome... and you have a lighter. (bud-ump-symbol crash)

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

I've added a table to the Accommodation page so people can express their preference for location (hotel, hostel, etc.)/type of room (double, single, shared, etc.) and give dates.

http://wiki.maemo.org/Maemo_Summit_2009/Accommodation

Not sure it's of much use, but I imagine we'll need to know numbers and names at some point, and it can eventually morph into a list of the actual locations people are staying so late-comers/non-sponsored attendees can choose their accommodation to match with other people too.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

If I am able to go, I would easily share a room. Just no neat freaks-- I get a bit scattered. :D

Ruh-roh... no lighters near me please! :eek:

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Alright, done deal:

IBIS AMSTERDAM CENTRE HOTEL
Stationsplein 49, 1012 AB Amsterdam
Tel: +31 20 638 30 80 Fax: +31 20 620 01 56

We have booked 40 twin rooms to host 80 sponsored participants
8 - 11 October 2009
American buffet breakfast included

I think this defines the default location. The twin room is 146€/night with breakfast. Not too bad considering that it's in the very center of the city and well connected to the Summit venue:

Walking: 2.6 km – about 32 mins
By taxi/car: 6-10 mins
There is a S103 bus that actually connects venue and hotel quite well

Now you decide who goes to which room, plus any other info / requests / exceptions. We at Nokia are basically done with this task. :)

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

I've created a map on Google Maps to let the people know how much is far the Summit from the Hotel and how to get there (walking): http://is.gd/2zqdj

I've already been two times in Amsterdam and I can say the location of the hotel is very nice!

There's a train that takes you from the Schipol Airport to the Amsterdam's Train Station. Once you get out of the station the hotel is 100-200 meters on the right.

I confirm you can take the S103 bus to get to the Summit place so it's very well connected!

I'm going to get some notes I took when I stayed in Amsterdam so I'll be able to give you more tips about this beautiful city!

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Quim, so is 80 sponsored participants now the rule?

Do we want to offer some people "accomodation only" sponsorship? (Depends on the budget, I guess)

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

uhmm... good point!

Doing a little "computation": 4 nights x 40 rooms x 146€ = 23360€
only for the hotel. How much is the total of the budget?

p.s: very nice you've booked twin rooms like I suggested :)

p.p.s: just to remember: the more we wait to book flights, more they're going to cost

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Mno, the rule still is based on the budget. I decided to go for 40 rooms to have something solid to start wiping out uncertainty. If the budget agreed allows you to spend more (e.g. because many people can travel on low budget) then you are free to book more rooms if you wish.

And if you are sponsoring only developers from Australia then probably we will need to resize the group booking. :)

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Ouch... this trip to Amsterdam is going to end up much more expensive than Berlin ! :-(

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Why? There are plenty of cheap choices in Amsterdam too. And we are sponsoring many more beds than last year.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Even if Nokia as booked 40 rooms at Ibis Hotel, this doesn't mean you can't find a cheaper accomodation too. That hotel is fine if you ca be sponsored, else I'll suggest you to give a look at http://www.hostelworld.com for example in this hostel http://www.hostelworld.com/availabil...Amsterdam/4585 you can find a room starting from 18-20€ / night. If you were going to stay more than 4 days or if you wuld come tih at least 4 people, I would suggest you to look for an apartment, it's the most cheap solution yuo can find (I payed about 25€/day with other three friend of mine 2 years ago).

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Does that mean I may still apply for one of those 40 beds although I didn't ask for sponsoring when I registered ?

Last year I tried for "partial sponsoring" (pay my own trip, help for accommodation), and that was rejected as too complicated (which I understand well), so this time around I didn't even bother...

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

I've spent some time on that site already, yes. The main problem is that you only really get decent prices by sharing a room with someone : singles are quite expensive, and dormitories are for younger people than me :-)

Unfortunately there are still only three registrations from France right now, with two sponsored by Nokia or their employer, so I'll probably end up the only French "tourist" in the Summit, just like last year... :-)

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

My wife will be with me this time, that is, if I get sponsored. Her employee discount with Marriott will give us a really good rate of 58EUR/night.

We should be able to reserve a maximum of two rooms from Oct 8 - 12 on either Amsterdam Marriott or Renaissance Marriott, both in prime spots in Amsterdam.

Now, I hope the sponsoring process gets going. Reserving early is always a good thing (to secure that rate), and plus, the process of getting Schegen Visas is not overnight.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

I thought there was no need for visas if you're in the US or Canada.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

At least I don't need one to visit the US :), so should be reciprocal.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Visas are not required for US/Canadian citizens:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1765.html

Tim

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

My wife will be with me, as we're coming back from a holiday/business trip.

Shall I just get on an book something then, and see if I can claim some money back for my half of the accommodation if I get sponsored?

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

I'm worried by the variables here. It's seems to be an NP-complete problem:

• €y from the budget for sponsorship.
• x people get offered sponsorship.
• k (where k < x) people are willing to share a room.
• m (where m < x) people are travelling from a great distance.

How do we solve this equation? People want to know if they're being sponsored or not: take each case on its merit as we see it (order of request) and stop when the budget is exceeded? However, that may reject people and then we have budget left over. But we still don't know how much the travel will be, so we don't know how many people to approve. Do we just try to minimise m?

Quim: excluding accomodation, can you say what the average travel bill was for each sponsored participant last year? That at least will help hone in on x.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

@Jaffa: divide et impera! :D

1) Maemo.org had to fix karma issue: this task is completed
2) Maemo council can start approving people, looking who requested it and ordering them with any criteria you want to use (karma, talk proposed ecc....)

The more you wait, the more the flight will cost.

If you or Nokia decide to use an agency to book flight, they'll charge you additonal money and is it possible they cannot book flight with low-cost companies.

So my suggestion is: just approve sponsorship requests and let the approved people to book the flight them selves. You'll save a lot of money to use for other people.

Divide the approvation queue in some trunks so you can shape it as you want.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Yeah, but until everyone who has been approved in batch A have booked their flights (and told us how much they cost) we don't know how much of the budget we've spent.

Indeed, the first batch are done, but as we approach the limit of x the chances of blowing the budget increase.

It's like playing a really, really complicated game of Pontoon/Blackjack/21.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Roughly roughly and out of my mind... 250€ as safe average for EU, 800€ as safe average for US and around 1000€ as safe average for rest of the world.

Any help fine tuning these values with current prices and cases is welcome.

Going through travel agent is the way to go in any case, as discussed months ago. I'll call the one that worked with Mozilla/Maemo in the Danish weekend. Their commission was fair and they took a lot of lego work booking flights and dealing with small payments. They do Ryanair style flights as well.

We can deal with exceptions for reimbursement, but we can't make it the norm.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

I can help you with more exact prices, but I need an importan information: when people is expected to arrive and leave?
Is ok to arrive the 8th or is it better to arrive on 7th?
Is it safe to leave on 11th or is it better to leave on 12th?

This also impact on the number of nights a person spend in the hotel.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

The default scenario is to land on the 8th and depart on the 11th, obviously.

It makes sense to sponsor people for 3 nights. If you want to spend more time, you pay the extra nights.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

it makes sense.

The only "problem" is that lot of flights leave in the morning, so people would miss the whole last day of summit.

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Emails sent out?

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

No. There's a web interface for it and I need to go through the council spreadsheet and tick the appropriate boxes (in addition to the bazillion other things on my plate).

Re: Maemo Summit accommodation
 

Well, this is another reason to start approving people and start seeing what are the concrete problems.

The hotel booking is somewhat flexible, I guess. I mean, if they could get us all those rooms I guess there could be also some available for Monday.

Note also that if 40 rooms are just too many we can make a cancellation of the unused rooms if we do it early enough. Yet another reason to start approving people to see really how much budget is left.

I'll definitely contact the travel agent tomorrow. Time to sleep now.