Overflow Hotels

If your convention won't fit main hotel, you may need overflow hotels, either for accommodation or function space. The function space needs to be close by, or have a significant fraction of the convention in it to persuade people out of the main hotel, and footfall could collapse in poor weather.

For accommodation, some fans like having recommendations for other hotels on the booking forms, especially if a convention discount has been negotiated. Others will search out their own options. Overflow hotels charging the same or more than the main hotel will be unpopular, pairing with a budget chain works better.

While fit fans might walk 2 miles for a bargain, official convention hotels must be much closer or have good transport links for those with Access needs. Make sure the the hotel booking form allows people to request rooms in the main hotel for Access reasons, and allocate rooms to key staff members too. Shuttle busses are expensive, and demand very hard to predict.

The overflow hotel may view your event very differently to the main hotel, if they are not getting paid for their function space or getting the bar receipts, and may be a lot less tolerant of unusual behaviour, so room parties should be discouraged.

If a substantial number of fans are staying off-site, make sure the main hotel has left luggage facilities they can use for free.