Auckgeddon Lodgings

By IcyRose. 29/07/08, 03:59 am

That would help. I had also noticed they have a group inquiry form on the page which could come in handy, but since that would require a final number I'd prefer to get a definite set of numbers before using it. If you can inquire now about things, by all means do so. You've basically noted all the questions I was wanting to ask, the only other one is obviously can we book the whole dorm to ourselves even if we don't fill up the whole dorm at some points or do we have to share if we're short. (Which I noticed you also pointed out)

This would especially affect our bookings for the Monday night some of us are staying.

By **jpwise**. 29/07/08, 04:58 am

OK, just had a chat to Amy up there, she's the reception manager and handles the group bookings. I have her DDI if you want it IcyRose.

Sounds like ACB is max 8 beds, availability is looking pretty good at this stage. Pricewise the $20 far is an online only thing. You can't get it over the phone, normal is $26/night, however groups of over 10 people get a 10% discount which brings it down to $23.40/night. If there's a couple of empty beds she didn't think it would be a big issue, but by the sounds of things if there's only 1 or 2 people with the entire room it might be a problem if they need the beds. If the group numbers do get up there she may be able to negotiate a better rate, but I'm guessing it'd have to be at the 16+ point to try for that.

Looking at the booking reservations website it looks like they're down to 7 beds available on the Fri & Sat at the $20 rate, so not a full dorm, but Sunday 26th has all 8 available. That said if you want to try and keep it to just the group it may be better to just do the phone booking conditional on keeping the room to ourselves. They have 4, 6 & 8 bed dorms, so it should work to keep the group mostly together depending on how many there are. Also I don't know if this applies to the group bookings, but the online reservations site does require a 10% deposit and payment on arrival.

As for the towels, it's not a hire per se, they have a bond on them cause people were walking off with them. So you pay $5 bond on the towel, but you get it back when you return the towel.

By IcyRose. 29/07/08, 08:21 am

If that's the case, I think I'll try book over the phone and see if I can get things sorted so I can get ALL of us together in groups with no other people staying in the dorms we are staying in (since you know, we might scare/disturb them with our antics) I don't really think it matters if we get a large dorm or a small dorm as long as we can fill them mostly up with our group since I imagine we'd end up moving back and forth between them if we all want to hang out as a group.

By **jpwise**. 29/07/08, 09:06 am

Yeah, I was figuring along the same lines. Going to be at least one full 8 bed dorm, and then just depending on how many more just add either a 4, 6, or 8 to it. But yeah, I'm definitely in favour of having the room to ourselves, particularly since I won't have to be so paranoid about my gear then.

By wissy. 29/07/08, 10:14 am

wow you guys are really reliable...
I guess we have to wait and see how many people are going to be there...
I hope we will get many people with us...

By IcyRose. 29/07/08, 11:23 am

jp, since you have a better grasp on how much room they have left for the days we want, do you have an estimate on how long we should wait for a final number before I call up to make a booking? I do want to have a definite number the moment I call so I'm trying to think of a set date that all confirmations have to be made. Any ideas?

By **jpwise**. 29/07/08, 12:22 pm

She didn't really say how many rooms were available just that there were 'plenty' this far out. For good measure and given they can only do max 8 per dorm I'd probably recommend looking at placing the first booking once we hit 12 people (8+4). Go over the options with them at the time and then yeah if the numbers grow from there just see if we can flick it into a 6 or 8 room dorm. Looking at the website they seem to say that normally you 'may be required to move rooms during your stay', so it suggests they can shuffle to accommodate, and if we have a full room the shuffling won't affect us anyway. Of course once we fill an 8 room dorm it's just a question of trying to get a further discount as the numbers go up. :)

Oh, and sidenote is we should probably confirm who's what day. If there's going to be 4 people who are Thurs -> Monday night probably put them in a 4 room for the entire time to save shuffling around too much, provided they give us the same price that is. I'll be Fri->Sun, maybe Mon too.

By IcyRose. 29/07/08, 12:47 pm

Agreed, it would be good to know what days everyone will be staying. I was thinking that since there are a number of us that have other arrangements on other days and leaving on different day it would be good to factor in those numbers for different days. While Saturday and Sunday are a given on having the largest numbers I know a number of us will be arriving on Thursday and Saturday as opposed to Friday when most of us are and in terms of leaving, some of us are leaving Monday night or Tuesday morning or even later.

I will update the first post with information on days we are intending on staying together as a group.

By **jpwise**. 30/07/08, 03:56 am

OK, latest update. Just had a chat to Amy again (IceRose - I have her email aswell, so will cc you on any emails I send to her from here on).

Short answer, they have LOTS of beds, apparently about 500 odd.
Apparently the security tags are limited to floors, so for groups they try to keep them on the same floor so they can visit each other. 6th floor is what she has in mind for us if it goes ahead which has 5x 8 bed dorms, plus some 6 and 4 bed dorms.

Her suggestion is to over book the group size, but they're quite happy to drop the number up to a week before hand. ie: no more changes from Mid-Oct. With regards to the deposit and payment she said for groups they need a 20% deposit 6 weeks out, with the remainder on arrival. Any dropped rooms will be taken off it, but they'll still need the difference on arrival. Also they VERY VERY much prefer it done as a single payment, not piecemeal on arrival. So if everyone goes in as a group it's going to be a case of someone collecting payments and being the liaison to them. I did also quiz her again on the group discount and it sounds like 10% is about all they'll discount, so even if we do get the numbers up a bit more we'll probably still only be looking at that. So $23.40/night.

By **JVCA**. 30/07/08, 04:50 am

I'm sorely tempted, but I believe my travel/accomodation arrangements involve 3-4 other people, so I'll have to figure out what's happening there. I wouldn't say I'm question-mark worthy yet, but I am expressing my interest. n_n; If I did stay, I'd just be staying Saturday and Sunday night (seeings how I actually live in Auckland and all...)

By Frangipani. 30/07/08, 07:51 am

Eeeeee!
Can you put me on the list from Thursday?
I'm directing a 'show' which ends up being run on the 23rd, but I don't really need to be there for the performance, at this stage.
And I think I'll be flying home on Tuesday, so Monday night Accommodation would also be fab?

Thanks all.
-Fran.

By Nox. 30/07/08, 10:37 am

I be keen on contributing to this idea.
Could I be put on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights?

By Ryans-cupcake. 30/07/08, 11:00 am

I'd be staying the same time as Matt. So Friday, Sat, Sun.
If worst comes to worse, we'll be staying monday night too.

By Nox. 30/07/08, 11:03 am

Are you saying the worst is to stay with me?

By Ryans-cupcake. 30/07/08, 11:08 am

that is exactly what I was saying.

**Guest** Guest

The things you miss while spending money you don't have on new Victorian Patterns...
I am hoping to get to Auckland on Thursday, and leaving Tuesday...hopefully

NZJ

By **jpwise**. 30/07/08, 11:31 am

LOL, the numbers suddenly jump. Razz

By **seraphik**. 30/07/08, 11:45 am

I'M NOT STAYING TEN NIGHTS 8D;;;;

i'll be going to stay with a friend in auck once geddon is over, so i'd only be staying thurs-mon or thurs-tues. ;;

By **Auroa**. 30/07/08, 12:38 pm

^ lol, I wondered why it was 10 xD

umumshiiiiiiiii
I can't like confirmconfirm cause I dont even have my tickets D=
b-but, I'd be Thurs-Mon ... probably... AHHHHH ;-;
I'll do some serious mind-thinking and munnie counting and planning and get back to you asap >_>''

By IcyRose. 30/07/08, 05:23 pm

List has been updated. We have 11 people, we can almost fill a big dorm and a small dorm now. From what I can tell the largest overlap is staying Fri, Sat, Sun and Mon. Although there are enough people staying Thursday to fit in a small dorm.

By Re-l. 31/07/08, 06:16 am

I live in Auckland.
Well 2 hours from the city.
But I'd still be keen.
(saves me $10 there and $10 back and the 4hours bus traveling for each day.)

From Friday-Sunday(3 nights)

You can put me on the list,
But I'm still looking to see if I could stay at a friends perhaps(I don't see it happening though)

By Ryans-cupcake. 31/07/08, 08:23 am

So Allun need to stay there too...
So that's the same as me and Matt again.

By IcyRose. 31/07/08, 10:38 am

Yay, we're past the 12 person mark now, I suppose our next task is to see if we can fill an 8 person dorm and a 6 person one now. I'll update the list to reflect this.

By masumaru. 10/08/08, 09:01 am

I might be able to come up to Auckland during the weekend. ^^;; I still have the hard task of convincing my parents to let me go, and that isn't easy. D:
But don't put me down on the list yet, I still need to confirm it. ;D

By **jpwise**. 10/08/08, 09:32 am

hehe, good luck. :)

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