BTB 2010 - ONE Group? ONE Hotel? What do you think?

[Soupraman]

Hi all,

Had a great time at BTB 2009!!

However... If I could change one thing, I would love it if we could take over a hotel (and parking lot) with all those beautiful bikes in one central location. So we can all hang when we're not riding, in one spot, kick tires, shoot the sh*t, catch up with old friends and make new ones. The second best part of the BTB is the comradery you feel hanging around with people that share the same passions as you. The first best part are those awesome VT roads (and NY... like Kelly Rd.).

I stayed at the Paradise Inn both years. I enjoyed looking out and seeing folks arrive / leave on their Triumphs, although there were only a few of us there. It is a strain to see anything beyond the parking lot. I know the folks that stayed at the Kirkside had the same experience and I suspect they enjoyed hanging in the lot while they caught up. I found myself meeting up with folks over at the Kirkside also.

What if we could ALL (or at least most) stay, gather, meet, plan, catch up, leave from, return to the same place? How cool would that be?

I've done a little digging and it doesn't look like there is much in Bennington that can accomodate our large group. There is a *new* Hampton Inn which is 2 miles from downtown. It happens to be right next door to a huge Hannafords Grocery Store (which could be convenient for incidentals, snacks and drinks). I'm not necessarily pushing the Hampton but they typically do have VERY comfortable beds, an indoor pool / sauna and complimentary breakfast. This particular hotel has 80 rooms so they should be able to manage.

http://www.hamptoninn.com/en/hp/hotels/ ... cn=BENVTHX

I'm just throwing this out to see what folks think. I know there are some that prefer to camp in the cold and rain and bugs. For those...they could still have the option. For the rest of us (more sane) folks, I would much prefer staking out a "spot" rather than spreading out over an "area". If anyone else knows of a different (or more appropriate) hotel or facility, please throw it out. If I'm totally off my rocker (not Rocket - I wish), just tell me to shut up and I'll go back to being a lurker. If there is some promise to my proposal, perhaps a poll would be appropriate.

Regardless... SEE YOU ALL IN 2010!!!

[Spad]

Not that I think it would be a bad thing to be all in one place, but one of the things I liked about the way this worked was that we were fairly low profile to the folks in Bennington, and it didn't have the feel of taking over the town (see the post about Americade to see what they start doing when the numbers get too big, not that we're there yet). I got a pretty good response from the people I met there - they were pretty glad to see us (and our business) and didn't give off any funny biker looks (check wallet, cross street, hold kids hands). It was pretty easy to walk between the Paradise, the Bennington Inn and the Kirkside and the bars and restaurants too; that was a big help at both ends of the day when I could walk from the bar to the hotel, and the hotel to get breakfast before riding all day.

Taking over a particular bar or restaurant while we're there, like we with to the brewpub on Saturday, was great. I got in late on Friday and ended up at Carmody's with a very un-Triumph crowd and a bartender at an 'Irish' bar that didn't know how to pull a Guinness properly. Wrong choice.

If we do get one hotel, we might be able to swing deals with the rates, though, and I only heard good things about the Hampton. Either way is great with me; I'm just looking forward to next year.

- Jim

[EDISON]

I stayed at the Hampton this year. It was REALLY nice and comfortable. Had a king suite (spoiled myself) that would sleep three or four, for about 140 a night and that included breakfast. Beautiful parking lot, and the host told us to contact the manager and they might give us a discount next year if we would block off so many rooms. I gave Mark her card, they seemed like some very nice folks there and the hotel is pretty much brand new.

[mark]

Both the Kirkside and the Paradise gave us special rates this year, and the Paradise did last year as well.

I think it's best to suggest a main hotel on the website, as we've done both years, and then let people make their own arrangements.

Consolidating people in one hotel is never going to work. There's always going to be a sizeable crowd that wants to camp for various reasons -- the adventure of it, the cameraderie with other campers, or the simple fact that hotels are expensive. Even those who do want to stay in town might choose to stay in one of the other hotels for one reason or another. Two big strikes against the Hampton Inn, for example, would be the location and the price -- why stay two miles away from downtown when you can stay right downtown for half the cost?

The Friday and Saturday night parties are supposed to cover most of the social aspect; unfortunately this year's Friday night party at the campground got rained out.

But we had a good sized group staying at the campground this year and had some great times hanging out around the campfire. I suspect this is going to become a tradition at the BTB, so if anything, maybe we'll consolidate more people at the campground and fewer people will stay in town. Who knows.

--mark

[coldnight]

One really nice part about the camping was the communal atmosphere - the conversation around the fire went on for hours and hours - I'd hate to have that missing from next year's bash.

If there is a communal area that doesn't close at 9 or 10pm and we can hang out, have our beers and conversation without feeling like there are people next door we have to mind. Though I turned in at ~10pm on Friday, people were up until 2 or so and I didn't have trouble sleeping in my tiny tent.

Being outside of the downtown also would be much harder for people to park, walk over to the bar and have a couple before turning in.

Though there were silly rules at the campground, it was a fine time. Maybe someone needs to bring a couple more campers so those folks who need beds can have them. How many beds in the hostel space were there? How many earplugs can we bring?

[gilligan]

What would be nice would be a single facility with campsites and lodging and where you could have a group party and bonfire. Not sure anyplace like that exists near bennington, but we could always look a little farther afield and research it. I think there was a BWM rally last summer at a place in NH like this (can't remember where I saw that). We could still call it the Bennington Triumph bash, even if it's not in bennington proper.

[amrehm]

For what it worth, the Kirkside did not honor a discounted rate due to not enough rooms being booked by the group. I know the Paradise had a discounted rate.

Alan

[mark]

Interesting. Where the hell did everyone stay? We had over 100 attendees this year, as far as we can tell, and only maybe 30 or so were at Greenwood.

--mark

[brit3]

I like the Idea. I think even the Paradise would welcome all of us non-campers.

It was great to all get together with the bikes on Friday before the BBQ ride, if we could have that for the entire weekend then it would make this great event even better!

[mark]

Last year a whole bunch of people stayed at the Paradise. I don't know why everyone scattered around so much this year.

--mark

[sevy]

The three of us in my group had originally intended to throw up a couple of tents, but with the forecast, we called and got bunks in the bunkhouse. It turned out to be a wise decision, and we were able to walk up to the campfire and visit with folks, and then turn in to get an early start to the day. Personally, I agree with Mark. I wouldn't want to shell out that much money for a room. I saw plenty of bikes drive by the bunkhouse on the way in and out, so I got my Triumph fix. Since we worked until 3:00 PM Friday, we did not arrive in town until about 7:00 PM, so when we finished dinner and finally arrived at the campground, it did feel a little awkward to go grab a beer, as it was loose and no one seemed to be the person to say "Hi, welcome and glad you could make it". Once we had a chance to visit a bit, however, we were quickly comfortable, even if we couldn't contribute to most of the conversations taking place among folks who had some shared experiences in common. I think the laid back lodging arrangements combined with the more organized ride info was a perfect combination, as folks could choose to engage at their own comfort level. This also made it a much less visible event to anyone not directly involved, and I think this is also a plus. The only thing that I would like to see changed is some way to put names and faces together more easily, as I found it difficult to remember so many new ones. I would find it interesting to know what all you folks do for a living, how long you have been riding, and some of your history on bikes. There was certainly a mixture of ages and bikes participating, and I would have liked to know more about all of the fine folks who were attending.

[bennybmn]

I kinda liked the campground this year, but man it was kinda far from town... Just enough to not want to leave, ya know? I completely missed talking to several people this year! It was a little weird, but the crew on the hill was great. If there was a place that had a hotel real close to a campground, that would be hip. Billy stayed up on the hill just down the road, but again it was a ways from town... Kind of a shame, ya know? As much as I like the hampton Inn idea, I think the cost would drive a fair amount of people away unfortunately. Or it would just plain take too much coordination.

[LoVel]

It seems to work well the way it is. No one thing is going to please everyone so you have to give people some options.

[mark]

The only thing that I would like to see changed is some way to put names and faces together more easily, as I found it difficult to remember so many new ones.

Try to make it to the Friday afternoon meet'n'greet next year -- everyone gets a duct-tape nametag with their actual name and their forum username so we can match up faces to names.

--mark

[sevy]

That may not be possible with my job. It sounds like we must have been some of the only ones to roll in late and miss the meet-n-greet. Well, maybe next year...