I made a little document in Excel that will help you estimate your cost for attending HostingCon 2005. I made it for myself so I know what to budget for this but I thought other people might find it interesting.

Open it with Microsoft Office, Open Office, or a similar program that can read XLS documents.

Yellow fields are what you need to fill in. Everything else should be done automatically for you. Further instructions included. Post with problems/comments.

See Attachment: Expense Estimate-Web.zip

Note: This document is not created, released, sponsored, nor affiliated in any shape, way, or form with HostinCon. I made this on my own and am not charging for use of this document. /End legal bantar.

Very cool. :) One thing to keep in mind is that breakfast and lunch both Monday and Tuesday are provided for attendees, so remember to take that into account in your meal calculations.

That is sweet, I did not know that. But I believe with the reservation came breakfast all the other days too.

Hrm... the hotel was supposed to have fixed that. :) I think you're referring to the "business" class room that was the same price? Those were supposed to be removed because the price is actually wrong... it's supposed to be $20 more and we didn't want people to pay for breakfast they were already getting for free at the event. I'll have to call them.

D'oh! I was wondering why the business class was the same price as the other. I figured they were just being nice :)

Since I made the Business class reservation @ $131 already, any chance that'll stick? :-D

I'm not sure how they'll handle that. I would venture to say that yes, it will. If not, I'm sure they'd let you change it to the non-business class if you didn't want to pay the extra $20 a night. I'll include that in my things to ask them. :)

Originally posted by Exon
I made a little document in Excel that will help you estimate your cost for attending HostingCon 2005. I made it for myself so I know what to budget for this but I thought other people might find it interesting.

Open it with Microsoft Office, Open Office, or a similar program that can read XLS documents.

Yellow fields are what you need to fill in. Everything else should be done automatically for you. Further instructions included. Post with problems/comments.

See Attachment: Expense Estimate-Web.zip

Note: This document is not created, released, sponsored, nor affiliated in any shape, way, or form with HostinCon. I made this on my own and am not charging for use of this document. /End legal bantar.

Your expenses are pretty high up there, mine will be around $1000 for 4 people going up to Chicago (only I'm going to the hostingcon why the girls go shopping)

Part of the reason for the expenses being way up there is because in that document I included all days that the discounted rate applies for HostingCon attendee's. I only plan on checking in on the 4th and checking out on the 8th, which cuts expenses quite a bit. As well I plan to make the trip part vacation and do a little chicago trip as well. Perhaps go to the Apple store to check it out and whatnot.

Sirtwist,
I take it they weren't able to keep the rooms that were reserved at the Business at Business - I got a Hotel Reservation Modification Acknowledgement e-mail...fancy term for, "We're downgrading your room kthx".

So do I call: 888-421-1442 and tell them i want the upgraded room? Or do I wait until May 5th and call the hotel direct?

Thanks in advance!

Originally posted by Exon
Sirtwist,
I take it they weren't able to keep the rooms that were reserved at the Business at Business - I got a Hotel Reservation Modification Acknowledgement e-mail...fancy term for, "We're downgrading your room kthx".

So do I call: 888-421-1442 and tell them i want the upgraded room? Or do I wait until May 5th and call the hotel direct?

Thanks in advance!

I would say it would be best to contact them directly at your earliest convenience to get it sorted out.. I know we had asked them to remove the extra option before it even went live and had been cleared at once point just to alleviate the confusion.. sorry this has happened to you though I am thankful it is only one person at this point and not a couple hundred.. Mouse

In the E-mail it states:
Please make all changes, new reservations and cancellations through http://www.hostingcon.com, by calling 888-421-1442 or (International) or by fax at 773-380-4898 through May 5, 2005. After May 5, 2005, please contact your hotel directly.

So I should still contact the Hotel? That's not a problem, but I just wanted to make sure that I'm not going to be wasting time on the phone and that the changes are applied before I get to Chicago. :)

And I hear ya on the coule hundred people getting confused. Too bad they couldn't have bent the rules then for one person :-D

D'ah well.

I just spoke with them and they have switched the room over to a standard room at $131 per night. They actually caught it before I did, apparently. They're supposed to be fixing the site today.

Well I got the E-mail stating my room had been changed to just the Double/Double (You'll note there was no mention of Business) and that I could call number above about said modification to change/make new/cancel.

I'll give 'em a call tomorrow.

Yes, the Business class was supposed to have been removed completely, as it wasn't even in our contract with the hotel. And to top it off, the price that they listed for it was wrong too. :)

If you look at the reservation system now, you won't see the Business class any longer.

Nice work with the excel doc,
Helped me find my expense.

They don't have any business rooms available during that time frame. Moved to a Plaza Suite - heh go figure, no discount available for that one.

Also if you request the brochure in the mail it won't show/tell you much - not worth your time nor their money.

Also, typo on the document, check out is at noon, check in is at 3PM.

sirtwist - I sent you a PM a few days ago, did you get it?

The Chicago Apple Store is really nifty. I was there in May 2004 while in town for another conference (not hosting related ;)) and unfortunately was with my PC-loving friend. Regardless we still burned about 45 minutes there and it felt like 5 minutes. :P Naturally they had all the latest & greatest plus they have live copies of all sorts of apps (including Photoshop, if you really wanna put things through their paces) and it was great fun to play. Also helped me make some mental notes of things I would/wouldn't want to buy when our current equipment craps out. For instance, TiBooks... very pretty, but they get super-hot and the hot metal did not seem like such a great idea for a laptop. We do wear shorts in the summer... LOL Just about anything else, I'd love to have though. :) :) :) (Typing this message on my 12 inch G4 iBook -- it's a little thing but it is my workhorse...)

I might put up a Wiki sort of site so any of us with Chicago experience can post recommendations of places to go and just common-sense info of how to get around and stuff. I grew up in the suburbs but never really strayed into the city as a kid. Now I have moved away, but have gone back 2x for conferences, and we work really hard to hit our favorite spots when we are in town.

:D Bailey

(Just a reminder, that Rosemont is not in Chicago. Rosemont, where HostingCon is being held, is about a 30-minute drive from downtown & the big sights. Whether you want to go to the Big City or if you want to find those great spots in the suburbs around Rosemont... let's not limit our discussion... there are lots of wonderful places throughout.)

You're absolutely correct, Rosemont is not Chicago proper. It's actually about 5 minutes away from O'Hare International Airport, which IS in Chicago, although the extreme northwest corner of the city.

One of the reasons we chose this particular venue was that it was near O'Hare and is a 5 minute walk from the CTA station to take the train downtown. You can take the "El" (CTA train, short for "Elevated" trains which the CTA trains are) downtown on the blue line in about 20-25 minutes, with no traffic hassles.

The hotel also offers a shuttle to/from O'Hare, so we envisioned someone being able to take a flight in, grab the shuttle to the hotel, attend the conference, take the train downtown to see the sights if they wished, and then grab the shuttle from the hotel back to O'Hare. We're trying to make it easy to get around. :)

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

verdict: no can't afford

NickRac,

That's unfortunate! We've tried to make HostingCon 2005 as inexpensive as possible. I'm sorry to hear you feel you can't afford it.

Nick,
Make sure in that document you have only the nights that you intend to be at the hotel, I had all nights filled in for the document. Also make sure you get your food estimates in there and take out mine.

guys, I tried it all - I just can't - I was hoping to make it there to party w/ you guys but as an 18 year old on his way to college, I can't afford 300$ airline tickets and 400$ worth of room charges.

Nick

Can you drive? We're going in my car - estimated cost is roughly $40 one way.

NickRac, where are you coming from?

Sorry to hear that Nick. There's always next year.

Anyone else looking for these 'hot' deals Delta has supposedly rolled out this week and I see no real discount over what the rates were a month ago.

I've not seen any discounts, didn't know they were offering any.
I've been keeping my eye on the flights+Expedia.com in case there were any good deals to make it worth flying.

It would cost me $300/person to fly to Chicago from Cedar Rapids, IA. Flight would take half an hour. I could drive for 4 hours and it would cost me $80 roughly round trip for a max of four people in my car. Not to mention that we'd probably have to be there 2 hours before flight, and would probably spend another hour at the airport messin' around with the rental car people - and hope that our luggage was there and on time. After that's all said and done I could drive and just take my car.

I'll drive.

I'm coming from CT - the NYC area...I'd be willing to split driving with anyone interested.

Ya could also split a room with someone. I'm looking for jsut about any way to make this cheaper so i can do it. conference is Mon-Tue. Wondering what's going on Tuesday night as I could take a late train out Tuesday night and save a night of hotel.

It's hard to say at this point, as we're still lining up exhibitors and sponsors. I know we have a confirmed reception on Monday night and we've had some discussions with vendors about one Sunday and one Tuesday night as well. We'll, of course, keep everyone up to date as any new events become confirmed.

If anyone wants to fly in on Southwest you can fly into Midway and then take the Orange line from Midway to the Blue line at State and Lake out to the convention area, not a terrible trip. You could also take a cab as well, of course. Just making sure people don't feel they're forced to fly into O'Hare as you may be able to find some better pricing going into Midway.