WORLD EXPO 2020

[DEL]

I'm posting these comments here because I feel that not so many of us look at the Shows and Events section.
Within 2 hours all 500 rooms were booked at the Konigshof venue. This despite it being stated on the official site that the discount code would be released on the 7th July at which point guests could book their rooms. All this information has now been deleted from the site and has been replaced with a rather pathetic disclaimer from the organisers.
NH Hotel fully booked!

Please note that the NH Hotel at the venue is fully booked. It only took two hours to reach that point.
As much as we would like to help, and keep everybody happy, we kindly ask you not to contact us if we can help you out, because we simply cannot. We do not owe the hotel, we only run a show.
Thank you for understanding.
Your World Model Expo Team

This is more than a little disappointing given that the assumption was that the 'World Model Expo Team' local representatives have a well established relationship with the venue.
Essentially what appears to have happened is that the hotel has taken the bookings as normal bookings without discount.........I can only assume that in the interest of fairness no retrospective discount will be applied to these booking.

I will be interested to have this confirmed by instuctorrob the originator of the World Expo post https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/world-model-expo-2020.115868/
It would be appalling if this situation has occurred because of non published information being made available early to a selected few. Clearly, and being generous, this has been a major organisational failure.

 

[Nap]

Hi Del

Saw this on social ....thanks for posting this...

Sounds a bit like the hotel taking bookings with no discount for sure

Nap

 

[custer760]

Ita all a scam....disgusting and Terrible organization.
Regards
Pete

 

[Babelfish]

It's shambolic at best, underhand at worst. It appears that regular punters never had a chance.

- Steve

 

[DEL]

It's starting to look logistically problematic with flights to Eindhoven from Scotland requiring a stop over at Schipol making some journeys over15 hours, otherwise its a tain from Amserdam or Brussels.
Either way its looking like upwards of ￡900 by the time hotel, food and drink, entrance fees etc are factored in. And thats before buying goodies
Really have to think hard about value both financial and social.

 

[OldTaff]

Blimey, Del, that's eye-watering costs (And I dooon't say this 'cos you're a Scot ) Well, if you decide against going, could I have your rooms if you want to offload?
I initially decided against all the aggro, but one of my pals says it's eminently do-able if we drive over. He's a professional, so we'll see.

Alan

 

[Ferris]

I can see where the disappointment is coming from, but I find it rather unfair to judge the organizers this harshly.
It’s a very big show, with many traders and visitors, hence needing a large venue. The venue features a very large hotel, but even verly large hotels, at some point, can get fully booked.

The dates of the show have been known for a while. You could have booked before, decided to wait for the discount and now blame the organization for the hotel being booked out...I don’t consier that fair really.

Anyway, Eindhoven is a biggish town and there are plenty of other staying options available. Advice: fly to Schiphol, take a cheap rental car and drive to Eindhoven and your place of stay. Trains from Schiphol to Eindhoven are quick and plentyful as well. Downside is you’d need a taxi or bus, which takes time and is less flexible.

Cheers
Adrian

 

[Uruk-Hai]

For the SMC show, booking werent available at all until they released the special offer.
Ive tried several times to book when checking out but being declined to do so being told that I have to go through the webpage.

Cheers
Janne Nilsson

 

[Nige]

I was sent the code by the Hotel but I couldn't get any joy from their website when I attempted it in the morning Later on when I tried again it was booked out. Not a problem as they have lost a customer for the SMC shows in the future.

By staying in Eindhoven I am actually saving 130 Euros in accommodation. The discount was after all only 15%.
Downside we will have to take a 15-20min bus ride which takes you to the venue which is inconvenient but not a big deal. Chances are we would have been heading into town to eat and have a few beers in the evenings anyway as the hotel venue bars are not that big and will be packed out. Alternatively you can always hang around after the show, have a few beers and head into town at your leisure.

 

[Babelfish]

The dates of the show have been known for a while. You could have booked before

Wasn't an option Adrian. They weren't taking bookings.

- Steve

 

[Nige]

Just had a look at the SMC site for this year. There are a staggering 162 traders. Its entirely possible that more want in for the WE.
Given that some traders will have a crew of 3 or 4 and with other factors such as WE Committee/ the great and the good etc, Guys doing Seminars, Club Displayers from other countries etc etc it would seem that very few rooms would have been available anyway.

I don't think this is an organisational failure either as the SMC shows with the odd little glitch are run superbly and lets face it other shows would bite your hand off for that many traders coming, not to mention the many half day seminars from artists at the top of their game. Far from being a failure the SMC and the WE will be a huge success and that will be down to the organisers and their experience in running such a huge event. I also think people are underestimating the size of the event and the organisation that goes into it.

I don't know of many other shows that provide accommodation but the organisers have all but booked the whole hotel and provided 2 pages of alternative hotels on their website - what other shows do that ?

 

[DEL]

The issue really is, with all the experience of SMC why did they bother to have anything about a discount on the website.
This effectively created an expectation of availability amongst many who were unaware of the 2 week head start for traders etc. Perfectly understandable that those 'enhancing' the show should be prioritised.
Had there been nothing on the website people would have sought accommodation elsewhere much earlier, as it is on the space of 1 day a hotel I looked at hiked the price by £30 for a single room.
Not unusual but really annoying.

 

[Martin64]

Whilst I understand the disappointment I feel that the blame put on the organizers is a bit harsh.
When visiting Euromilitaire at its heighday I regularly was moved on short notice from the Leas Cliff Hotel to another hotel due to bookings and reservations for the special people (whoever they were) although my reservation had always been confirmed more than once in advance by mail and phone. Latest at the checkin things usually had changed....and in the end I looked right from the start for Bed&Breakfast elsewhere to avoid to be treated this way.
So now thanks to the internet visitors of the WE know more than one year in advance that they have to reorganize their plans - good times.
Cheers, Martin

 

[OldTaff]

The issue really is, with all the experience of SMC why did they bother to have anything about a discount on the website.
This effectively created an expectation of availability amongst many who were unaware of the 2 week head start for traders etc. Perfectly understandable that those 'enhancing' the show should be prioritised.
Had there been nothing on the website people would have sought accommodation elsewhere much earlier, as it is on the space of 1 day a hotel I looked at hiked the price by £30 for a single room.
Not unusual but really annoying.

Whilst I was on line looking for hotels or B&B's within reasonable distance from the venue, the places I was looking at increased their prices during my attempt at booking !! That's what I call brass-necked profiteering

Alan

 

[brian]

It's hard to justify the cost that Derek stated, of approx £900, plus the fact that the locals are hiking their prices for B&B.
I'm passionate about my hobby,but there are limits when i feel that this is a finicial rip off.Money doesn't even come into the equation for me personnally,but standing by my principles,i will be giving it a big miss.
The only downside for me, by not going, will be the fact that i'll be missing out on meeting up with all my friends.
Brian

 

[Martin64]

a quick check for a hotel in Eindhoven (twin room for two nights) July 3rd til Sunday 5th 2020 gave a result for available hotels around the city centre asking 86 € a night (total prize 158 €). The single room will cost 83€ for one night. That is the price level to expect if you look for hotels at the centre of cities in Europe - and I can tell by experience as I had to do a lot of travel dutywise!
Back in Folkestone when the value of the GBP was three times the value of the DM (thanks to Maggie) a stay at the Leas was much more costly...not to speak of the quality of the rooms and the breakfast.
Not that bad IMHO.
Cheers, Martin

 

[Babelfish]

It's hard to justify the cost that Derek stated, of approx £900, plus the fact that the locals are hiking their prices for B&B.
I'm passionate about my hobby,but there are limits when i feel that this is a finicial rip off.Money doesn't even come into the equation for me personnally,but standing by my principles,i will be giving it a big miss. The only downside for me, by not going, will be the fact that i'll be missing out on meeting up with all my friends.

Agree 100% Brian. If I really wanted to go that badly I could afford to, and I'm sure it'll be a tremendous event. But (a) that doesn't mean I'm made of money, and that amount of wedge could still be put to good use elsewhere. Plus (b) like yourself I'm not prepared to be screwed over on hotel rates as a matter of principle (same reason as I won't take a holiday or fly during school holidays unless it's absolutely unavoidable because basically, everyone takes the piss with their prices).

As you say, the social side of shows is great, and in recent years meeting up with friends and talking to other guys who share the same passion has become as big a part of any show for me as the show itself. But there will always be other shows, and having thought about it for a couple of days in light of the discussions here, I've decided that when it gets closer to the time I'll see if there's any accommodation still to be had at a sensible price within a sensible distance of the place (a few remaining vacancies in some quiet backwater, cancellations or whatever). And if there is, maybe consider going over & incorporating W.E. into a few days of doing various stuff (like maybe take the wife over into Germany, because she's never been there before). But if there's not then so be it - it ain't the end of the world.

- Steve

 

[Ferris]

Wasn't an option Adrian. They weren't taking bookings.

- Steve

I see, I didn’t know that. Can understand the disappointment better now. Still don’t think the show organizers should be blamed. The scarcity of rooms is caused by the size of the event, not by the organizers.

It's hard to justify the cost that Derek stated, of approx £900, plus the fact that the locals are hiking their prices for B&B.
I'm passionate about my hobby,but there are limits when i feel that this is a finicial rip off.Money doesn't even come into the equation for me personnally,but standing by my principles,i will be giving it a big miss.
The only downside for me, by not going, will be the fact that i'll be missing out on meeting up with all my friends.
Brian

I’ve always been surprised about the amount of money some are prepared to spend on attending specific events. Then again, you only live once and how many World Expos are there?
I can only say the SMC show is a great event that is very professionally managed, so anyone deciding to go will not be disappointed.

 

[smudger1960]

I love my hobby and some of the shows,but im not going to be shafted trying to support one

 

[megroot]

Here are 110 hotels around Veldhoven:

https://www.google.com/travel/hotel...kaG92ZW4aGAoKMjAxOS0wNy0yORIKMjAxOS0wNy0zMFIA

The WE is held in Veldhoven wich is a very small town. The greatest city near Veldhoven is Eindhoven. We can't blame the organizers. Beside that, the Netherlands are one of the most expensive country's for staying at a hotel.
That's why I do just one day at the SMC and no difference at the WE. Its a 2 hour drive from my home. I know it's alot nearer then most of you.
I hope the prices where not the main rule for not coming.

Marc