What's Going On With Hotel Availability For Caravan?
 

Put my name on a waiting list at the Super 8 hotes across from the museum last November along with some others and now I find out we have all been bumped due to someone blocking out the entire hotel despite the fact that the hotel is not even taking reservations this far out. And judging from the hotel list on the museum website most of the surrounding hotels are already blocked out as well. This latest development is definitely causing some discouragement among some of us who may just decide to forego this event altogether. If it has not happened yet, all of the state team captains need to get together and address and/or resolve this dilemma that we are facing. Just my .02...

Please be patient
 

Don't let this discourage you. I am a co-captain for Florida and we are having trouble getting rooms as well. When I went to them and asked for blocks I am being told that they don't block them so far out, and we need to call back later. The situation is the same as it was in 2003 for the last National Caravan. The issue is that there are literally thousands and thousands of Corvettes coming to town that weekend. Figure 2 people per car (as most don't cruise alone to this event) and you are referring to double the people in the event. We had around 500 Vettes in the Florida leg last year stopping at the first stop in Lake City. That was before we ever entered into GA! That's only one state out of the 48 contiguous states represented in that number of participants. This event is VERY BIG, and takes alot of planning. We are working very hard on getting rooms available for the participants to use, but it takes time. We are still one year away, and some plans take a little bit of patience to get into line.

We have quite a few lined up for the first stop in Lake City and surrounding areas. We will get that information to everyone via the e-mails if your signed up, or the Caravan website as soon as we possibly can. The Captain (Ernie Zager "EZ) is working very hard to make the FL leg of the Caravan a success.

It may seem like it is taking too long, but it will work out. If you decide to forgo the trip I feel that you will miss out on a GREAT time. I hope you decide to be patient and still go on the Caravan.

Hey Rocket,

Have you heard anything about what is being done to replace Atlanta Motorspeedway? Once I heard that was part of the agenda, I told the wife that the '01 vert was staying home and the Z16 was headed to the event. Any information you might have would be of interest.

Thanks
Rich

No I am sorry I don't. I know they are working with several other tracks to try and secure the reservation needed as well as funding to rent it. Florida doesn't have alot to do with it, as it was Georgias treat to the Caravan. We are working with other states to try and get a new track lined up. Believe me, I did hot laps at Atlanta last time in 2003, and if there was only one event I could sign up for it would be hot laps. I LOVED IT!!! I was as shocked and disappointed as anyone else when NASCAR took our weekend from us. Stay tuned, we have some possibilities in the works, but I will hold onto the locations until something pans out. We will post it as soon as we know, since the race tracks are the definite highlight of the trip.

Thanks Rocket! :yesnod:

Rocket,
Do you know the hotels under consideration for our stay in Atlanta?

No, I'm sorry I don't. Atlanta is so big that there are probably thousands of possibilities. The main hang up is the track. We lost Atlanta Motor Speedway to NASCAR so now we have to find a new track. We are waiting on word from the Georgia caravan to see what they were able to secure. When we know what track will be used for the laps day then we will start making calls to the hotels nearby.

Are we still doing Stone Mountian or is that out also?

Here is what is on the NCM web site.

Some Caravan Home Pages do not give as much information as others regarding the exact route, departure & arrival times, stops, etc. In large part this is due to pending track events along the way which cannot be finalized till December 31st. NASCAR has agreements with many facilities which prohibits the tracks from signing agreements with anyone else for the following year till December 31st. The date at the top left of each Caravan's page tells when it was last updated.

HOTELS:
There has been a tremendous amount of rumor and misinformation regarding hotels in Bowling Green. Here are some facts:

1. There are about 2,600 rooms in Bowling Green and another 2,000 available in our immediate regional area (less than 30 minutes).

2. Some hotels are fully spoken for, while others actually are not but they are not taking any more block or room requests at this time. Their computer systems cannot handle reservations more than 50 weeks out. Expect to find there are rooms to be found about two weeks after this Labor Day.

3. Some Captains do have room blocks set aside for their participants in Bowling Green as well as Nashville.

4. We have been publicizing Caravan '09 for several years and there are a large number of groups, clubs, individuals, etc. who have been proactive and contacted motel/hotel sales departments for blocks of rooms. As these groups fail to FILL their blocks - the balance of rooms will go back into inventory. Expect to see numerous rooms right in town open up during the last 4 to 6 weeks before caravan.

5. In 2003 we had over 11,000 caravan participants, assuming 2 per car (and room) that would be 5,500 rooms and everyone found a place to stay and there WERE empty room in Bowling Green.

6. Since the 2003 Caravan there have been a number of new hotels constructed in Franklin, KY (exits 2 & 5) with another scheduled to open late this fall, so the room inventory will increase even more.

7. There are always a number of people who prefer staying down in Nashville, particularly at the huge Opryland Hotel.

8. This caravan is no different than the previous 3 caravans - there should be no issue with everyone finding rooms.

It is recommended that you secure a reservation wherever you can as soon as you can. Then check periodically with the Bowling Green Convention & Visitors Bureau: http://www.visitbgky.com/caravan/ The CVB is coordinating with all of the hotels, including those in Franklin, and can be helpful to you especially as time shortens, to locate and offer rooms from those blocks that weren't fully used.

Seeing that we are at the 50 week mark, this maybe the time to try and see if the hotels in and around Bowling Green are opening up for room blocks.

We want to, but that still depends on which track we go to. If we end up at (I'll pick at random, no intent to mislead you here) Talladega or Charlotte Motor Speedway then Stone Mountain would be too far.

Please be patient with the Caravan, as Jack pointed out in the TR6speed post above on every trip no one has to sleep in their cars. Activities are all over the place, and not just at the Museum property. In past caravans there was an equal amount of stuff in Nashville, which caused us to spend 1/2 of our trip in that city seeing things.

This caravan will be a blast. Just sit back and relax and things will pan out as the caravan leaders work out the wrinkles in the schedule. :thumbsup: