I’m wondering if this is prompted by all of the hotels and hostels in Prague being bizarrely very packed on the exact weekend of EAGx this year. I could not figure out though just what is happening in Prague to do this, and fortunately I have a relative who lives in Prague whose apartment I can crash in.
I’m not aware of anything, in particular, happening in Prague that weekend that would explain the hotels in the downtown area being full. Prague is a very popular city that is coming back from two bad winters with COVID so it seems that people are simply eager to visit.
We did put together a guide on public transportation so people are comfortable booking outside of the city center and also had a couchsurfing table for people to advertise and look for spare accommodation.
We decided to do the conference in the city center because we think it is a beautiful area that we wanted to share with our attendees. There seems to be an existing tension in the community on whether to do conferences in large convention centers at an arbitrary location or in unique spaces which are an inherent part of the conference experience.
We were considering doing a group order for accommodation to help out the attendees but we did not have enough capacity on the team to do it. I’ve done this for another conference in the past and it is A LOT of work to assign people, deal with changes, communicate with the hotel etc.
So this is sort of sad or darker in tone, but one consideration is the Ukraine refugees. Theres ~5.7M, which is large fraction of the population of neighboring countries.
While looking for hotels, you can notice many hotels with a notice offering free stays for refugees. My sense this is a strong, genuine offer and a lot of capacity was used.
So that would use a lot of rooms, in addition to being demand surging after being capped by COVID.
(Yes, I have thought about the elasticity and other indirect effects for refugees by booking or going to Prague—this effect is probably tiny or nil.)
Yeah, I confirmed directly that the refugees weren’t what was driving the Prague problem (though maybe on the margin it helps to make it so bad), since last weekend and the weekend following the conference had normal Eastern European prices.
What do you think about adding a field in the application form, like: “I’d like to share a room with other EAG attendees”. Then you can just lump together people who checked it into some email group, and let them coordinate among themselves.
Tim: Not sure. Didn’t apply to this year’s Prague event because I couldn’t make the dates work. Glad you found a place to stay!
Irena: I was in Prague for a short time when I was little and remember it as a thriving cultural hub that I wanted to spend more time in. I think you’re right on about people wanting to experience real life and travel to awesome places again, after prolonged lack of travel, arts/culture, in-person human interaction, etc. That’s great that you made a public transport doc! I agree that there would likely be significant work involved in coordinating group travel arrangements.
Charles: Thanks for sharing about the free stays for refugees, I find that heartening. Clarification: Are you saying there is a hotel that rents rooms and companion corgis? I hope the hotel vets everyone involved, esp given fat-tailed risk potential.
Are you saying there is a hotel that rents rooms and companion corgis? I hope the hotel vets everyone involved, esp given fat-tailed risk potential.
Right now, as we speak, I think many attendees are running into the problem that there are few low cost rooms to be booked.
So I think many EAs are going through the anxiety of having booked expensive rooms as a result, or are spending hours circling the booking process. This anxiety is probably borne by more conscientious EAs.
This is bad and I think people should book those rooms, despite the higher price.
So I made a joke about corgis and a fancy room, trying to show by example that this is OK. I thought doing this with a joke was way more effective (and less dry and briefer) than writing out the above. I think this is true, the joke and corgi picture was glorious.
I deleted this comment. No one messaged me about it, I just did it because I think there are downsides to my joke, including creating anxiety among a smaller group of organizers.
:) I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a thing, and stand by my bad puns. Didn’t realize you were joking, but also didn’t judge the corgi hotel other than feeling slightly concerned about the possibility of animal exploitation.
I’m sorry to hear that others experience anxiety around finding lodging too, and think surveying for potential value of group bookings might be good.
I’m wondering if this is prompted by all of the hotels and hostels in Prague being bizarrely very packed on the exact weekend of EAGx this year. I could not figure out though just what is happening in Prague to do this, and fortunately I have a relative who lives in Prague whose apartment I can crash in.
I’m not aware of anything, in particular, happening in Prague that weekend that would explain the hotels in the downtown area being full. Prague is a very popular city that is coming back from two bad winters with COVID so it seems that people are simply eager to visit.
We did put together a guide on public transportation so people are comfortable booking outside of the city center and also had a couchsurfing table for people to advertise and look for spare accommodation.
We decided to do the conference in the city center because we think it is a beautiful area that we wanted to share with our attendees. There seems to be an existing tension in the community on whether to do conferences in large convention centers at an arbitrary location or in unique spaces which are an inherent part of the conference experience.
We were considering doing a group order for accommodation to help out the attendees but we did not have enough capacity on the team to do it. I’ve done this for another conference in the past and it is A LOT of work to assign people, deal with changes, communicate with the hotel etc.
So this is sort of sad or darker in tone, but one consideration is the Ukraine refugees. Theres ~5.7M, which is large fraction of the population of neighboring countries.
While looking for hotels, you can notice many hotels with a notice offering free stays for refugees. My sense this is a strong, genuine offer and a lot of capacity was used.
So that would use a lot of rooms, in addition to being demand surging after being capped by COVID.
(Yes, I have thought about the elasticity and other indirect effects for refugees by booking or going to Prague—this effect is probably tiny or nil.)
Yeah, I confirmed directly that the refugees weren’t what was driving the Prague problem (though maybe on the margin it helps to make it so bad), since last weekend and the weekend following the conference had normal Eastern European prices.
What do you think about adding a field in the application form, like: “I’d like to share a room with other EAG attendees”. Then you can just lump together people who checked it into some email group, and let them coordinate among themselves.
Filip, that sounds reasonable too . Thanks for the add .
Tim: Not sure. Didn’t apply to this year’s Prague event because I couldn’t make the dates work. Glad you found a place to stay!
Irena: I was in Prague for a short time when I was little and remember it as a thriving cultural hub that I wanted to spend more time in. I think you’re right on about people wanting to experience real life and travel to awesome places again, after prolonged lack of travel, arts/culture, in-person human interaction, etc. That’s great that you made a public transport doc! I agree that there would likely be significant work involved in coordinating group travel arrangements.
Charles: Thanks for sharing about the free stays for refugees, I find that heartening. Clarification: Are you saying there is a hotel that rents rooms and companion corgis? I hope the hotel vets everyone involved, esp given fat-tailed risk potential.
Right now, as we speak, I think many attendees are running into the problem that there are few low cost rooms to be booked.
So I think many EAs are going through the anxiety of having booked expensive rooms as a result, or are spending hours circling the booking process. This anxiety is probably borne by more conscientious EAs.
This is bad and I think people should book those rooms, despite the higher price.
So I made a joke about corgis and a fancy room, trying to show by example that this is OK. I thought doing this with a joke was way more effective (and less dry and briefer) than writing out the above. I think this is true, the joke and corgi picture was glorious.
I deleted this comment. No one messaged me about it, I just did it because I think there are downsides to my joke, including creating anxiety among a smaller group of organizers.
:) I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a thing, and stand by my bad puns. Didn’t realize you were joking, but also didn’t judge the corgi hotel other than feeling slightly concerned about the possibility of animal exploitation.
I’m sorry to hear that others experience anxiety around finding lodging too, and think surveying for potential value of group bookings might be good.