1) Think it’s fine to leave it as the Athena. Keeps things simple. The hotel wasn’t failing as such, more that the previous owners have now retired and for a while had been happy to just have old regulars stay. The few public reviews it has are good.
2) You’re probably right about “first come first served” being best for use of the hotel as a GCR shelter. Realistically, I wouldn’t expect many EAs to make it to Blackpool from elsewhere in such an event, but they would be welcome.
3) I don’t want to personally spam it too much, but I’d be grateful if others promote it to various groups they think are relevant. Especially UK groups (so far there haven’t been that many UK people interested. Maybe something to do with the North-South divide?), and uni groups (as Richard mentions below).
Hey, thanks for the comments.
1) Think it’s fine to leave it as the Athena. Keeps things simple. The hotel wasn’t failing as such, more that the previous owners have now retired and for a while had been happy to just have old regulars stay. The few public reviews it has are good.
2) You’re probably right about “first come first served” being best for use of the hotel as a GCR shelter. Realistically, I wouldn’t expect many EAs to make it to Blackpool from elsewhere in such an event, but they would be welcome.
3) I don’t want to personally spam it too much, but I’d be grateful if others promote it to various groups they think are relevant. Especially UK groups (so far there haven’t been that many UK people interested. Maybe something to do with the North-South divide?), and uni groups (as Richard mentions below).
4) Have added in footnote [7a].