Austin F1 Circuit Construction & Updates (On-Topic Only)

[Quattroad]

Where are the haters from the last two years who could not imagine or admit that this race would ever happen?? Huh, where are you loudmouths now?

Thought so.

Great track - great race - great job Texas!!

[Placid]

Another thing that they would have had at the ceremony was to have RHR taking his championship Indy Car for demonstration lap.

[hairy_scotsman]

Nobody has to "convince" any hotelier to block all their rooms when a major event is announced. It is standard practice. In fact, in cases of major chains the blocking is done from the corporate reservations system. Over a month or two packages are sold to tour operators and then it is normally up to the local property to release rooms for booking as they see fit. However, smart reservations managers release these slowly and make every attempt to package them to maximize their profits. As the event gets nearer the reservations manager keeps an eye on reservation attempts and when they start to decline more rooms will be opened up. The last rooms are usually opened very near to the date of the event and in some cases may never be sold. It doesn't make any difference because they will sell to walk-ins. Also you need to keep in mind that hotels will always overbook rooms. This is done because people cancel and the target is to end up 100% occupied. Just to make sure you can meet the needs of those arriving should you not have enough cancellations a major hotel will book rooms at another hotel just in case they need to cover a situation where they don't have the room. And finally, people will book rooms requiring a cash deposit but never send the deposit.

That is why hotel rooms are available now (or were a few days ago).

I've wanted to respond to this for a while, but have strangely been unable to log in for about 2 weeks. I was able to log in for 1 post, but that's all.

In regard to "convincing", I was referring to hotel managers being convinced that money is no object to the typical F1 traveling fan.

A few weeks ago the nice ladies at Expedia.com & Hotels.com asked us for information about the area and help selling remaining inventory. According to them, area hotel managers had been told that money was no object to *typical* F1 GP attendees. Of course that's not the case, and it showed in sales. They confirmed a situation where 10-15% of Central Texas inventory went unsold, with 4000 - 5000 rooms unsold inside Austin alone. Prospective race attendees were seeing the high prices and either canceling their plans or going elsewhere, such as San Antonio. It's only an hour or so away and has very nice accommodations at good/normal prices.

With about 3 or so weeks to go, the room blocking ended hotel by hotel, and prices started to fall. We tracked the prices over those weeks and posted links for travelers on our page, twitter, and several F1 message boards (including Speed's). Starting about 2 weeks or so before the race there were consistently 218 - 221 hotels in the Austin area with 3-night availability (Fr, Sa, & Su) for the USGP weekend. I last tweeted about it on Thursday the 15th, when the lowest Austin price per night for all 3 nights was $77.

Here's a good article/tv story about it (which btw, got Epstein hopping mad). http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/a...for-f1-weekend

The COTA economic impact report projected that the GP would create demand for 148,000 hotel room nights. They didn't come close to that number.

[hairy_scotsman]

Hairy, thanks so much for all you've contributed to this thread. I have enjoyed every minute of it.

Thanks buddy. I appreciate that!

[MJM_27]

With about 3 or so weeks to go, the room blocking ended hotel by hotel, and prices started to fall. We tracked the prices over those weeks and posted links for travelers on our page, twitter, and several F1 message boards (including Speed's). Starting about 2 weeks or so before the race there were consistently 218 - 221 hotels in the Austin area with 3-night availability (Fr, Sa, & Su) for the USGP weekend. I last tweeted about it on Thursday the 15th, when the lowest Austin price per night for all 3 nights was $77.

Here's a good article/tv story about it (which btw, got Epstein hopping mad). http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/a...for-f1-weekend

The COTA economic impact report projected that the GP would create demand for 148,000 hotel room nights. They didn't come close to that number.

Thanks for giving everyone the heads up!

I already had accommodations but was able to pick up a $100 a night room in town for my parents so I could get them out of the RV!

[KansasCityF1Fan]

Whatever happened to the stars in the runoff paint? They appeared to be there before the race but were definitely not there for the race. They are also on the google maps satellite view, though I imagine that image is from before race weekend.