Rock the Dragon 2024 will be April 24 - 28, 2024

TL;DL: If you plan to attend an event moving forward, I recommend that you reserve your room as soon as the dates are announced.

As you are likely aware, Fontana came under new management in recent years. The new management is making some adjustments now that they've had a few years to get a handle on everything. They are trying to make the best business decisions they can. You will be happy to learn about some of them, like plans for upgrades and renovations. Others you won't be as happy about, like rate changes to help fund those upgrades and renovations. I'm sure they will share more details as they become available.

One big change that you need to be aware of is how they will handle reservations. For those who aren't aware, the way it is handled now is the organizer signs a contract that spells out the dates for the event, along with the number of rooms, type of rooms, and room rates that will be set aside for the group. If someone calls to set up a reservation and specifies they are attending the event in the contract, then they are able to reserve from the rooms at the rates specified in the contract. If someone calls to set up a reservation and does not specify they are attending the event in the contract, Fontana will show every room in the contract as unavailable. This is why sometimes people will call to reserve a room and Fontana will say there are no rooms available; it is because the person didn't say they were attending the event in the contract.

The contract also lists a release date. Fontana will continue to hold rooms aside for the group until the release date. After the release date, someone who calls and doesn't specify they are attending the event can reserve any of the rooms that were originally listed in the contract. This creates a situation where Fontana will lose out on revenue if the group does not use all of the rooms set aside for them and they can't fill them after the release date. Thus far the release date has been two months prior to the event. This gives us maximum time to procrastinate before making a decision and reserving our rooms. Fontana is a large place with a lot of rooms. There are a lot of people looking for somewhere to stay such as other car groups, Appalachian trail hikers, and generally people looking for a vacation. Most of the people who stay in a place like Fontana are planning their stay months in advance. Because of this, Fontana is losing out of a lot of potential revenue by setting the release date so close to the date of the actual event. A lot of revenue that would be crucial to bring any plans for upgrades or renovations to reality.

The obvious and optimal solution to their dilemma is to move the release date back. Moving forward, the release date will be approximately 90 days after the contract is signed. For the Spring 2024 meet, I signed the contract on May 18, 2023 and the release date is August 31, 2023. After August 31, 2023 you will still be able to reserve a room at the group rate, but the rooms listed in the contract will be available for anyone else to reserve as well. The result of this is that Fontana is more likely to fill up and no longer have a room available for someone who waits to reserve their room last minute. For this reason, I would recommend reserving a room as soon as the dates are announced if you expect to attend a particular event.

 

Hey John, thanks for the heads up. It’s good news they are going to be refreshing the place. I just made a reservation for my lodge room and the deposit was 109., so a 10./night increase is not bad.

 

Hey, that's not bad at all especially considering the inflation we've had the past few years!

 

I'll be booking a room tomorrow..... thanks for letting the group know what is going on.

 

Room booked, is the date correct??, April 24th is a Wednesday.

 

Yeah, I just used the dates on the contract we have with Fontana. There won't be any scheduled activities on Wednesday.

 

If Fridays are for Franklin, are Wednesday for Waynesville?

 

Any chance you can get them to offer a discount for CHD? I know we had a decent group last year, don’t know if they require a minimum.

 

It can be! I've already got other plans for Wednesday (other than driving), but you're more than welcome to post something up!

Unfortunately not. That is something the CHD organizers would need to do. I don't play a role in organizing that meet.

 

Ok gotcha. I wasn't sure if you could do a group rate for PCS specifically and didn't realize it had to be event-related. I won't bother the CHD organizers since they promote staying in Maryville or Bryson City.