Hello everybody,

Following my last email I have had many requests asking why reservations have to be booked 1 month in advance.
Understandably, some of you have been a little confused and upset about this.
I am going to try to explain why this is necessary.

S2K Club Italia has to block book 5 hotels for this event, they also have to book restaurants, pay the venue for the Gala Dinner, pay the live music band and many other things.
At present we only have a promise that people will attend, we have no guarantee and zero security. S2K Italia must guarantee all bookings and ultimately pay for them. Any shortfalls would have to be met by the club.

If only 10 people decided not to come at the last moment, this would leave our Italian friends with a debt of 3400 Euros to pay. This last weekend alone we have had 7 cars cancel their participation.
The Italian club is only a small club and they:

a) Cannot afford to pay such a loss
b) Should not have to pay for such as loss.

Ask yourself this: Would your local Honda community/club be able to cover such a potential loss ?

This is one of the main reasons for paying in advance.

When a hotel or a holiday is usually booked, it is done so with a credit card and terms and conditions so that if you pull out at the last minute, the holiday company/hotel still get their money.

We do not have any credit card numbers and I'll say it again, no security.

Any losses will have to be paid for by our Italian friends. To me, this is an unacceptable responsibility for the club that is doing so much to create this event for us all.

Now please consider the following scenarios:

1) A participant who has booked a double room decides to come alone. This participant then refuses to pay the full amount for a double room. S2K Italia would have to cover this loss.
2) A participant comes, spends time at the meet and then 'disappears' without paying their final bill. Again S2K Club Italia would have to pay this.

I know that 99% of people are good honest people, but with such large numbers there is always a risk of somebody behaving badly.

The financial climate has changed dramatically since the conception of this event, hotels require assurances and will not rely upon promises as unoccupied room equals loss of revenue. Again we are not talking about a few rooms, we are having to book entire hotels.

Please understand that these measures are at the request of S2K Club Italia President Furio Fraccaroli, he asked me to contact you all to explain during our meeting in Austria 2 weeks ago.

I am aware that some people are not entirely satisfied with the request to pay 1 month in advance, but I hope that they are able to understand the reasons behind this decision.

The size of this meet is unprecedented in the European S2000 community and the organisation of this event has been incredibly difficult and time consuming. My only request is that people please request the wishes of the organisational team and S2K Italia.

Best regards,
Lee.

 

Bad form, people dropping out

When we paid our deposits we knew it was a one way ticket

 

Sorry not to have introduce myself, i'm from S2000.fr.

I will just make a copy of the email i sent to reply the concerned message regarding advanced booking :


Hello,
> fully agree 100%. It's just common sense.
> Thank you again for all this time spent and wonderfull organization.
> Best Regards

really thanks again for the fantastic job!!
If you can't pay one month before i'm afraid ever you can really pay one month after....

 

Hi LTB

Fully agree with the posters above me.


The amount of organisation that must go into this is huge.
The time you and the other volunteers have put into this we can only guess at.
It looks like it will be a once in a liftime event.


Read LTB's post.... the logistics are a nightmare.
Come on everyone -

HELP OUT OUR VOLUNTEERS PUT ON A GREAT EVENT

You can really help by making life easier for them by paying when asked.
That's all you have to do.

They have enough challenges in pulling this together without us being difficult about paying for it.

Just imagine the chaos of trying to sort out the finances on the weekend. Trying to find people, collect the right amount etc. It's too difficult.



Once again....

HELP OUT OUR VOLUNTEERS PUT ON A GREAT EVENT

PAY UP WHEN ASKED TO DO SO

 

I absolutely disagree with this.

This is a change in the previous terms, i remember a post saying the payment will be made in the Hotel. The 70 euros fee was accepted only in that terms.

So if, by any reason, i can`t go to the meeting, i'm going to lose 410 euros instead of 70.

Every Hotel i've reserved leaves the chance of cancelling the reserve 24 hours before the day of arrival without paying a penalty.
It would be better that the cancellation will be managed by the participant and the Hotel.
Knowing the Hotel in witch we will stay, we could give they a credit card number in order to charge the first night if the reserve is cancelled.
The payment, as said formely, will be made "in situ".

FMPOV that will be fair.

 

What exactly is your objection Kowalsky ?

Is it simply because we changed the 'conditions' as you say or is it because you now have to pay 1 month in advance ?

I am genuinely interested to know.

For the record, we did not officially publish anywhere that the final balance would be paid during the meet. There was a lot of talk about it, yes I agree, but it was never official.

The logistics of collecting everybody's credit card details at this stage would be impossible, it appears to me that you have little understanding of the magnitude of organising such an event. Have you ever organised an event yourself ?

So, once again, I am really interested in your genuine reasons for objecting to this. Once I know this, I can better understand you. I have explained our side in the email that I sent to everybody yesterday, I would now like to know your side.

If your argument is simply - you have changed the 'conditions' and I don't like it, than you really do not have an argument at all.

Step away from it all for a moment or two and try and understand why we are having to do this, why it is essential.

If you are genuinely committed to coming to the Euromeet then I really don't see where the major issue is. The only people who I see having issues are those who are not that committed and do not know whether they will attend or not.

 

SO... let's say you do not turn up. And the organisers are short of 340Euros.

Who should pick up the cost - You? Me? S2K Italy?

Or who should not get paid?
The Band? The caterers, the hotel?

The organisers are having to book entire hotels!!! - not individual rooms. - So the hotel must get paid.

The caterers will have agreed a fee to provide food for all of us. They must get paid. - As they are having to buy ingredients beforehand.

Any entertainment eg Bands etc - that have been booked - They must get paid.


So... let's hear it - Tell me who should not get paid.


The way you are thinking - you are saying that either

1/ I will have to pay more. As will every other member to raise 340 Euros
2/ Someone will not get paid.
3/ S2K Italy members will be left with a very big debt.


Let me know who you think should be left with the debt because you decide not to attend at the last minute.

 

Gaspode I do not think that the people is here blaming the organization which is doinng a great job.

What need to be clarified is.. is really the hotel willing to get a non-refundable payment 1 month before the reservation of the room? If this is true, then it's abusive.

Every service provider should have a policy of cancelation, in every hotel i have ever been (and because of my work i book hotels weekly) you could get a total refund of 1 night if you cancel the reservation 24h before.

Only in case of non-assistance the hotel will book the total amount of the stay in the credit card.

I agree that s2k italia is not willing to provide the credit card for the people who is not canceling the reservation. But they should return the money to the participant in case the participant is cancelling the reservation in the legal period (which is not 1 month)..

And the same for the other reservations (orchestra, meeting rooms.. etc...) they all should have a cancelation policy (not set by s2k club italia but by the service provider)

 

David, this is not a simple as you portray it.

Firstly, attendees are not simply booking a hotel room, they are paying for a package.

This package includes - Hotel rooms, meals, restaurants outside of the hotels, hiring of venues also outside of the hotels, hiring a live music band.

This talk of hotels is over simplified and disingenuous.

The reason why we have been able to negotiate the fee of 205 Euros per person for 3 nights with everything included is because we are acting as a group, not individuals. To do this we have to supply assurances to hotels, venues, caterers and all the other people that I have mentioned above.

People must get out of this mindset of the individual, it simply does not work like that.

You will not get anywhere near the price of 205 Euros for all the services that I have mentioned above if you act as an individual.

One more time - this is not about the hotels, it is about a package of services.

The rates that we have negotiated are simply NOT POSSIBLE without certain certitudes and assurances that we must provide to all the service providers.

 

First of all, i must say sorry for my english. Maybe i can't explain my thought about this any better.

I think i've seen that in a post in important topic section. I will check it this night.

A little bit presumption here.
I have recently organized the 3rd Spanish S2000 Owners Meeting alone. That included, room reservation, restaurant reservation, rute planning and circuit reservation.
Last year i also organized a group buy.
Last 6 years i have been not only racing but also helping in the organization of several rallyes and hillclimbs here in Spain.

So i think i have an idea of what is going on. Of course, the Euromeeting is a lot of bigger than the Spanish one.

Suppose you go to a bank and get a loan at 6% interest rate and the first payment the bank charges you a 12%. What would you think if your bank says that you don't have an argumment? Who needs an argumment? Is common sense.
Please, don't tell me that the loan have a contract you must sing and blah blah... That's not the point.

The issue is in the fact that if by any "force majeure" reason i can