[Debconf-team] Accomodation pricing and categories
Hi
In this mail I'll try to summarize the discussion we already had
about accomodation pricing and categories. The current proposal is in
the wiki: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf13/Pricing
Feel free to make editorial changes to make it easier to understand
directly in the wiki page but please discuss significant changes on-list
first. And please try to focus mailing-list discussions on the important
points and try to avoid drifting away to very minor points. I'm
convinced that we can have a productive discussion on list and come up
with a better proposal when working together. The current proposal is
work-in-progress and by no means finished. Please also consider that
silence on major points will be interpreted as agreement. So voice your
concerns now, if you are unhappy with the proposal.
These are points we might still want to discuss further:
* Should we combine or split payment for accommodation and food?
The current proposal does not offer an option to pay for food and get
sponsored accomodation or vice versa. This is to keep it simple. Some
people argued in favor of offering these as separate options.
* Which rooms should we expect to use for people paying a premium?
Which is the best accomodation category that should be free for
sponsored attendees? The current proposal sets this to "Medium
sleeping-bag room" (12-16 bed sleeping bag room)
* How should we plan to use the biggest rooms, for now?
One proposal to make the big and medium sleeping-bag rooms more
comfortable is to not completely fill them. There has not been much
discussion about how many people would be OK yet and there is nothing
about this in the current proposal. But I think there is a general
consensus that we don't want to completely fill these rooms. There are
159 beds in these categories. Only filling the these rooms to 2/3 of
their capacity would reduce to overall amount of available beds by 53.
How should
* Should we allow sponsored attendees to (cheaply) buy a better room?
The current proposal also allows sponsored attendees to buy an
accomodation upgrade. Some people on the list thought this should not be
allowed. IMO there is consensus that sponsored people with special needs
should get a free upgrade to the lowest category that suits their needs.
So e.g. a person in a wheel-chair does not have to pay for being hosted
in a wheel-chair-accessible house or a woman requesting to be in a
women-only room does not have to pay extra for it if we decide to put
such women together in a room of higher quality than offered for free to
others.
Once those points are decided, we need to finalize these aspects:
* Pricing
The current prices are based on the assumption that we don't want to
earn money from selling these beds -- the prices are intended to cover
our costs. Some people thought that the prices for the upper categories
are currently too low.
* Budget considerations
No thorough analysis on the budget implications of the current price
proposal has been done. A rough comparison is at the bottom of the wiki
page. This shows that the professional and corporate fees including
accomodation are rather lower than in previous years. And that we would
need more than the usual number of professional attendees to earn the
amounts that the budget currently assumes. Input about this from the
finance team would be very welcome.
* Category names
I think there is consensus to name the different categories after a
short description of what they offer. Similar or identical to the
"Alternate room description" on the wiki page. Besides finding names
that are well understood by all participants there is not much to be
discussed here anymore.
* Reservation system and payment method
I'd like to postpone discussions about these two questions. I don't
think they are very urgent at the moment.
Gaudenz
--
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
~ Samuel Beckett ~
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