FAQ: Our Move
Submitted by kiranlightpaw on Sat, 2008-04-26 03:00
Go back to the previous page - Why did Furry Weekend Atlanta move hotels? Mostly, because of our amazing growth. Furry Weekend Atlanta was already occupying the largest hotel conference space at the Airport (the Sheraton), and ourgrew it in two years. A change was needed to continue to provide the high quality you have come to expect from Furry Weekend Atlanta.
We surveyed properties all over the metro Atlanta area, from Marietta to Peachtree City. Hotels north of town were ruled out as being too expensive, inconvenient and generally unsuitable to a convention of our type. This left the downtown hotels as being our best option to continue to grow the con.
- Why did Furry Weekend Atlanta choose the Hilton? The Hilton has been an absolute pleasure to work with and has made a concerted effort to win our business. They are also one of the (several) hotels that hosts Dragon*Con, so they have experience with large fandom conventions. The Hilton made us the best combined offer.
- What does Furry Weekend Atlanta's move to the Hilton mean for me? Furry Weekend Atlanta is very excited by this opportunity because it means:
- Triple the space for the convention! Every room is larger, and many (including the artists' alley) are significantly larger.
- 50 restaurants within a 3-block area of the hotel. These range from fast food and buffets to 5-star restaurants with a view to die for. And if you go further out, there are over 100 restuarants within a 1-mile radius.
- 8 elevators. Furry Weekend Atlanta staff have personally inspected the elevators and found them to be very fast. They are also "smart" elevators - they are computer controlled for maximum effectiveness under heavy demand.
- Easy to get to. The hotel is located right off the Interstate, and is a two block walk from the Peachtree Center MARTA station. While we would encourage our guests who are not driving in to take advantage of MARTA, we will also have shuttle bus information available to those coming from the airport who wish it. It is basically in the middle of everything.
- Triple the space for the convention! Every room is larger, and many (including the artists' alley) are significantly larger.
- Why did Furry Weekend Atlanta move dates? This was not a decision that Furry Weekend Atlanta came to lightly. Almost six months' worth of work went into trying to get a workable contact with Furry Weekend Atlanta's previous February dates, but it became clear that it just wasn't going to work in a way that would not have been prohibitively expensive for both us and you.
The main issue is that Furry Weekend Atlanta's February dates fell on the same week as the world's largest cheerleading exposition, Cheersport, which books virtually all the downtown properties solid and large parts of most hotels in the metro Atlanta area (you may have noticed cheerleaders at the Sheraton). There were simply no large properties that Furry Weekend Atlanta could book on those weekends. It became a decision of either to move to the March date, or to end the convention.
However, on the plus side, being that our date is further in March now, you can look foward to seasonable spring Georgia temperatures instead of cold and unpredictable February weather.