This thread is intended to provide a place for room sharing requests at the 2018 US Open, scheduled for July 28 to August 5 at the Madison Marriott West in Madison, WI. This includes the following: people interested in rooming with local hosts; people interested in hosting visiting chess players; people interested in sharing a hotel room at or away from the site.
Madison has been named the host city for the 2018 Reebok CrossFit Games, scheduled August 1-5. This is a VERY recent development, and the CrossFit Games are sucking up all the hotel space in the area. So, we’re trying to encourage attendees to book hotel rooms at the site as early as possible, because we will likely not have an overflow hotel, and once our room block is booked, that will likely be all the space we have.
We also want to give people the chance to find possible accommodations besides direct reservation at the site - hence, this thread.
Here are a few suggestions for making this thread as useful as possible.
Please place each request in its own post. This will make it faster for people looking for matches.
State in the beginning of each conversation a summary of what you’re looking for (e.g.: “2100 rated player needs a room August 2-5”; “Local family has a spare bedroom”.)
This forum is viewable by the general public. So, only post direct contact information if you are comfortable with the world seeing it.
When you find a match, update your post accordingly, so everyone knows you’re no longer looking.
The following ground rules are in place for this thread.
This thread is ONLY for Madison-area room-sharing requests for the 2018 US Open. No other advertising or subjects will be permitted.
US Chess staff will not be matching requests in this thread. That will be the responsibility of the users.
Make reservations early. There is a major competing event in Madison 8/1-5 and finding space outside the room block might be a challenge. If you want to stay somewhere other than the event hotel in our room block you need to get those arrangements made right now.
Great - our room block should be OK - the issue may be folks trying to find accommodations outside the room block. Once it is full we may find it very hard to get more space - and folks who usually stay elsewhere are likely to find it hard to fine reasonably priced alternatives anywhere close to the event venue.
I suspect this is going to be a problem. As of 2/3 @ 9:30pm, the weblink does not allow reservations under our code from 7/30-8/6. I’m on the phone with reservations now and we’re running into trouble making the reservation.
Update: we had to do two reservations. One from 7/30-8/5 at the US Chess rate. For 8/5-8/6 they can’t get me into the block without supervisor approval, so I’m being charged $161+tax until they can do that. So apparently our block doesn’t extend through the 6th.
That was the case last time we were at this hotel too, at least for the day prior to the event. I didn’t need to stay late that time, but I did fly in Friday night for the weekend swiss and they didn’t honor the group rate for that night.
There is no parking fee! That will show on the hotel web site, but it does not apply to participants of the US Open according to the US Open web site. Please note that there is no mention or reference to parking fee(s) in the TLA for the US Open, but it is clearly stated on the US Open web site. Maybe something should have been included in the TLA regarding the parking.
Larry S. Cohen
PS: Already got my room & roommate set for the event.
Darn. It looks like all the hotels within several miles are booked solid. I’ve never had a problem in the past looking for a room around now for my brother and I. This will break my 8-year streak.
As of this writing, there is a small number of additional rooms in the US Chess block at the Madison Marriott West. Those rooms are available for reservation on line, or by calling the hotel directly.
It has taken us six months to get these rooms added to our block. We do not currently anticipate adding more rooms. If we can do so, notice will be posted here and on the tournament website.
[size=150]As of this writing, there is a small number of rooms (as in, fewer than 10) available at the Madison Marriott West during the dates of the US Open.[/size]
[size=150]Do NOT post in this thread to express interest - your post will likely not be read. PLEASE read and follow the instructions below.[/size]
Please note the following conditions.
These rooms were just made available less than an hour ago.
These rooms are at the tournament rate.
These rooms can check in as early as July 28, and check out as late as August 6. So, you could book one for the traditional, 6-day or 4-day schedule, or just for the business meetings.
These rooms are NOT available through the hotel, because it is after the contractual deadline for the hotel to honor the tournament rate.
The room type (single or double) will not be determined until you check in. Be aware, though, that it is most likely going to be a single room. Please note that rollaway beds are available upon request.
These rooms will be given on a first-come, first-served basis. When they’re gone, that’s it.
If you are interested in one of these rooms, please email boyd.reed@uschess.org. Email is required for this. Provide the first and last name for the reservation, the check-in date, and the check-out date.
You will receive a response via email confirming the status of your request. Until you receive written confirmation of your reservation, do NOT assume you have secured a room.
Notice will be posted here when the rooms are no longer available.
You may have noticed that the Marriott website lists an airport shuttle as one of the amenities. However, if you go further into the website you will discover that it only operates Monday-Friday. If you are arriving or leaving on the weekend, that shuttle isn’t available. That wasn’t the case last time we were here.
For an event that begins on the weekend for some and ends on the weekend for all, this is most unfortunate.
Estimated cab fare is $36+tip (the airport is a bit sleepy - you might not want to depend on an active taxi line when you arrive). Black car service is $65+tip from Luxur-E Sedan Services. It’s about 15 miles (25 min) if you take the route north of Lake Mendota.
I should arrive comfortably “just in time” for R1 of the Seniors event. I will miss the lavish reception.
Harder for me will be my departure: my plane leaves at 05:55 Monday a.m. Something tells me the shuttle will NOT be operating at 04:00 Monday.