What do you mean a @ announcing visits in a state forum? Like..the "Anybody Interested?" threads? the ones called threADs?
As a traveler - they are useful BCG. If I throw one out & get nothing, then I don't waste time & energy and more importantly - dollars booking rooms running ads etc. We ladies hear the "times are hard" refrain ad nauseum. Yes. They are. Too hard to be throwing hundreds away on nothing. At least when you guys throw $$ - you're getting something. If I just blind schedule a visit get a room & have no to low response, I have lost money. Thrown it away.
I know they can be clutterry - but they do help us ladies chose where to visit. A little levity on them is appreciated.
Originally Posted by babee
I'm not talking about fishing for interest in a particular state, and deciding where in that state you will go based on your response or lack thereof... "Hi, I'm Babee and I've got cabin fever; I need to get out of Memphis and I've always wanted to visit [whereever]... Are you guys interested? If so, let me know where and when you'd like me to come!" I don't have a problem with something like that. Even if "[wherever]" is a state the size of Texas or California... You haven't said when you're coming (or if you have, you're not committing to it yet) or where you'll be; you're obviously just gauging interest, and that's cool (you've instructed me well on the economics of providing . If I'm interested (and the schedule and budget are cooperating) you'll hear from me
I'm talking about something like this:
CASSIA TAYLOR visitng March 18th - March 23rd
The lady in question is announcing a visit to Tennessee (I assume, since this is a provider ad posted in that state provider ad forum) for a fixed range of dates. No clue in the body of that ad where the hell in Tennessee she's going to be... I suppose it's possible, since she gives a six day availability window, that she's visiting several cities in the state... all well and good, but I'd like to see a schedule to know where she is and when. Maybe [hypothetically] I'd like to visit with her, but that's not very practical if I'm a working stiff in Memphis, and she's going to be in Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, or even further east during the work week (3/18 to 3/23 inclusive is a Monday through Saturday); if I'm going to have a hope of seeing her, she'd better be in Memphis sometime during that week, or in Nashville on Saturday, otherwise it's a non-starter.
And yeah, she has a website, but none of the areas where you'd expect to see her post travel plans ("Calendar", "Upcoming Travel Plans", or "Cassia's Blog") gives any clue where she'll be in late March 2013 (the blog has only one entry dated sometime in 2010, her travel plans page gives months and dates, but can't have been updated much before last September (when she indicates trips to Chicago and Dallas in September, but doesn't specify what year; could be 2010 if she's updated this around the same time she's updated the blog), and her calendar shows "Unknown" for every date in March (though there is a little blurb about her being in OKC, OK from 2/25 to 3/2).
But that's not truly egregious; her prospective dates are far enough in the future that if I was really, really interested I'd just PM her nicely and ask where in TN she'll be. But to make things worse... if I had a dime for every post I've seen in TN that is pretty much (provider) "I'm here until tomorrow; come see me!"/(hobbyist) "I'm here, who's a good provider I can go see tonight or tomorrow?", without any clue where in TN "here" is, I wouldn't be worried about my retirement.
Cheers,
bcg (besides, you've known me long enough to know that I'm not happy unless I'm not happy...)