Required Hotel stay

Is it mandatory to use the required travel agency of the tournament you are participating in? What happens if you do not, tournament police on tricycles come after you?

imabee wrote:Is it mandatory to use the required travel agency of the tournament you are participating in? What happens if you do not, tournament police on tricycles come after you?

Yes, it is mandatory if stated in the tournament contract. What can they do? It just depends on what they want to do (how far they are willing to pursue it) and the terms of the agreement. The top tier tournaments will NOT invite/accept a team the following year if they violate terms of a contract. So if your team wants to play with the big dogs, better to pay a few dollars more for their hotel kickbacks.

Thanks, was not sure if this was one of those rules to follow or politely disregard, I guess we will play along.

imabee wrote:Thanks, was not sure if this was one of those rules to follow or politely disregard, I guess we will play along.

Most tournaments won't let you register without confirmation on the rooms at their contract hotels.

These are not necessarily kickbacks to the tournament. When we used city fields for tourneys, part of the deal was to bring hotel revenue to the city.

imabee wrote:Thanks, was not sure if this was one of those rules to follow or politely disregard, I guess we will play along.

It is Austin, we will just say we have plenty of family in the area to stay with and then find the best deal for the team.

nukem wrote:

imabee wrote:Thanks, was not sure if this was one of those rules to follow or politely disregard, I guess we will play along.

It is Austin, we will just say we have plenty of family in the area to stay with and then find the best deal for the team.

In our travels, i have not found the hotels chosen by the tournament to be what i would consider a good deal, but the hotels are very nice and good acomidations!

Great question as it has been raised numerous times in the past.

The answer is no. You have the right to stay where you please. They add this disclaimer as a tactic, but I can assure you they will not turn away entry fees for the sake of a measley % kickback (yes, it is a kickback). We have stayed at other locations on a number of occasions without any concerns at that time or in future tourneys.

However, most of the time the rates which are nogotiated are reasonable and they almost always cater to the soccer community due the numbers (quantity & dollars) involved.

Of course an individual team can stay where they want in most cases. There is little enforcement available. However, your statement that these are all kickbacks is patently false. You obviously have never negotiated with a municipality for use of their fields. In return for the use, maintenance and cleanup of their fields they expect the hotel revenue to stay within their borders. Simple quid pro quo. Failure to maintain a certain level of revenue and you will lose the future right to the fields.

Fields are rented. Todays tourneys. bring in tons of revenue whether a hotel is used or not.

Todays tourneys is a win-win for any municipality

Why not just stay at one of the hotels on the list?

The misinformation so often presented as fact on this forum kills me. You have the right to stay where you want? Sure... right. And the tournamentsorganizers have the right to never let your team participate again. Many - dare I say most - of the high end tournaments are clear in their wording when your team registers that your team is to use their travel agency if you are coming in from out of town. Here's a quick example from Disney Showcase:

"Q: How do I book my accommodations for the Showcase? How do I contact them?A: All hotel rooms must be booked through our official travel providers, Anthony Travel, Inc. for Domestic teams and Merit Travel for Canadian Teams. For Anthony Travel please call toll free at 800-736-6377 or visit www.anthonytravel.com. For Merit Travel contact Michael Leblanc at 866-696-8591 ext. 4217 or visit"

Anything NOT clear about that? Anyone really believe the tournament does NOT get money from the travel agencies/hotels for this? Good grief. This is just one example. Check out some of the others, and you'll find it to be similar. The registration contracts are clear. How many times must some of you be reminded that select soccer is a business.

Then I say we use this as a test case. Let's not use the travel agency and then try to register for the tournament again next year. Anyone want to give odds that they let us give them money and play again??

Good luck with that.

Xara is right on and nukem (a 'veteran' 01 parent) is way off.

I didn't say they would let us play next year, I said use it as a test case. I asked if anyone wanted to give odds if they would or not. I may be wrong. Either way, we will stay at my dad's house

nukem wrote:I didn't say they would let us play next year, I said use it as a test case. I asked if anyone wanted to give odds if they would or not. I may be wrong. Either way, we will stay at my dad's house

If you are talking about a player or two, you can likely slide by.

Regardless, I checked the online prices for some of the Disney hotels versus through the tournament agency and in most cases the prices were the same or within $5/night for the same dates.
I checked another out of tournament we may play in and it was similar. Really a non issue.

newtothis wrote:

nukem wrote:I didn't say they would let us play next year, I said use it as a test case. I asked if anyone wanted to give odds if they would or not. I may be wrong. Either way, we will stay at my dad's house

If you are talking about a player or two, you can likely slide by.

Regardless, I checked the online prices for some of the Disney hotels versus through the tournament agency and in most cases the prices were the same or within $5/night for the same dates.
I checked another out of tournament we may play in and it was similar. Really a non issue.

I agree. There is a 98% chance we will use the tournament agency. The question was only asked because we know a guy who knows a guy who has a friend whose next door neighbor's nephew may be able to get us a swinging deal at a local hotel.

The rest of this thread just became fun to argue.

nukem wrote:

newtothis wrote:

nukem wrote:I didn't say they would let us play next year, I said use it as a test case. I asked if anyone wanted to give odds if they would or not. I may be wrong. Either way, we will stay at my dad's house

If you are talking about a player or two, you can likely slide by.

Regardless, I checked the online prices for some of the Disney hotels versus through the tournament agency and in most cases the prices were the same or within $5/night for the same dates.
I checked another out of tournament we may play in and it was similar. Really a non issue.

I agree. There is a 98% chance we will use the tournament agency. The question was only asked because we know a guy who knows a guy who has a friend whose next door neighbor's nephew may be able to get us a swinging deal at a local hotel.

The rest of this thread just became fun to argue.

Sounds like they charge by the hour.

JeffM wrote:

nukem wrote:

newtothis wrote:

nukem wrote:I didn't say they would let us play next year, I said use it as a test case. I asked if anyone wanted to give odds if they would or not. I may be wrong. Either way, we will stay at my dad's house

If you are talking about a player or two, you can likely slide by.

Regardless, I checked the online prices for some of the Disney hotels versus through the tournament agency and in most cases the prices were the same or within $5/night for the same dates.
I checked another out of tournament we may play in and it was similar. Really a non issue.

I agree. There is a 98% chance we will use the tournament agency. The question was only asked because we know a guy who knows a guy who has a friend whose next door neighbor's nephew may be able to get us a swinging deal at a local hotel.

The rest of this thread just became fun to argue.

Sounds like they charge by the hour.

Those are different out of town trips without the dd's

We are playing in the WAGS tournament in D.C.

This is listed in the rules.... Here's the link.

http://www.wagstournament.com/Rules/index_E.html

15. TOURNAMENT HOUSING SERVICE

Teams participating in the WAGS Tournament MUST (as a condition of acceptance) make all hotel accommodations using our tournament housing service (A & B Travel). Teams not using our tournament housing service will be disqualified and will lose their tournament bond.

What sucks for some people is that we have hotel points that we can use to help defray some of the travel costs; which we can't use when these rules are in place.

Just book at the hotel chain that your points are at. Nothing says you can't use the points and I know of parents who have.