Quote from: Penfold;236918The LAN venue we charge at £15 per person for the whole weekend.
Other costs: Food and drink - this depends on you. Personally I eat my meals (Fri lunch through to Sunday lunch) in the hotel's fine restaurant, I have a bottle of wine with each meal and my food and drink bill usually comes to about £160 for the weekend. Others buy sandwiches, get burgers etc, stick to beer not wine etc and and their bill runs to maybe £50-60 for the weekend depending on what and how much they eat & drink.
Please be aware that this does NOT include bread rolls which considering the baked goods orgy at the last LAN would increase the amount mentioned from £160 to £260 if they were actually paid for.
That's only Pen, so he can leer at the waiting staff's arses. Sometimes even the female ones.
Children, children.
Bread and games (panem et circensis)....... that's all you need in life. Kept the Roman Empire going for a good few hundred years. :narnar:
PEN
So, apart from bread rolls,what have the Romans done for us?
Well, I liked the series.
And sewersystems and some other technical stuff...
ok , apart from bread rolls, roads, sewer systems and "other technical stuff" what have the romans ever done for us ?
:)
Quote from: delankster;237042ok , apart from bread rolls, roads, sewer systems and "other technical stuff" what have the romans ever done for us ?
:)
You'll like this;
Monty Python; Life of Brian - What have the Romans done. :flirty:
This Is Sparta!!!
No, I'm Spartacus:ranting2:
Quote from: BigFatCat;237121No, I'm Spartacus:ranting2:
That's right. He's Spartacus Mr. Centurion. :norty: Me? I love Romans
"Veni, Vidi, Vici"
"I came, I saw, I conquered"
That was Pen and the waiting staff last LAN - come to your own conclusions what that means :narnar:
Quote from: Jabbs;237126"Veni, Vidi, Vici"
"I came, I saw, I conquered"That was Pen and the waiting staff last LAN - come to your own conclusions what that means :narnar:
I saw, I conquered, I came? :wink:
Quote from: delanvital;237145I saw, I conquered, I came? :wink:
Ah yeah you're right Delan - I got it the wrong way round! :roflmao:
Back on topic, how about cheaper steaks than last year :D.
There is a problem here.
We have a cracking deal for the hotel which includes:
1. Pretty much half price room rates
2. FREE use of the Conference room for 3 days (Should be £500+ per day)
3. FREE extended bar opening hours.
If we lose this venue, then the cost of the LAN will double, triple or more to cover the extra costs.
The £15 is totally given over to support LAN server funds. Look at any other LAN and look at the prices. Think about the fact that 100% of those £15's go on equipment for YOUR community.
We NEED the hotel get sufficient income or else they will just pull the plug. It's not even debatable.
Dinner aside, many people can't even be bothered to buy anything from the bar and bring in their own beer by the case. They're not stupid, they come into the room and pick up the glasses. The see it happening and they let it go. How many venues can you think would let you do that?
Financial constraints or not - people take the **** and it is left to a core of people to subsidise their behaviour. That's way you'll see the same people eating in the restaurants both nights. That's why our bar bills are normally £130+. We have to cover those people who don't contribute to the bar or the hotel to make it acceptable to them.
Why don't we do it another way and say the LAN is £40 and you get a free dinner on the Friday night? Why don't we ban people bringing in their own beer? We want people to come and have fun but they, in turn, have got to contribute back.
If we have to move venues because of the people whinging about the dinner and not buying at the bar then the costs will dramtaically increase. We get a cracking deal and frankly I don't think it's too much to ask people to contribute.
Yes, I know people have different budgets and I know people have expensive travel costs and yes I know it's not a cheap weekend. It's a helluva lot cheaper than the alternatives.
The LAN admin committee have some decisions to make because we can't continue in the same vein. If people aren't prepared to make it a success for both us and the hotel we will just lost the venue - plain and simple.
They don't need our business. Booking months and months in advance, we struggle to find dates to book the LAN (hence the Halloween weekend). Since Rob took over, they've upped their game and are more and more successful. They don't take bookings for the restuarant on the Friday night and Lunch in the Conference room because of us - that's a lot of covers to lose.
We're not particularly profitable and we NEED people to eat in the restaurant on the Friday night.
You're intelligent - you do the math.
PEN
Long dull answer, but, imho: I always spend one dinner evening there and the other one out in town. I buy all the booze I drink there, with the exception of my tradition of carrying special beers along for ppl I owe for favours. I sometimes get some in return and I drink those. Other than that, I buy all my booze there.
I say, dining there on the Friday is always good fun and I enjoy us all dining there, to get a feel of what dMw is, as a whole, and the fun to show what is really is about. The Saturday where we head out to town for the regular restaurants is also good fun, but the fact is we spread out in packs. I say, support the Friday dinner for keeping the excellent dMw venue in place, as Pen say, but also support the dinner to keep dMw people together.
Pen,
You have a very valid point. I for one will continue to eat at the resturaunt on Friday nights. The only gripe that I have is value for money.
That said, I have no problem eating off the main menu and rocking up to the bar to buy beers for myself and some of the poor students and married guys (Gmjr / Benny) alike.
I plan on supprting the LAN for quite some time. However, if we need to increase the LAN price to say twenty squid to take into account the lower takings and pass it on to the venue.. Then so be it. Perhaps even increasing the room rate another fiver would fix some of the problem instead?
Pen is right guys, £50 odd quid per night for a room (even if it is only 2-3 star) is a bargain. Considering how much lekky we consume while we're there I think we're still getting a good deal.
NF :eyebrow:
Pen,
You have a very valid point. I for one will continue to eat at the resturaunt on Friday nights. The only gripe that I have is value for money.
That said, I have no problem eating off the main menu and rocking up to the bar to buy beers for myself and some of the poor students and married guys (Gmjr / Benny) alike.
I plan on supprting the LAN for quite some time. However, if we need to increase the LAN price to say twenty squid to take into account the lower takings and pass it on to the venue.. Then so be it. Perhaps even increasing the room rate another fiver would fix some of the problem instead?
Pen is right guys, £50 odd quid per night for a room (even if it is only 2-3 star) is a bargain. Considering how much lekky we consume while we're there I think we're still getting a good deal.
NF :eyebrow:
Quote from: Ninja_Freak;237589Pen,
You have a very valid point. I for one will continue to eat at the resturaunt on Friday nights. The only gripe that I have is value for money.
That said, I have no problem eating off the main menu and rocking up to the bar to buy beers for myself and some of the poor students and married guys (Gmjr / Benny) alike.
I plan on supprting the LAN for quite some time. However, if we need to increase the LAN price to say twenty squid to take into account the lower takings and pass it on to the venue.. Then so be it. Perhaps even increasing the room rate another fiver would fix some of the problem instead?
Pen is right guys, £50 odd quid per night for a room (even if it is only 2-3 star) is a bargain. Considering how much lekky we consume while we're there I think we're still getting a good deal.
NF :eyebrow:
Get ready, my 2c.
First, it is undoubtedly a terrific venue. Airconditioning, internet connection, late opening of bar, excellent breakfast and passable restaurant food albeit a bit expensive. I for one don't begrudge that nor the expensive bar prices. But let's not get carried away with doing their bleating for them. They are a commercial enterprise and I'm certain that if we were not worth their while they would have no hesitation in upping the ante. Never volunteer a price increase, if they need or want one they won't be shy about asking. :sideways:
Quote from: Doorman;237599Get ready, my 2c.
First, it is undoubtedly a terrific venue. Airconditioning, internet connection, late opening of bar, excellent breakfast and passable restaurant food albeit a bit expensive. I for one don't begrudge that nor the expensive bar prices. But let's not get carried away with doing their bleating for them. They are a commercial enterprise and I'm certain that if we were not worth their while they would have no hesitation in upping the ante. Never volunteer a price increase, if they need or want one they won't be shy about asking. :sideways:
agree Ron
I don't mind paying a tad more, in fact I'm expecting it with the current climate; But I don't think we should volunteer.
Quote from: GhostMjr;237386Back on topic, how about cheaper steaks than last year :D.
Sounds like a plan to me. Except the bit where we push our luck too far and the hotel pulls the plug and charges us another £500 for the gaming room and the standard £85 a night room rate. Still cheap stakes mmmmmm yummy.
I actually think the prices are pretty good, bar prices are reasonable and it has a very good choice of real ales etc. I accept that the restaurant is more expensive than a Harvester, but then the food is usually a fair bit better than a Harvester restaurant. I think the summation would be to say that we need them more than they need us, so it is in our interests to make sure that our booking remains attractive to them, so the more we use the facilities the better imo.
TL.
We're not advocating 'giving' them more money and we're not suggesting that we volunteer it (even my basic commercial skills grasp that concept!)
All we're asking if for people to *think* a little bit about the venue and its facilities and to support them. If most of the 50% of the people who do not eat in the restaurant do so then it adds a good few hundred quid in to their coffers, you get a good meal and we keep the hotel happy.
As TL says, we need them more than they need us.
The people who complain at the cost of the steak night are going to go into apoplexy when we have to find a new venue and the cost of the weekend triples or quadruples.
It's a very simple equation.
PEN
the very simple equation in my book is this
our lan
Venue £15
2x restraunt meals £35
Total =£50
commercial lans
Venue £100+
2x Pizza etc on sight £20
Total = £120+
conclusion eat in the restaurant
I'm not going to argue that we get a good deal from up there, even without the late night boxing being there last time.
I see the Friday steak as a bit of a tradition, so I'm happy to gnaw through a lump of moo to push the boat out. The bar menu and ale choice isn't bad and I guess I've been guilty of taking advantage of the overall price and not making as much usage of the facilities to hand. That said, if the Saturday menu doesn't appeal to me, I'm not going to feel bad about getting food from elsewhere and their tolerance of outside sourced goods shows were being treated pretty well.
We're only talking about the Friday night.
Traditionally Saturday night is do-what-you-want night..... be that Curry, Pizza or Kebab etc).
Friday night is the dMw social night. The idea is that we ALL get together, drink some drink, eat some eat and chat some chat*
PEN
*The admins at dMw take no responsibility for the quality or lack of quality of chat.
I was on an extremely tight budget last LAN which is why I didn't eat in teh restaurant but I did drink from the bar.
I agree with PEN re using the hotels' services (food and drink). If you go to a cafe in your local town centre and buy a coffee and start unwrapping your sandwhiches you made at home, then they are going to ask you to stop. Simple.
I would agree that we should not be bringing out own beer, although snacks under the table are all part of what a LAN event is. Nibbling those Pringles and chocolate bars are all part of a LAN experience!
Having said all that, it would be worth patronising the hotel and restaurant to keep the venue as it does work out a good value weekend all in all.
For me, I think we should follow the team leaders' advice here and be a 'team player' :D
/Agree with Delan.
@ Pen, the venue is great and so is the agreement with the hotel.
The only problem there once was with the steaknight is when they didn't have enough steaks. TL had a good talk with the staff about it.
Good hotel, good venue, I liked the steak.
See you there next time...
Can we get bigger steaks on the menu?:woot2:
The 2 I have been to I have always enjoyed the Friday, it was great cause it meant I meet you lot and chatted and found out which of you to avoid :)
Gotta have the dmw social :)
Looking forward to the next one :)