Furry Migration not on ConRoomies

[Shallie]

 

They requested we not list it.

— ConRoomies (@ConRoomies) July 10, 2018

Icontacted the ConRoomies Twitter yesterday asking about when they’d be adding FM to the list. They told me “They requested we not list it.”

Would someone on staff be able to clarify why that is? I use ConRoomies very heavily, and was hoping to leverage it for FM as well.

[Kurst Hyperyote]

This is going to sound dry – because it is.

Minnesota Furs and Furry Migration do not take it lightly when we endorse a 3rd party services. We view them as a partner at that point not just someone to use. As of this time, ConRoomies is not an official partner of Furry Migration. We do not authorize the use of our identity in an official fashion with their service they provide.

Some of the reasons why we do not authorize them at this time:

• Our hotel is not sold out.

  People identify with ConRoomies as the place where you go when the hotel is sold out. If they see listings there it means don’t even bother trying to go the con. We don’t have a sold out hotel and we need to grow our number of rooms at the Hyatt. This in turn allows us to do bigger things at the convention. More rooms = bigger events at con.

• Price gouging.

  Before I get into this, to my knowledge, ConRoomies does not make money on their service they are providing which I commend them for. So this is not going to be about their service price but the people who use the service and what they charge.They currently do not have any visible policy on prices for rooms. This is a free country, and it is a person’s right to ask more money per roommate than the cost of the room, which they do sometimes. However, people identify the service with the convention, when prices asked are above what a person considers fair – it makes us look like we caused the wrong.It also gives the illusion that people are willing to pay more for hotel rooms at cons. Hotels do their research and see this. They use that to their advantage when negotiating contracts with conventions.

  Because of these reasons, I can not ethically have Furry Migration and Minnesota Furs endorse a service that knowing allows it, or at least doesn’t discourages the practice of price gouging for a room.

• Privacy and Code of Conduct.

  As a 3rd party service (not run by staff of FM), we would have to ensure if ConRoomies is endorsed by FM, that they align to our policies. That is a legal responsibility for organizations like Minnesota Furs. That process has not been started.

• We have forums for it.

  One of the reason ConRoomies exists is that cons stop running forums. So, attendees had no open place to advertise roommate or travel needs and wants. We still keep our forums and provide that link here. While we cannot ensure this gets as much traffic as ConRoomies, the service exists for people who want to use them.

Again, while I understand why this service exists – we do not authorize it in an official fashion at this time for the reasons stated above..

Member of Minnesota Furs a 501c3 Non Profit, former Convention Chairman for Furry Migration, volunteer, and always doings lots of other stuff.

Feel free to ask questions because I'm here for you!
Kurst "YipYap" Hyperyote

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