I’m giving a talk on Saturday at the Texas Open Source Symposium entitled An Introduction to Mercurial. I’ll be driving there but hadn’t considered making a room reservation until today. How hard could it be to book a hotel room in San Angelo Texas, right? Sheesh.
I started out with a Google maps search that included the zip code of the venue, and began working through the options ordered by proximity and user submitted reviews. So first up were places like Comfort Suites and Holiday Inn, about a mile from the venue with reviews like, “I’ve never had customer service so good!”. It ended with obscure motor inns on the opposite side of town with reviews like, “WHATEVER YOU DO, NEVER STAY IN THIS DISGUSTING PLACE”. I called 18 different places and they were all booked.
Apparently there is some kind of triathlon or something going on this weekend.
Fortunately for me, Tarus Balog is also speaking. Fortunately for me he is also a smooth talker because he was able to get his room upgraded to one with two beds, (after finding out that he had made his reservations for the wrong month and got them to give him a room anyway, I might add).
Update: It’s been suggested that this is the reason all of the hotels are at capacity.