I thought I'd share my experience with trying to make hotel reservations for 2013 Nationals. The hotel information is posted now at www.usms.org/.../hotels.pdf. The rates for the Fairfield Inn, Springhill Suites and Courtyard Downtown are for one person in the room, per night. If you try to book either of these with 2 persons in the room the rate increases $10 per night. The Fairfield and Springhill online registration only allows you to get the group rate for one night, but you can get longer stays at the group rate by making a phone call, still $10 more if you have more than one person in the room. The least expensive rate online for Embassy Suites with or without our code was $179 unless you go advanced purchase. Perhaps calling would be different. All the listed hotels have fees for parking - $23 per night for Fairfield, Springhill and Courtyard Downtown, $19 per night for Courtyard Canal (at the Capitol) and Residence Inn Canal, $28 per night at JW Marriott and $22 per night at Embassy Suites. Breakfast is included at Embassy Suites, Fairfield Inn, Springhill Suites, and Residence Inn Canal.
Indianapolis is also the location of the Association of College and Research Libraries conference about a month earlier. Librarians, being helpful people, have put together a list with information about music and theater in downtown Indianapolis that may be of interest if you are planning to do some sightseeing, etc., during your time at nationals. It is available here: crln.acrl.org/.../601.full
I worked out @ the Natatorium Friday night. All the pools up in my end of Indy were broken or shut down. I had to swim between the bulkheads due to a couple college teams in the rest of the pool. The water really felt warm.....yuk. I thought the Nat always kept the water @ 78 degrees. Other than that it was a great swim.
Oh, they have a big, new parking garage adjacent to the old one. For some reason I didn't have to pay to park. I'm really looking forward to Nationals!
