It has come to our attention that many in the club are confused about Tournament Hotel policies and the Hammer FC Hotel Coordinator Program.  Hopefully this will address the many questions of Hammer families.

Why do we have to stay at certain hotels or for two nights?
It has been common practice for many years for clubs hosting tournaments to require clubs applying to their tournaments to stay at selected hotels.  Many clubs have different reasons for doing this however, the main reason is to generate increased revenue for the tournament.  When Hammer travels to a tournament such as the OP Invitational, we are obligated (by the rules and policies of the host club) to follow the housing rules and policies.  All applications are contingent on the host tournaments housing rules. 

The hosting club (eg. OP) will create policies such as usage of certain hotels and two night minimums.  These are not rules created by Hammer FC.  These are rules created by the hosting club of the tournament.  Hammer does not create these tournament policies for the tournaments we go to, however we do have to abide by them. 

The only Hotel policy that Hammer enforces is that we will follow the rules and policies of tournament.

What happens if we do not follow the Tournament Hotel Policies?
All application acceptances at tournaments that have hotel policies are contingent on use of approved hotels.  If a host club uses a hotel housing service, then the housing service will alert the host club resulting in not being accepted or having the acceptances revoked.  Here is a note that one of our teams received a few years ago when they tried to go outside the hotel process.

“As a condition of acceptance and participation in the 2008 Jefferson Cup all teams booking hotels in the greater Richmond area are required to use Outer Zone Sports our official hotel reservations company. Any teams that do not comply will be at risk of forfeiting their acceptance. There are no exceptions and none will come from the Richmond Strikers or from Outer Zone Sports.
 
Hotels in the last several days have contacted both Outer Zone and ourselves about teams contacting them direct. Again teams doing so will forfeit their participation in the tournament.”

Tournaments that use in-House Services will ask teams at registration for hotel information.  They will then follow up with hotels. Again, those teams that go outside of policy will not be invited back to the tournament the following year.

What is the role of the Hammer Hotel Coordinator?
The role of the Hammer Hotel Coordinator is secure rooms on behalf of Hammer families within the policies and procedures that are set forth by the host club of the tournament.  At the request of the Directors of Coaching, the Hammer Hotel Coordinator will first seek to place all Hammer families attending said tournament together in one hotel.  The number of teams attending any given tournament will determine what hotel is selected.  Some hotels cannot accommodate very large numbers of room requests.  Tournaments where we send smaller number of teams to, we have greater latitude on the number of hotels that can accommodate our room requests.

The Hammer FC Hotel Coordinator will also negotiate extra services such as comped rooms and free breakfast for families. 

Why did Hammer develop the Hotel Coordinator program?
Throughout its long history, Hammer has experienced many hotel successes and many hotel fiascos.  We have had many a time where individual teams have not been able to secure rooms for their teams.  Or, parents of multiple children in the club, will have one child’s team staying at one hotel and another child’s team stay at another hotel.  Or, we have seen coaches having to stay at hotels different than the hotel the team was staying.  Basically, we have seen many situations not conducive to a good tournament experience.

The Hammer Hotel Coordinator program was developed two years ago with our first experience being in Louisville, Kentucky at the Javanon Cup.  The program was a huge success as we had over a dozen Hammer teams all in one location.  Parents, players and coaches were able to enjoys each other’s company in a safe, controlled environment.  The hotel had a central atrium that was conducive to team/ club gathering which results in community building.

Why do all teams have to stay together?
Not every club in Cincinnati does things the same.  Hammer prides itself on being a club rather than a collection of teams. There are many benefits to traveling as a club rather than a collection of teams.  We take a great deal of pride seeing a sea of blue at tournaments.  We believe that all our teams should be supporting each other when we travel to tournaments.  We believe that the younger players benefit from seeing or being with the older players.  We believe that parents of younger players can learn from parents of older players.

We also know that our Directors believe that there are significant benefits to the players, coaches and themselves.  As Directors, they have the opportunity to manage tournament logistics better especially when unexpected changes occur.  The Directors can also engage with players, parents and coaches in a more festive environment.
 
Having teams stay together allows Hammer to negotiate comped rooms and breakfast discounts.  Having comped rooms for Directors/ Coaches and breakfast discounts for all families results in savings that usually more than offsets cost differentials.

Lastly, having all families stay at one hotel relieves a significant burden placed upon families with multiple children in the club.  We have had many instances where parents have had to choose between different hotels because of having children on two different teams.  Classics Hammer has a significant number of families in the club that have multiple children playing on different teams.

Why do we pick the more expensive Hotels?
As mentioned earlier, the number of room requests will dictate the number of hotel options the Hotel Coordinator is provided.  There are very few hotels that will have greater than 50 rooms available.  It is usually the big hotels within the Hilton or Marriott properties that have such availability. 

Why do we need to give Credit Card information?
This process is not any different than if you were to book your own hotel reservations when you travel on vacation.  Hotels require credit cards to secure a guest room.  They will not charge the card (which is the reason you have to provide a credit card upon registration).  We need to provide the hotels/ services with that information.  We have developed a process that is secure.