Yep. There aren’t as many venues willing to host medium size cons for a reasonable rate anymore.
You either have a small thing at a VFW hall or school…or you need a ton of attendees to afford a large hotel or convention center.
Hotels that would host medium cons priced themselves out of the market.
Yeah, the price of the Oakland Marriott is what ultimately killed Kraken Con pre-pandemic. A shame because it was THE BEST fan con in Northern California.
It's like I get that cons aren't as profitable as events with food like weddings, but a lot of these venues are now sitting empty on weekends when they'd be otherwise fully booked.
I just don't get how it's good for business for the hotels.
I can tell a hotel is desperate for business when they’re using the FanCons contact form asking if “your event” is interested in booking their venue…as if I run ALL the cons listed. 😅
As someone currently going through an RFP for finding a new hotel for a medium-sized scifi/fantasy lit con out of Chicago...yeah, this, 100%. Most of the hotels we contacted were WAY out of our price range or our attendees price range for room nights.
We are so happy to have you joining us. I believe that when the "world fell apart" it unfortunately took some of the medium and smaller cons down with it. It's hard to take a hit like that and bounce back.
The pandemic pulled apart a lot of cons' funding, but the truth is over the last decade venues have been raising rates on smaller events significantly faster than inflation. It's been killing cons and making it harder for new ones to start.
Like Geek.kon collapsed back in 2019 in part because of it
Even in small markets prices have gone through the roof.
When No Brand Con was in Eau Claire we rented about the same amount of space as Evercon currently does. In 2009 the venue plus hotel costs were about $8k. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $11k.
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You either have a small thing at a VFW hall or school…or you need a ton of attendees to afford a large hotel or convention center.
Hotels that would host medium cons priced themselves out of the market.
In 2009 our total venue cost + hotel rooms for No Brand Con was $8k. In 2025 dollars that's about that's about $11k
I think the cost for the final No Brand Con in 2023 for the venue + hotel rooms was almost $20k.
I just don't get how it's good for business for the hotels.
I've gotten emails like that at Nerd & Tie.
Usually addressed to a con I've written a negative article about.
At least ASCAP stopped sending me bills addressed to Ryan Kopf.
Like Geek.kon collapsed back in 2019 in part because of it
When No Brand Con was in Eau Claire we rented about the same amount of space as Evercon currently does. In 2009 the venue plus hotel costs were about $8k. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $11k.
I bet y'all pay considerably more than that