Thank you all for your comments. I want to apologize to anyone offended by the Friday night letter. I wanted to start a discussion about the Show’s problem, and I guess that was accomplished.
The Show is financially stable because we have met our requirements with Pheasant Run this year and every year. But we were very close to not meeting those requirements last Friday, which is why I wrote the letter.
Our contract with Pheasant Run requires that our attendees generate a stated number of room nights and a stated amount of food and beverage sales. If we meet those requirements, Pheasant Run pays a part of the tent cost, and provides the Mega Center at no cost, meeting rooms at no cost, and other financial benefits. If we do not meet our requirements, it would cost the show around $30,000.00 more than we now pay. That additional cost would quickly deplete the Show’s reserves. The Show could survive one year, the second would end the Show.
This year was very close regarding room nights. Two weeks before the show we looked pretty good with hotel reservations. Then the cancellations began. Some attendees cancelled reservations. Some exhibitors cancelled tables at the show and cancelled their hotel reservations. These cancellations were due to ill health of exhibitors or family members, inability to get away from work, or not enough pipes to sell. Also, as the show began, there was a pilot strike at Scandinavian Airlines. A couple of pipe makers from Denmark cancelled their hotel reservations because they could not get to the show.
A “room night” to the hotel means an occupied room. When there is a cancellation, or someone leaves early, we lose 2 or 3, or more, room nights. With the cancellations mentioned above we were inching towards missing our minimum and losing $30,000.00 in benefits from Pheasant Run.
We had a great pre-show on Friday, and as exhibitors waited in line for a space, I asked some of the guys about where they were staying. Several were at Pheasant Run, and I thanked them. Others mentioned other hotels, and explained that they were saving money, getting better rooms elsewhere, or that they thought Pheasant Run was full. We need people to stay at Pheasant Run.
The Show or the hotel have food and/or beverages at all of our events. When people eat and drink at the hotel they help the Show make our minimum, and they provide much needed revenue to Pheasant Run. Some of the food at the hotel may not be haute cuisine, but it helps the Show if you eat and drink at the hotel. The Harvest Restaurant serves great food, and the prices are competitive with other good restaurants, but not competitive with fast food restaurants.
We have a full bar in the tent where you can drink all day and 1/2 the night and not risk a DUI if your bed is at Pheasant Run, and you help the Show with every beer or whiskey you drink.
The Show’s Saturday night banquet provides a choice of 4 great meals below $50, with tax and tip included. In my opinion you cannot beat the quality or price of our dinners in any restaurant within the area. We sold only 94 dinners this year in a room that could hold about 150 people. The Show prices the Saturday night dinners at the exact price we pay Pheasant Run. The Show makes no money on dinners, but we make our food and beverage minimum.
Each year, Pheasant Run reserves the entire hotel for our show at our contract rate. This reservation block lasts from May until mid-April of the following year. If someone tries to reserve a room through a third party discount vendor, they will be told that the hotel is completely booked because the third party vendor cannot get into our block of rooms. Reservations have to be made directly through Pheasant Run.
The family that started and built the hotel lost it through mortgage foreclosure after the 2008-2009 financial meltdown. In 2008 the Chicago Pipe Show was one of the most profitable events for Pheasant Run. We have been the same in every year since 2008. Pheasant Run management and employees love the Show, and we are as important to them as they are to us.
After the foreclosure, a bank ran the hotel through a management company. In my opinion, a good bit of “deferred maintenance”, reduction of staff, and budget cuts occurred during those years. In the last few years, a group of investors purchased Pheasant Run and they are, in my opinion, doing their best to catch up on all of that deferred maintenance.
So why does the Chicago Pipe Show stay at Pheasant Run? Pheasant Run has the facilities we need: a hotel, the Mega Center, and a big parking lot for our tent. Also, we are pipe smokers and pipe collectors. If we were stamp collectors, we could easily move the show. Pheasant Run loves us as we are, and other hotels might like us, if we didn’t bring pipes with us.
All of the Show officers work hard and care very much about the Show. We put on the party that everyone loves. Usually, we keep our problems and worries to ourselves. However, we now have a problem that only the pipe community can resolve by eating, sleeping and drinking at Pheasant Run during the Show.
The 2020 Show will be the 25th Chicago Pipe Show. Everyone has the opportunity to help the Show by attending the 2020 Show and staying at Pheasant Run. It is not too early to reserve a room. The hotel started taking reservations last Sunday.
Please make your hotel reservations for 2020 at Pheasant Run as follows:
You can telephone Pheasant Run for a reservation at 844-212-3272; week days between 8am and 5pm are best, and be sure to say that you are attending the Chicago Pipe Show.
You can also make your reservation on line using this link:
https://reservations.travelclick.com/2932?groupID=2289582
