Booking suitable accommodation is often a very complicated business. It is essential to take time and trouble over it and to check and recheck the situation constantly.
It is better to overbook, initially, rather than omit to make bookings for people, as no one would take kindly to your muttered ‘I’m sorry, I forgot’, if they have no bed for the night. But do not forget to cancel the rooms not needed, otherwise there will be an unnecessarily heavy charge.
Finding what is Available
Get as much information as you can about the available accommodation in the area where you will be shooting. Check whether you have to contend with the holiday season, the local carnival or the annual pole-vaulting contest. If there is likely to be a shortage, make a block booking quickly and sort out the details later.
Finding the Hotels
It is often not easy to find hotels close enough to the location that are satisfactory for price and number and size of rooms, and that can also meet all the varied requirements of such a varied group of people.
Making the Booking
If it is a large booking, or made for a long period, many hotels come to some arrangement over a reduction in price.
Find out who wants what – for example, single rooms, double rooms, etc. and try to arrange for these preferences to be upheld. It is not always possible, but if everyone is happy in their accommodation, it makes a lot of difference to the spirits and morale of the whole unit.
Some of the unit may well prefer to make their own arrangements. So long as this is acceptable to the director, they should not be forced to accept the booking you have made for them just because it simplifies things for you.
Your Own Booking
Make sure that you have adequate room in which to spread yourself and your mini office.
Trying to find accommodation to suit everyone can be difficult. Apart from the practicalities of booking enough beds on the requisite nights in reasonable hotels you always get problems with some members of the unit who will never be satisfied with your arrangements.