Would This Work?

[+TeamVilla5]

I had an idea for a TB Hotel that I *think* would work, and I'd like others' opinions...

 

The listed cache coords would NOT be the actual coords, but within a mile or so (so that cachers will know what area it is in)... like a puzzle cache. Instead of solving a puzzle, though, cachers would be required to email me for the actual coords; in order to receive the coords from me, they must be a registered member here with recent activity, and they must disclose what TB's they will be placing &/or taking.

 

I know that makes it a big ordeal, but I'm thinking that way, only those really serious about TB safety will bother with the process...

 

Discussion?

 

Happy Caching!

Lori V.

TeamVilla5

[+BigWhiteTruck]

I had an idea for a TB Hotel that I *think* would work, and I'd like others' opinions...

 

The listed cache coords would NOT be the actual coords, but within a mile or so (so that cachers will know what area it is in)... like a puzzle cache. Instead of solving a puzzle, though, cachers would be required to email me for the actual coords; in order to receive the coords from me, they must be a registered member here with recent activity, and they must disclose what TB's they will be placing &/or taking.

 

I know that makes it a big ordeal, but I'm thinking that way, only those really serious about TB safety will bother with the process...

 

Discussion?

 

Happy Caching!

Lori V.

TeamVilla5

 

I commend your desire to protect travel bugs. I, for one, would rather have my (hypothetical) travel bugs in a cache other than what you are describing. I would rather have them in a traditional cache that is more free, even if they are to go without the added "protection" that you are trying to implement.

 

As the famous quote goes: "A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships were made for."

[+Mastifflover]

Interesting but it wouldn't be approved. Caches that you have to email the owner for the coords. are not allowed.

[+TeamVilla5]

Oh, poo! Well, that just stinks! LOL!

 

My TBs in general have had very bad luck... 3 of my first 4 were stolen from 2 caches 200 miles apart... just feeling kind of paranoid I guess... SIGH!

 

Happy Caching!

Lori V.

[Keystone]

Interesting but it wouldn't be approved. Caches that you have to email the owner for the coords. are not allowed.

Someone knows his listing guidelines.

 

The information needed to solve the puzzle must be available to the general caching community and should be solvable from the information provided on the cache listing. For example, a puzzle that requires research on public websites in order to determine the coordinates may be acceptable, while a puzzle that requires sending an e-mail to the cache owner with the solution in order to obtain the coordinates may not be.

[+Kit Fox]

I know of a traditional cache where the coords to the cache are properly listed. The only hurdle is if you want to swap White or Yellow Jeeps, you have to email the owner, and plan a meeting. Jeep TBs have disappeared many times, before the new rule was created. The cache and any regular TBs are available during daylight hours.

[AZcachemeister]

Put the cache on your front porch.

Chain it to the house.

Put a combination lock on it, with the combination posted on the cache page.

If you make it a MOC, non-members might be able to find the co-ordinates, but they won't get the combo!

This is really about as good as it's going to get.

[+AtoZ]

GC.com will not approve a cache where you have to contact a person to get information to complete the cache. See the guidelines. All information must be readly available all the time to complete the cache. So no you can not do this kind of cache.

cheers

[+Salvelinus]

Isn't the bigger problem that of bugs being kept and not moved, rather than lost to a cache that goes missing or gets stolen?

 

The best way to make a location visable to most "real" cachers is to make it Members Only. It has worked for me when I had some problems with non-cachers. However, someone could still stumble upon it.

 

Salvelinus

[+Airmapper]

I wonder if a person could get their hands on one of those hotel in-room safes, the kind that you use the room key to open. Get the safe, and a bunch of keys. Bolt or weld the safe to a good location, and make it a multi, where the key is in a difficult micro.

 

That might slow muggles down, or just make them go get blowtorches one.

[djwright4341]

So what happens when the TB gets moved to a non-members only cache or removed from the chain on the porch or dropped on the side of the road? I agree with the "Ships are safe..." quote. The only way to keep a TB perfectly safe is to move it to some location known only to you, then pick it up and move it to another location. Seems like a safe TB isn't a very interesting one. Being new to the game, I've gathered that most Geocachers are a pretty trustworthy bunch. Try making the cache more difficult if the goal is to make sure that only serious cachers will look for it.

[+Airmapper]

So what happens when the TB gets moved to a non-members only cache or removed from the chain on the porch or dropped on the side of the road? I agree with the "Ships are safe..." quote. The only way to keep a TB perfectly safe is to move it to some location known only to you, then pick it up and move it to another location. Seems like a safe TB isn't a very interesting one. Being new to the game, I've gathered that most Geocachers are a pretty trustworthy bunch. Try making the cache more difficult if the goal is to make sure that only serious cachers will look for it.

 

Hello djwright,

 

I think you got it right there, there is no way to keep it safe, but putting it in a more difficult cache where more "real" cachers will find it helps. If you want to see some interesting logs about a TB, put in your zip code on search (Bowling Green) and look for the cache in Lost river, there are some note there about a TB I recently moved, with an unfortunate outcome.

[+BadAndy]

The most secure TB hotel I've seen is located inside of a visitors center, behind the counter.

 

I would think that most visitors centers would be more than willing to allow a cache inside their building as it would draw people to them. You also get the added bonus of interesting information about the local area and free maps, pins etc.

[+sbell111]

I get what you are trying to do. However, I personally prefer that my TBs go into caches without a ton of rules. I would rather they weren't in hard caches becuase they might get stuck. I don't want them in TB prisons, because I want them to move about. I definitely don't want someone to have to ask a cache owner if he can trade them out.

 

BTW, I also disagree with any special trading requirements surrounding the Jeep TBs.

[+welch]

I don't see the point of making it difficult to find/visit and calling it a hotel. If the idea is to make an easy quick place to drop off/pick up TBs then you don't want to be adding in rules, time limits, secret code words, etc.

If you live near an airport or interstate maybe you could point a mail box in the middle of your front yard and train a camera on it from a window. Otherwise its likely to be either more effort than people trying to make quick drops/pick ups will do, or in a place that gets lots of non-cacher visitors (rest stops, airplan view parks) so it has a chance of being found and plundered.

[luckykoi]

I don't see the point of making it difficult to find/visit and calling it a hotel. If the idea is to make an easy quick place to drop off/pick up TBs then you don't want to be adding in rules, time limits, secret code words, etc.

If you live near an airport or interstate maybe you could point a mail box in the middle of your front yard and train a camera on it from a window. Otherwise its likely to be either more effort than people trying to make quick drops/pick ups will do, or in a place that gets lots of non-cacher visitors (rest stops, airplan view parks) so it has a chance of being found and plundered.

 

I just placed a travel bug hotel inside the county museum. I think the bugs are pretty safe there and the museum staff are really excited about having a cache.

[+Ed & Julie]

I don't see the point of making it difficult to find/visit and calling it a hotel. If the idea is to make an easy quick place to drop off/pick up TBs then you don't want to be adding in rules, time limits, secret code words, etc.

If you live near an airport or interstate maybe you could point a mail box in the middle of your front yard and train a camera on it from a window. Otherwise its likely to be either more effort than people trying to make quick drops/pick ups will do, or in a place that gets lots of non-cacher visitors (rest stops, airplan view parks) so it has a chance of being found and plundered.

 

I just placed a travel bug hotel inside the county museum. I think the bugs are pretty safe there and the museum staff are really excited about having a cache.

 

The only issue with the museum cache is that by requesting that "There should always be one travel bug in the bug barn. Take or leave as many as you like but don't empty it out." is not really what travel bugs are all about. TBs are not trade items, and are meant to be taken and moved. If there is only one TB in the cache, does it have to stay there, even if I can help it's goal? What if there are 5, and I can help all of them move toward their goals...I have to leave one behind? Not to mention that the TBs are only available during certain hours.

 

Just mt .02

Ed

[+Isonzo Karst]

My experience is that TBs go missing (or at least their tracking gets all messed up) when picked up by novices. Example, new TB Hotel was listed near me 2 or 3 days ago, started with 4 TBs. When I visited it, 3rd visitor, there were 3 TBs listed on the cache page, and only one bug in it. The first to find also put a TB tracking number both in the paper log and the online log. The second novice finder apparently picked up two bugs, hasn't logged either of them. Will those bugs reappear in some cache someday? Maybe.

 

I like the TB hotel in a visitors center idea, about as much as any. I'm not really fond of the TB hotel concept at all.

[+The Canning Clan]

I have just released my first TB for my daughter and I pray it never ends up in one of these hotels. I think the whole hotel idea is counterproductive to the TB idea of keep on truckin. There is a hotel near us that seems to hold TB's forever. I personally like to visit new caches, not return to ones I've already done. I don't see the hotels as being repeat worthy caches.

[CoyoteRed]

I think the whole hotel idea is counterproductive to the TB idea of keep on truckin.

 

Folks have turned the idea of TB Hotels into something it was not originally intended.

 

Originally, hotels were simply caches with largish containers to accomodate plenty of hikers and strategically placed near travel hubs like airports and interstate confluences. These were for the convenience of those who move hitch hikers. These provided a convenient spot in which to drop hikers and take those going your way.

 

Today, it seems as though these are the vehicles of the ultimate control freak who have the nerve to dictate rules to the owners of a hitch hiker and those who are willing to move it along. When the hotel owner creates rules like always leave one TB in the cache or only trade one-for-one it is no longer a hotel--it's a prison.

 

No one needs to abid by any additional rule concerning the movement of a hitch hiker created by a hotel owner. The rules for hikers in a hotel are the same for any cache.

 

A hotel should large, convenient, and secure. Nothing more.

Edited February 9, 2006 by CoyoteRed

[+The Canning Clan]

My biggest problem with them is that a hotel by lets say an airport now pretty much gives that bug only one means of travelling. A bug out in the wild can and will be picked up by all sorts of travellers, sailers or railroad travellers for instance. If I was going on a trip by sea I would not go all the way to the airport to retreive a bug. I just don't see the purpose of the hotels in the whole scheme of travel bugs. Hitch hikers by nature will take any ride offered and when no ride comes along they tend to keep moving not sit still and wait, and wait, and wait

[+humanloofa]

Thera are a few TB friendly caches here in AZ, and a few prisions. I own a large cache just so they can move through town. It looks like a small shed and has a combination lock on it, no rules just lots of room.

 

[+baloo&bd]

 

No one needs to abid by any additional rule concerning the movement of a hitch hiker created by a hotel owner. The rules for hikers in a hotel are the same for any cache.

 

A hotel should large, convenient, and secure. Nothing more.

 

In our area, many have turned into TB jails. Owners will impose a "take a tb, leave a tb" rule and you end up having TBs sit for months at a time.

 

Some of us have started watching these "hotels" and go in and grab TB's that have sat for a while to move them along.

 

They should be close and relatively convient, we have one that requires a 3/4 mile one way hike and bushwacking to get to and then has the aobve mentioned rule.

 

Make it quick and easy to get to.

[+baloo&bd]

Interesting but it wouldn't be approved. Caches that you have to email the owner for the coords. are not allowed.

 

Not doubting what you are saying and don't think this should be used for a TB hotel anyway, however when was this implemented? There have been several series in the last year I have seen that have had "Bonus" caches at the end that required you to complete the series or certain parts to get the coords for the final.

 

This series , Addmittedly from 2004 but one I could grab quickly, is one example.

[+Mastifflover]

Interesting but it wouldn't be approved. Caches that you have to email the owner for the coords. are not allowed.

 

Not doubting what you are saying and don't think this should be used for a TB hotel anyway, however when was this implemented? There have been several series in the last year I have seen that have had "Bonus" caches at the end that required you to complete the series or certain parts to get the coords for the final.

 

This series , Addmittedly from 2004 but one I could grab quickly, is one example.

 

I think that this has been in the listing guidelines for a long time. I know what you are talking about, the difference is that you can find the bonus cache's coordinates by visiting other caches. No email to the cache owner is required.

[+baloo&bd]

I think that this has been in the listing guidelines for a long time. I know what you are talking about, the difference is that you can find the bonus cache's coordinates by visiting other caches. No email to the cache owner is required.

 

Not in the case of the one I cited. FOr the bonus caches, you had to email the requirements to the cache owner and he would then send you the coords. I actually liked it and it proved to be a very popular series.