TB Hotels

July 21, 2007

Just looking for opinions, If you find a travel bug hotel, do you think it is right to take a travel bug without leaving one if you have none with you? Especially if there are other things in there to trade.

1.7k · July 21, 2007

Yes I believe you should take a TB even if you don't have one to replace it. People like to see their TB's moving around not languishing in a cache because no one has one to trade for it.

11.3k · July 21, 2007

Welcome to the Forums!

Travel bugs are "travelers." They are meant to travel from cache to cache. If a TB Hotel owner has "rules" about only taking a TB if you leave one, ignore them. Any time you can help a TB meet its goal and continue traveling, that is a good thing.

4.7k · July 21, 2007

i have kind of a hard-line voice.

yes, take all the travelbugs. the fewer travelbugs sit in travelbug "hotels" the safer they will be.

(i'm, uh, against them.)

mine is not a centrist view, but i am not alone in it.

22k · July 21, 2007

Cache owners have no business deciding who can and can't move my travel bug.

Especially if there are other things in there to trade.

Travel bugs are not trade items so this really doesn't come into play.

You can take as many bugs as you wish provided you can help them towards their goals.

Just be prepared for an upset cache owner.

Edited July 21, 2007 by BlueDeuce

4.7k · July 21, 2007

Just be prepared to possible retaliation from the cache owner.

oh. yeah. there is that. boy, that one'll blow up on ya.

22k · July 21, 2007

Just be prepared to possible retaliation from the cache owner.

oh. yeah. there is that. boy, that one'll blow up on ya.

I edited my point on that one. Retaliation might be too strong a word. (Kind of depends on how much you care if they get upset. )

Edited July 21, 2007 by BlueDeuce

4.7k · July 21, 2007

sometime if you want i'll tell you a funny little story involving a cacher who took "too many" tbs and logged them "improperly" from a hotel and the cache owner went all ballistic and everything and the cacher almost disposed of the tbs.

the only reason i got involved in the story was that one of the tbs was mine.

the cache owner used words like "theft" whereas i said things like "thanks for getting my tb out of there."

it was a titanic clash: the cache owner's right to make rules regarding trades at his cache, my right to have my tb removed from his cache, and the cacher's right not to have a mailbox full of threatening emails.

38.2k · July 21, 2007

i have kind of a hard-line voice.

yes, take all the travelbugs. the fewer travelbugs sit in travelbug "hotels" the safer they will be.

(i'm, uh, against them.)

mine is not a centrist view, but i am not alone in it.

I don't like them either. If one gets stolen it's a lot of TBs that go bye-bye. I wish I listened to my own thoughts on this. I had a geocoin cache that was taken by a non geocacher. A load of very nice geocoins went with it. Really stupid of me to concentrate so many geocoins in one cache.

July 21, 2007

i have kind of a hard-line voice.

yes, take all the travelbugs. the fewer travelbugs sit in travelbug "hotels" the safer they will be.

(i'm, uh, against them.)

mine is not a centrist view, but i am not alone in it.

I don't like them either. If one gets stolen it's a lot of TBs that go bye-bye. I wish I listened to my own thoughts on this. I had a geocoin cache that was taken by a non geocacher. A load of very nice geocoins went with it. Really stupid of me to concentrate so many geocoins in one cache.

July 21, 2007

i have kind of a hard-line voice.

yes, take all the travelbugs. the fewer travelbugs sit in travelbug "hotels" the safer they will be.

(i'm, uh, against them.)

mine is not a centrist view, but i am not alone in it.

I don't like them either. If one gets stolen it's a lot of TBs that go bye-bye. I wish I listened to my own thoughts on this. I had a geocoin cache that was taken by a non geocacher. A load of very nice geocoins went with it. Really stupid of me to concentrate so many geocoins in one cache.

I have had travel bugs and geocoins come up missing from other cache's also not just travel bug hotels. I guess it just depends on how well they are hidden.

July 21, 2007

Just looking for opinions, If you find a travel bug hotel, do you think it is right to take a travel bug without leaving one if you have none with you? Especially if there are other things in there to trade.

Would you check into a hotel if the clerk said you had to stay until someone came and took your place?

4.2k · July 22, 2007

"Welcome to the Hotel California.........you can check out anytime you like, but can never leave....."

3.2k · July 22, 2007

TRAVEL BUGS ARE NOT TRADE ITEMS!

Having said that, we may be in the minority. Due to the number of TB "hotels" with restrictions, I had set up a bookmark list for myslef of those within my range of caching (125 miles from my house). A friend or two asked for it, so I made it public. Since the negative (mostly the owners I think) outweigh the positive comments, most must think it is ok.

I watch my caches. If a TB sits there too long, I generally grab it myself and nudge it to a cache that may have more traffic.

July 22, 2007

Take it. Move it. Just get it out of my line of sight.

Travel Bugs are angst magnets.

Yuck

July 22, 2007

I have a (hotel) that is for tb's but I don't have rules. I wanted to place one close to a roadway for people to be able to easily drop bugs. My bug has been languishing in a remote cache for a while now and I wouldnt want that to happen to someone else. I prefer you to take a bug and move it along even if you don't have a trade bug, and If you have a bug that needs to travel fast please place it in the cache.

July 22, 2007

At one point I dubbed my wife a 'bug muggler' since she snatched up every one she could find.

July 22, 2007

I hve mixed feelings, on one hand a hotel should be a good place to leave a TB having a good chance of being picked up and moved. Some caches don't get visited for months...

On the other hand, a hotel may dry up TBs going to nearby caches.

July 22, 2007

I am not getting around as many caches as I would like and just yesterday dropped off a geocoin into a hotel and took one.

I only took one geocoin as did not want to leave it empty for the next person and like to drop of each one into separate caches not all at one place. So with only taking one I only have to find one cache to hide it and as it hasn't been dropped into the cache on line (probably wont be for another week as is an international traveler) I know I don't have to rush out on my next hunt.

I would prefer to see them spread out but caches are getting smaller and they do have their uses.

Edited July 22, 2007 by Kiwi Nomad

22k · July 23, 2007

If a travel bug hotel is in a good spot for the quick and easy exchange of travel bugs, then an empty hotel won't stay empty long. People are always looking for a convenient place to drop bugs off. The owner of a well-placed hotel should actually be pleased if the hotel is occasionally empty, since it shows that the hotel is serving its purpose: to get bugs moving quickly. And if a hotel does stay empty for long periods of time without the cache owner continually raiding other caches to re-stock it, then it's not a good place for a travel bug hotel. - the hermit crabs Dec 2 2005

July 23, 2007

Cache owners have no business deciding who can and can't move my travel bug.

I recently hide a TB hotel in Marshall, MN. I think that if you visit the cache take a TB, and move it one (of course try and make the TB goal.) If you have a TB leave it.

Just my thoughts.

July 23, 2007

The problem is that you don't know the TB's mission until you get home and look it up (unless you have mobile internet access or the TB actually has it's mission on it).

For example, We found a cache, we took the LiTtLe BuDdHa travel bug, no idea what it's mission was. Got home, looked it up and it's mission was to visit religious sites! What do we do? Looking at it's log, cachers have just been leaving it at the next cache they find for someone else to pick up to hopefully fulfill it's mission. So it's been going round South East England since January....no religious stuff!

Luckily (or unluckily) enough I work in Romania and there's a religious cache here 'Church of Man' so I'm going to leave it there, it's fulfilling it's mission, trouble is the cache only get's visited a couple of times a year........another question...........mission or speed......what's more important?

7.2k · July 23, 2007

People are always looking for a convenient place to drop bugs off.

IMHO, a TBH is for the convenience of the person trying to drop off a bug closer to its goal, not for the person wanting to move one along.

Empty TBH are perfectly acceptable.

7.2k · July 23, 2007

The problem is that you don't know the TB's mission until you get home and look it up...

I always figure if the mission is not important enough for the TB owner to put a mission tag on it then it's okay to take some detours.

3.9k · July 23, 2007

Welcome to the Forums!

Travel bugs are "travelers." They are meant to travel from cache to cache. If a TB Hotel owner has "rules" about only taking a TB if you leave one, ignore them. Any time you can help a TB meet its goal and continue traveling, that is a good thing.

Very well put! While I am personally not at all into TBs and geocoins (I just don't "get it", myself, but Sue does move both types of items sometimes and I will occasionally move TBs during my travels when asked to do so by others), it is quite clear that there is a strong general consensus in the geocaching world that TBs are meant to travel, and that travel bug "hotels" which require that you take/remove only a maximum of one TB and/or that you must leave another TB in its place are bizarre and abhorrent and that any such "rules" should be ignored. In fact, there are a number of folks in the geo world who feel that TB hotels -- even without the restrictive rules attendant to many -- are undesirable and that they are a major blemish on the geo landscape because they often end up being "TB prisons" where lonely TBs languish in confinement for months or years. So, bottom line, feel free to move as many TBs as you wish when you find them in a TB hotel! The TBs and their owners will appreciate your effort, and if the TB hotel owners do not like it, well, they need to get a life.

22k · July 23, 2007

Cache owners have no business deciding who can and can't move my travel bug.

I recently hide a TB hotel in Marshall, MN. I think that if you visit the cache take a TB, and move it one (of course try and make the TB goal.) If you have a TB leave it.

Just my thoughts.

If I have a TB and your cache assists me in assisting the bug towards its goal then I will leave it. If there is a TB there that I can assist towards its goal, then I will take it.

Whether or not I have a TB to leave and the fact your cache is a hotel is completely irrelevant to the decision to move travel bugs.

If anything I should probably be more concerned about leaving a TB in a Hotel and not moving them all out since the loss of your cache could impact many TBs.

22k · July 23, 2007

People are always looking for a convenient place to drop bugs off.

IMHO, a TBH is for the convenience of the person trying to drop off a bug closer to its goal, not for the person wanting to move one along.

Empty TBH are perfectly acceptable.

Which is why the next sentence in my quote says: The owner of a well-placed hotel should actually be pleased if the hotel is occasionally empty, since it shows that the hotel is serving its purpose: to get bugs moving quickly.

July 23, 2007

The problem is that you don't know the TB's mission until you get home and look it up (unless you have mobile internet access or the TB actually has it's mission on it).

For example, We found a cache, we took the LiTtLe BuDdHa travel bug, no idea what it's mission was. Got home, looked it up and it's mission was to visit religious sites! What do we do? Looking at it's log, cachers have just been leaving it at the next cache they find for someone else to pick up to hopefully fulfill it's mission. So it's been going round South East England since January....no religious stuff!

Luckily (or unluckily) enough I work in Romania and there's a religious cache here 'Church of Man' so I'm going to leave it there, it's fulfilling it's mission, trouble is the cache only get's visited a couple of times a year........another question...........mission or speed......what's more important?

I grabbed a TB (or geocoin - I forget which) from a cache while I was visiting Pittsburgh. I didn't get a chance to get on-line until a few days and states later when I discovered it wasn't supposed to leave Pennsylvania. I messaged the owner and apologized profusely and explained I wasn't going back to Pennsylvania anytime soon (I still haven't been back.) They said it wasn't a problem. I dropped the item in a cache in North Carolina with the hopes that some nice soul would return it to Pennsylvania. I also added a paper with the goal written on it so other geocachers would know what it was.

I think any Travel bug that has a specific goal that is important to the owner should include a laminated piece of paper telling what the goal is. Many of the items I find have these and it helps me decide whether I can help the item along.

I generally will not take more than one TB or geocoin unless I am trading a similar number. However, if I am able to help several of them toward a goal, I grab them.

July 23, 2007

It used to be standard practice to include some sort of card or something outlining the bug's mission/purpose, but I haven't seen many like that in a while.

That being the case I've taken to looking them up on my cell phone if I have service at the cache site. Otherwise I tend not to grab them if I won't have internet access that day.

and just to reiterate the mantra... "Travel bugs are not trade items. If you can help them along with their journey, by all means do so."

Edited July 23, 2007 by wandererrob

1.5k · July 23, 2007

I own one bug motel that has no requirements or restrictions on it -- the way all caches should be (bug hotels or not).

At the same time, I don't appreciate it when someone comes through and cleans out all the bugs in one of my caches. One cache of mine had 2 geocoins and a TB, and one person came through and snagged up all three. Is that wrong? No. Is it rude? I think so. It doesn't hurt to leave a bug or a coin behind for the next cacher.

Regardless of my personal feelings on ettiquette, the bugs aren't mine, and I have no say over who moves them or how they're moved. I ignore cache restrictions on bug movements, and I'd never leave a TB and take a trade item - that's akin to stealing, since TB's aren't trade items.

July 23, 2007

When I release a trackable item, I put a very specefic note with it, saying that if you find it in a motel or prison, feel free to take it regardless of the 'rules' of the cache. I really don't want to have my tbs languishing in a motel. Hey - I don't get to spend days or weeks at a time in a motel for free, why should my bug?

July 24, 2007

I don't know how others feel...and I am pretty new at geocaching but....I thought I had an original idea a couple of weeks ago. Put a cache right at a highway rest stop. Just for travel bugs. Give them a jump start. Since then I've learned that my idea was NOT very original after all. But I followed thru anyhow and have been very pleased. I asked that only trackable items be placed in this cache. It is a place to drop off or pick up....or drop off and pick up. The idea is to help keep them moving. So it wouldn't bother me a bit if there was no quid pro quo.

TB Hotels

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