How Many Travel Bugs Should Be In An Average TB Hotel?

[Team Foxx]

What is the average amount of travel bugs you have seen in a tb hotel? I am trying to go to caches (specifically the ones that have travel bugs) and take them and put them in my tb hotel. I am trying to put many in there for people who are going on trips far away.

[+rhelt100]

What is the average amount of travel bugs you have seen in a tb hotel? I am trying to go to caches (specifically the ones that have travel bugs) and take them and put them in my tb hotel. I am trying to put many in there for people who are going on trips far away.

 

I've seen TB hotels with anywhere from 0 to 15 or so. I guess average would be 1-3. I think you'll find that if your TB hotel is in a good location for a TB hotel (an area where travelers are likely to stop) it will fill up on it's own.

[+Moobeat]

I love opening a large tb hotel and seeing 10 or more tbs staring back at me.

 

Try starting with 3 or 4 then encourage the eye for eye deal of always leaving what you take or more.

 

Like rhelt100 said, location is important. I have a tb hotel about 3 miles from my house. Its pretty big and I very frequently drop TBs there if I know I'm not going caching soon.

[+SUp3rFM & Cruella]

I'm totally against a rule of minimum number of TBs left in a TB Hotel (more likely to be a TB Prison if that's the case).

 

TBs should get moving and not left in a cache because of a rule defined by the cache owner.

 

It would be nice if every TB hotel had some different trackables. There would me more chances to fine one that we could help. Let that happen by itself, not by imposing some "rule".

[paganfrog]

i am only just starting to enter the world of cache setting, and i would like to make my second cache placement a tb hotel. i will be having it very near to where i live so that i can keep an eye on it closely.

my plan would be that i could just walk on down to the cache whenever there is a new log to see the new bugs or coins and probably mostly leave them for others to move on, unless i know im off out caching. would i still get the icons listed in my profile if i just note i saw them?

 

thanks

[+Renegade Knight]

What is the average amount of travel bugs you have seen in a tb hotel? I am trying to go to caches (specifically the ones that have travel bugs) and take them and put them in my tb hotel. I am trying to put many in there for people who are going on trips far away.

 

One or two to seed it. More than that and you are moving itno the unpopular "TB Snatcher Zone" of folks who raid all the caches not to move bugs towards their goals but to make sure their TB hotel is full.

 

If you hotel is in a good location it will see TB's come and go all the time. If it's not, it will languish.

[+the hermit crabs]

How Many Travel Bugs Should Be In An Average TB Hotel?

As few as possible.

 

A TB hotel shouldn't be a place where there are many bugs sitting around at any given time. It should be a place that facilitates quick movement of bugs.

 

Also, the more bugs there are congregated in one place, the more likely it is that if something bad happens to the cache, a whole lot of bugs will disappear at once. They're safer if they're spread apart.

 

(This seems especially true for a cache like yours. I just glanced at a couple of logs for your cache, and there are mentions of it being in a busy spot very close to houses, and of people watching from their windows as cachers search for it.)

 

What is the average amount of travel bugs you have seen in a tb hotel?

Anywhere from zero to way too many -- probably 8 or 10 is the most I have seen myself in one cache at one time.

 

I am trying to go to caches (specifically the ones that have travel bugs) and take them and put them in my tb hotel.

Just out of curiosity -- when you go around harvesting all these local bugs, do you check their goals? Will it further their goals to put them into a cache with a 4-bug-minimum rule where they will be just one of many TBs waiting to be picked up, rather than being the only bug in a cache?

 

I am trying to put many in there for people who are going on trips far away.

It seems odd that if you are accumulating all these bugs for people to take on trips, that you would also encourage one-for-one trades. People who go on trips often do like bring several bugs with them -- so they are precisely the people who are least likely to want to drop off the ones they're currently carrying in order to take some from your hotel. If they do happen to have bugs with them, they want to take them on the long trip they're planning. If they don't have any bugs already, they'll feel unable to take some from your hotel to bring on their long trip, because they don't have any to leave in exchange.

 

Since travel bugs and geocoins are not trade items, one-for-one trades should never be required, and I'm glad to see that it is not entirely mandatory in yours, given the leeway in rule 2 -- but it is encouraged in yours, by rules 1 and 3. I think that those rules should be done away with altogether, and rule 2 should be changed to something encouraging finders to take and move as many bugs as they can reasonably help toward their goals, with no trading required or even hinted at, and certainly no "minimum occupancy" rule.

 

Here is something I posted in one of many long TB Hotel / Prison debates several years ago, which I would have forgotten entirely if it were not for BlueDeuce quoting it frequently. It is very appropriate for your situation:

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.

 

Have you read any of the many TB Hotel / Prison threads in the TB forum? Here are some interesting ones to browse through, in case you haven't:

 

Opinions Needed, The one for one rule.

Tb Hotel Trade Rules, Leave one to take one?

Let's Ban Travel Bug Hotels, Why make bug hotels? What's the point?

"Don't take a TB without leaving one" - WHY?

Another Example Of A TB Prison Gone Wrong, Cache removed by police with 10 bugs in it

Taking more than one Geocoin/TravelBug - Etiquette, Etiquette and general thinking of others that follow

Travel Bug hotels or prisons?

why do people do this?

Travel Bug Hotel (post #18 in that thread describes my idea of the perfect TB hotel)

 

... okay, I'll stop now. There are dozens more -- do a search for threads containing the words "hotel" and "prison" in the TB forum.

[CoyoteRed]

How Many Travel Bugs Should Be In An Average TB Hotel?

As few as possible.

I think zero is a good number to start with, but as the hotel gets used properly there will be a few. I think the number will depend on the location of the hotel.

 

My idea of a travel bug hotel is primarily that it is convenient for the person needing a place to put a bug. This gets the bug back into the wild. It's not really for folks to pick up a bug unless they're traveling through and can help a bug on its way.

 

I agree with others in that there should be absolutely no trade restrictions. I ignore them anyway. In fact, depending on my mood I might take more bugs than I normally would have simply to get the bugs moving. This is mainly because some folks are too timid or don't know any better than ignore the restriction.

 

Hotel owners don't get to say when and how TBs move. Period.

[+Runaround]

I agree with others in that there should be absolutely no trade restrictions. I ignore them anyway. In fact, depending on my mood I might take more bugs than I normally would have simply to get the bugs moving. This is mainly because some folks are too timid or don't know any better than ignore the restriction.

 

I agree, especially when some of the TB's have been sitting in a cache for months. Then I appoint myself TB parole officer and get them moving.

 

A few years back I visited a TB prison in Florida while on vacation. I only had one bug to leave but removed 3 that had been sitting in there for quite a while. I got a nasty email from the cache owner threatening to delete my find and 3 nice emails from the TB owners. I told the cache owner he could do what he wanted since I don't give a rats behind about my find count and he can't erase my name from the TB track logs which showed I had been to the cache anyway.

[Mr.Yuck]

What is the average amount of travel bugs you have seen in a tb hotel? I am trying to go to caches (specifically the ones that have travel bugs) and take them and put them in my tb hotel. I am trying to put many in there for people who are going on trips far away.

 

No!!! Do not raid other people's caches to "stock" your TB hotel. I'll bet you originally submitted that TB Hotel with a "take one leave one" rule, and the reviewer made a strong "suggestion" against it. I'm in New York State as well, and I know both our reviewers do this. TB's are meant to travel, not to keep your TB hotel stocked.

[+CCrew]

My answer? None. When I find them I usually free a bunch.

 

Here's a good reason why... when they go missing they take a slew of bugs with them: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...6a-44726b1e8c50

 

Not picking on the hider at all, this is just an example.

 

-Roger

[mouse88621]

would i still get the icons listed in my profile if i just note i saw them?

 

If you take down the tracking number, when you go to log it, from the drop down menu choose "Discovered It" and you will get the icon in your profile while the TB or coin remains in the place where you found it.

[+firennice]

My answer? None. When I find them I usually free a bunch.

 

Here's a good reason why... when they go missing they take a slew of bugs with them: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...6a-44726b1e8c50

 

Not picking on the hider at all, this is just an example.

 

-Roger

 

A local caching celebraty here (7000 finds/1100 hides) has a TB hotel on his doorstep. He put everthing extra he found there. Sometimes totaling 30-40 bugs coins with the note "take all you want and get them out to travel" Then he would take a handfull when he went out, drip them in when he came home. (he logged them in the cache not in his possesion).

One day someone walked off with the cache. He followed the tracks in the snow an recovered it. But the chance to loose 40 trackable was too much, now he has a bunch inside and you can knock to see those, if you wanted something in particular that was "in the cache" but not really there.

 

Remember .

..THEY ARE NOT YOUR BUGS/COINS...

if you want to allways have 10 in your cache..buy them and put them there. I have one near me that I have seen the same items in for months. Sometimes there are 12 items in there..people take the coins, and the 'cool' tb's and the others sit forever. Yet if I take them I get yelled at.

I have never got a thanks for 'trading' bugs. but i have for finding bugs in prison and getting them going, and I have returned moldy, smashed or destroyed bugs to their owners so they can replace and start them again.

[+BilboB]

I have a few TB hotels and I have visited a bunch of them. There is no written rule. Just remember, unless the TBs are yours, you have no say in what happens to them and how long they should stay in your hotel.

 

I remember I visited a TB hotel in Arkansas and the owner had a specific rule that there be "x" number of TBs in the cache at all times. I took more than I should have (many of them had goals that I could help along being when I went back home to Vermont). The cache owner wrote a scathing log about me and archived the cache soon after because of "Northeners coming down South and screwing everything up like they always have."

[+Runaround]

and archived the cache

 

That actually sounds like a positive in this situation.

[Keystone]

I am moving this thread from the The Hunt / The Unusual forum to the Travel Bug forum.

[+Eartha]

If you're going to "harvest" TBs for your cache, please be sure this cache is hidden in such a way that nobody who isn't a cacher will find it. Too many bugs have gone missing from muggled TB hotels, never to be seen again. Make sure it's safe!

Don't make a "You must trade one for one" rule. You own the cache, not the TBs.

Don't be upset if there are none in the cache at any point. People will use it to drop off TBs, not just pick them up, if it's a good hotel.

Be hospitable, and check on it when TBs are reported missing. Check your log book to see who logged them if no one has logged online. You must be prepared to be able to maintain this cache at any time.

And never hang up a No Vacancy" sign. Use a big enough container, that can still be hidden well. Make sure it's waterproof.

You only need a couple, or few, TBs to start it off. If it's a well placed cache, fun to find, easy to get to, muggle-proof, and not too far off the beaten paths, it will be a good hotel. Maybe even throw in a nice view.

[+Mad Fiddler]

What is the average amount of travel bugs you have seen in a tb hotel? I am trying to go to caches (specifically the ones that have travel bugs) and take them and put them in my tb hotel. I am trying to put many in there for people who are going on trips far away.

 

One or two to seed it. More than that and you are moving itno the unpopular "TB Snatcher Zone" of folks who raid all the caches not to move bugs towards their goals but to make sure their TB hotel is full.

 

If you hotel is in a good location it will see TB's come and go all the time. If it's not, it will languish.

 

Yep. This happened to one of my TBs. It was near its destination, then the cacher moved it to his own infrequently visited TB hotel -- several hundred miles away.

 

Grrrrr.