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Travel Bug Rules


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Just browsing through some nearby caches and I came across a travel bug hotel.

 

Which curiously had this line in the description "ONLY TAKE A TRAVEL BUG IF YOU HAVE ONE TO DROP OFF"

 

I'd thought having such a requirement was against the rules?

 

Yes, you're right, it's against the Guidelines for handling travel bugs.

 

I don't know when the cache you cite was published but I suspect it wouldn't get published with that wording today.

 

If you're concerned you can ask your local reviewer to have a look at it.

 

MrsB

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Yes, you're right, it's against the Guidelines for handling travel bugs.

 

Well then the guidelines are wrong. The purpose of a TB is to travel. A TB Hotel is a repository to help a TB in that goal. People can visit a TB Hotel to help a listed bug on it's travels. (If I was going to Australia and saw a listed Bug in a nearby Hotel that wanted to go there I would pick it up - if I, at that time did not have a "replacement" bug for the hotel, are you saying I shouldn't pick it up?)

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Yes, you're right, it's against the Guidelines for handling travel bugs.

 

Well then the guidelines are wrong. The purpose of a TB is to travel. A TB Hotel is a repository to help a TB in that goal. People can visit a TB Hotel to help a listed bug on it's travels. (If I was going to Australia and saw a listed Bug in a nearby Hotel that wanted to go there I would pick it up - if I, at that time did not have a "replacement" bug for the hotel, are you saying I shouldn't pick it up?)

 

The OP was questioning the wording he had seen on a TB Hotel which required those visiting the Hotel to exchanged TBs one for one...

 

Just browsing through some nearby caches and I came across a travel bug hotel.

 

Which curiously had this line in the description "ONLY TAKE A TRAVEL BUG IF YOU HAVE ONE TO DROP OFF"

 

I'd thought having such a requirement was against the rules?

 

Yes, you're right, it's against the Guidelines for handling travel bugs.

 

I don't know when the cache you cite was published but I suspect it wouldn't get published with that wording today.

 

If you're concerned you can ask your local reviewer to have a look at it.

 

MrsB

 

I stated that that one for one requirement is against the Guidelines for handling TBs - Cachers are not required to swap trackables one for one - they may take as many as they feel they can help along on their mission, be that one, or all, that are in a cache.

 

MrsB

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All of which begs the question - what is different between a TB hotel and a cache? Is it just size?

 

Matt

A TB Hotel would need to be big enough to accommodate several TBs and would generally be located in a position near to good travel links, i.e. a motorway junction, airport, port etc. But basically a TB hotel is no different from any other cache and can be used in the same way for swaps etc. TB Hotels don't seem to be as popular as they once were as is often the case with new types/series of caches which tend to be very popular at conception but popularity wanes as other series come out or Groundspeak ban them.

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I suspect the more responsible cache owners are going off TB hotels due to the risk of theft...

 

If you have a cache with 1 or 2 TB's in, you feel guilty if it's stolen and the TB's lost.

If it's a TB hotel with several TB's in when it disappears... :)

 

I have a TB/GC drop off point on my doorstep. It isn't called a hotel, but people around here do use it. The reason that I have it is two fold,

 

a) because it is on my doorstep and is secure, and,

 

;) because I travel up and down the country with my work, I am able to move travellers on for people who have been stuck with something for a while.

 

As you say Bear and Ragged, I think people are going off hotels due to the risk of theft and or vandalism.

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And you can't please everyone. In general, the cache owner wants to have the trackables resident in their cache, whereas the trackable owner wants them to move. I'm a huge trackables fan, so I always move all the trackables I find in a cache, even if it's a 'Hotel' or has the 'one in, one out' wish in its description.

 

At the end of the day it's up to the cacher. Leave the trackable and make the CO happy. Or take the trackable and make the TO (trackable owner, is that a genuine abbreviation?) happy.

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the cache owner wants to have the trackables resident in their cache

 

I never understood that perspective persoanally - do people really want lots of bugs in their caches? I mean what do you get out of it as a cache owner?

 

Personally I get aprehensive when there's a bug in one of my caches. Sods law that's the time it'll get muggled!

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In general, the cache owner wants to have the trackables resident in their cache,

Not altogether sure that's true. I recently decided that my collection of geocoins was actually serving no purpose other than cluttering up a draw. I rarely took any of them to events, never bothered to look at them and they were just gathering dust so I decided to release them all. There wasn't a suitable local cache so I created a Travel Bug Hotel that was close to an M1 junction and reasonably close to my local airport. So far it's worked well, the coins I originally placed in it have all been taken and a fair number of 'new' coins and T/Bs added to the cache. I'll gradually add more of my own coins to it, in batches of 4 or 5, until they've all gone. At that point, I'll stock it with 'trade stuff' and treat it as an ordinary cache. I have, incidentally, made it a 'Members Only' cache in an attempt to keep it a little more secure. If it does get 'muggled' and the contents stolen, then so be it. That's a risk you take when leaving a coin or T/B in any cache, not just 'hotels'. It would be sad, but I'll not loose any sleep over it.

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the cache owner wants to have the trackables resident in their cache

 

I never understood that perspective persoanally - do people really want lots of bugs in their caches? I mean what do you get out of it as a cache owner?

 

Personally I get aprehensive when there's a bug in one of my caches. Sods law that's the time it'll get muggled!

In the olden days of yore when TBs and even more so Geocoins where relatively rare cachers would be attracted to and rush out to a cache with a trackable logged into it, and therefore cache owners would try to attract trackables to their cache to encourage visits. Anyone remember the yellow Jeep?

 

These days trackables are pretty much common place and the interest has waned. I think that even the icon hunters have given up the hunt to a large extent no doubt due to the novelty factor being heavily diluted by so many different icons.

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In the olden days of yore when TBs and even more so Geocoins where relatively rare cachers would be attracted to and rush out to a cache with a trackable logged into it, and therefore cache owners would try to attract trackables to their cache to encourage visits. Anyone remember the yellow Jeep?

 

These days trackables are pretty much common place and the interest has waned. I think that even the icon hunters have given up the hunt to a large extent no doubt due to the novelty factor being heavily diluted by so many different icons.

 

I remember them well, but those days are long gone now.

 

And thankfully also are the days of travel bug prisons. There used to be one near my mum's house and I took great pleasure in removing all the bugs dispite the cache owner's instructions to only swap one for one.....!

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the cache owner wants to have the trackables resident in their cache

 

I never understood that perspective persoanally - do people really want lots of bugs in their caches? I mean what do you get out of it as a cache owner?

 

 

I know that I am fonder of trackables than most CO's, but I love seeing trackables in my caches. I'm genuinely interested in their missions and histories, sometimes I even make a deliberate trip to 'discover' the particularly fascinating ones.

 

As a cacher I have also deliberately not visited a new cache until it had a good trackable to be picked up.

 

I know it's a bit sad! :rolleyes:

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