TB Hotels Good or Bad ?

[+WV_GeoBear]

Just wondering how others feel,   I liked the idea, but when a TB is stuck for months with no movement…….. does it become a graveyard instead ?

[+terratin]

I love visiting TB hotels as many are wonderfully constructed buildings/rooms or have other creative ideas. And they do get sought out regularly. I do ignore the wish of owners to only take TBs if you leave some generally as that would be close to creating a graveyard. But yeah, TB Hotels: Yay, TB Traps: Nay.

[+Indiangrass]

There are a couple I've seen as intended. Most are "just another cache".

[+MtnGoat50]

2 hours ago, WV_GeoBear said:

I liked the idea, but when a TB is stuck for months with no movement…….. does it become a graveyard instead ?

I'm not a fan. The first TB I created was moved from the cache I placed it in to a TB hotel. I week later it was marked missing and never seen again. I released the copy tag a year later and it did better but the experience soured me on TB hotels. 

[+cerberus1]

3 hours ago, WV_GeoBear said:

Just wondering how others feel,   I liked the idea, but when a TB is stuck for months with no movement…….. does it become a graveyard instead ?

 

We see TB "hotels" as a lure for hoarders, and often a means for micro-managers to inflict their nonsense on regular folks.

Years ago when I could cache a lot, I'd take every trackable outta a "hotel" if the CO (it's just a cache...) mentioned trackable movement.

Some people have found wonderful "hotels" with responsible visitors and great COs that perform maintenance often for all the movement.

That hasn't been our experience....

[+Goldenwattle]

Some of the best caches I have seen are TB hotels. Rooms for guests, wallpapered, carpeted, furnished. They are the real ones. The plastic box (often not very big) called a hotel is not a hotel in my opinion. Someone could call their grungy guest house the Hilton. Doesn't make it so though. There are real TB hotels, and those in name only.

My TB hotel is furnished, wallpapered, etc, with lots of room. A lock too to help keep muggles out. During Covid it was a full, as many TBs were placed in it for safe keeping.

Hoarders will hoard, it's a disease and nothing will stop them. They will find the TBs to steal.

 

Similar with Letterboxes. Some people make it a real letterbox, or some other way special. I have seen hand crafted metal sculptures. Others just use an ordinary plastic box and throw a cheap mass produced stamp (maybe) in it and call it a Letterbox. I have even seen a micro letterbox; a bison tube. No stamp of course as one wouldn't fit. On ink stamps, some might hold a stamp, but the micro log is too small for others to stamp it. So there are real letterbox caches, and those in name only.

[+barefootjeff]

On 6/17/2023 at 3:24 AM, WV_GeoBear said:

I liked the idea, but when a TB is stuck for months with no movement…….. does it become a graveyard instead ?

 

My own hides often go for many months or years between finds but people still leave TBs in them that become marooned there. If I notice one that's been stranded for a year or more, I'll try to move it on, but finding another cache to put it in is almost as problematic. Fortunately there are a couple of well-appointed TB hotels that get a fair bit of traffic and are big enough to leave multiple TBs in.

 

 

So yes, for me they're definitely a good thing and, from what I've seen of the ones locally, seem to function well at getting TBs moving.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

While we're on the topic, I'd like to present my favorite TB Hotel, which just went under a bulldozer in Oneonta, New York.

 

It was a stick-built hut masquerading as a kids' playhouse in the woods with a hidden slidey-wall behind a blackboard with shelves.

 

https://coord.info/GC8192F

 

Check out the gallery. Sorry to see it go.

[+BirdSearcher]

On 6/21/2023 at 10:18 AM, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

It was a stick-built hut masquerading as a kids' playhouse in the woods with a hidden slidey-wall behind a blackboard with shelves.

Wow! Very cool & amazing.

[+Vicious Cycle]

There is a TB hotel not far from my home and it's strategically placed at a travel station/truck stop off the interstate not far from the US/Canada border, so it gets a lot of traffic from Geocachers either going into or coming out of Canada. It's a large container, that's locked (code in the description), a PM only cache, and it's well maintained. It has close to 100 FPs and many, many notes where previous finders have come back to drop off and/or pick up TBs. I've stopped by there and grabbed TBs out of it before going on long road trips so I can move them along. So I have a pretty positive opinion of TB Hotels. That being said, I've visited others that were not well-placed, nor had any TBs in them. So the quality of a TB hotel greatly depends on the hider, the container, the location, and the level of maintenance it gets.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Vicious Cycle

[Ageleni]

I love them and always look for them when I am out of town, so I can bring a bunch back with me.  I am moving in about a year, and plan to put up a large one near my property, where it will be reasonably away from muggles, yet obviously a cache.  I like them less when they are very public, since so many people can find and loot them.  Nor do I like when you have to hike 40 minutes to get to it.  The best (in my opinion) are those that are remote enough that muggles wouldn't ordinarily be there, but are easy enough for geocachers to find.

 

The best one I found was a Little Free Library in someone's yard.  The LFL was like any other, but the back of the box had a secret door with a lock, with the code in the description.  

Edited January 15 by Ageleni

[+Goldenwattle]

This is mine. It has a locked door. The wall clock on the right, works. It's in the ceiling of a little library.

 

 

Edited January 15 by Goldenwattle

[+qqnonrev]

Some are good, others are ok.  I believe it all depends on the CO.  If they keep it updated with what is inside and remove those that aren't there, then I like it.  

I have had good and bad luck with TB hotels with trackables going missing.  But that is with any cache....