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UPDATE: more pictures of the hotel here: http://photobucket.com/mfmoldhotel
Last week, attempting to fly back home after Megaplex, my 5:20pm Delta flight from Orlando to Memphis was delayed for maintenance in NYC to 7:20pm... which wound up finally landing around 8:50 and taking off around 9:10pm.
That meant I missed my connecting flight from Memphis to Shreveport. But Delta was nice about it. They gave me several $6 meal vouchers, a $75 discount on my next flight and a free overnight layover at some place generically called the "Memphis Airport Hotel and Convention Center". I had no idea where that place was until I arrived there around 11pm.
Yep its the old Holiday Inn Select Airport Hotel, where Mephit Furmeet called home for most of the 2000's until the con moved to the Whispering Woods Conference Center two years ago. By 2009 the Holiday Inn was poorly maintained and ran. It was located too close to a ghetto neighborhood and there were reports of cars being broken into, and money and laptops stolen out of hotel rooms. I know a few MFM attendees and freinds who were very pissed off at the hotel for their negligence and vowed never to come back... (PS see MFM chairman's
mideonwerewolf replies below for more info.)
Still I had lot of good memories of this place and as you can see they have done a nice renovating job on the lobby with a big bar, new furniture, tile, paint scheme.. and they put new carpeting in the huge open area. The rooms are mostly unchanged except for new pillow-top mattresses (or mattress covers) and they pulled out the old sink and put one of those strange washbowl-style sinks in. I think they've also re-walpapered the rooms and put new carpet in too. (same old noisy air conditioners)
It was a fun little flashback to see what happened to the old hotel. Though I miss the huge open courtyard area where the fursuit games and the pizza feeds were, I'm still glad the con moved out of here.
I woke up around 6:30am and took the shuttle to the airport for a quick morning flight back to Shreveport and then a hour drive home back to East Texas!
Last week, attempting to fly back home after Megaplex, my 5:20pm Delta flight from Orlando to Memphis was delayed for maintenance in NYC to 7:20pm... which wound up finally landing around 8:50 and taking off around 9:10pm.
That meant I missed my connecting flight from Memphis to Shreveport. But Delta was nice about it. They gave me several $6 meal vouchers, a $75 discount on my next flight and a free overnight layover at some place generically called the "Memphis Airport Hotel and Convention Center". I had no idea where that place was until I arrived there around 11pm.
Yep its the old Holiday Inn Select Airport Hotel, where Mephit Furmeet called home for most of the 2000's until the con moved to the Whispering Woods Conference Center two years ago. By 2009 the Holiday Inn was poorly maintained and ran. It was located too close to a ghetto neighborhood and there were reports of cars being broken into, and money and laptops stolen out of hotel rooms. I know a few MFM attendees and freinds who were very pissed off at the hotel for their negligence and vowed never to come back... (PS see MFM chairman's
mideonwerewolf replies below for more info.)Still I had lot of good memories of this place and as you can see they have done a nice renovating job on the lobby with a big bar, new furniture, tile, paint scheme.. and they put new carpeting in the huge open area. The rooms are mostly unchanged except for new pillow-top mattresses (or mattress covers) and they pulled out the old sink and put one of those strange washbowl-style sinks in. I think they've also re-walpapered the rooms and put new carpet in too. (same old noisy air conditioners)
It was a fun little flashback to see what happened to the old hotel. Though I miss the huge open courtyard area where the fursuit games and the pizza feeds were, I'm still glad the con moved out of here.
I woke up around 6:30am and took the shuttle to the airport for a quick morning flight back to Shreveport and then a hour drive home back to East Texas!
Category Photography / Still Life
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 960px
File Size 171.9 kB
I feel the same way, I had a real nostalgic feeling walking around while taking these pictures. I think MFM would have stayed there if the hotel was in a safe location, had a good staff and was well maintained and clean. It looked a hell of a lot better than it did 2 years ago.
I will have fond memories of my first two times attending MFM at this hotel. Nine ways out of ten, Whispering Woods is an improvement over this place, but that doesn't change the fact that as an Aspie I tend to develop associations and attachments to a location, and there's a part of me that will always think of and miss this place. Heck, I still miss the Woodfield Hyatt Regency as the location of MFF even though we outgrew the place and there's no way we could fit there now.
That was one of the hardest decisions I had to make with MFM moving it from the "home" hotel.
Sadly the last year we were there things were in the air that it was really falling apart. Jose the manager had cut employees salaries, took their insurance away and things got so bad the owner of the hotel sold it at an 60% loss over what they bought it for. The hotel had become a "sick" building and I can't tell you how many had the crud especially after the last MFM. The hotel GM would not do anything proactively and even things like security which we asked for time and time again were not provided. i hated to move but we had to keep people safe. My biggest fear was someone walking up on one of the car break-ins and something really bad happening.
The reason they are no longer a Holiday Inn is that they had so many unresolved complaints and there was so much non-compliance of standards that Holiday Inn demanded that they were stripped of their Holiday Inn flags. I still keep in touch with the few that are over there and while things have changed, there are still a lot of rooms and renovations that haven't been done because the money ran out.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re.....Tennessee.html
Whispering Woods is definitely a different feel. But it was only one of the few the size we needed that the convention space wasn't totally separate from the hotel or they wanted $150+ a night for rooms.
Sadly the last year we were there things were in the air that it was really falling apart. Jose the manager had cut employees salaries, took their insurance away and things got so bad the owner of the hotel sold it at an 60% loss over what they bought it for. The hotel had become a "sick" building and I can't tell you how many had the crud especially after the last MFM. The hotel GM would not do anything proactively and even things like security which we asked for time and time again were not provided. i hated to move but we had to keep people safe. My biggest fear was someone walking up on one of the car break-ins and something really bad happening.
The reason they are no longer a Holiday Inn is that they had so many unresolved complaints and there was so much non-compliance of standards that Holiday Inn demanded that they were stripped of their Holiday Inn flags. I still keep in touch with the few that are over there and while things have changed, there are still a lot of rooms and renovations that haven't been done because the money ran out.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re.....Tennessee.html
Whispering Woods is definitely a different feel. But it was only one of the few the size we needed that the convention space wasn't totally separate from the hotel or they wanted $150+ a night for rooms.
I just want everyone safe and Alex not to lose his sanity running security. Also I know how sick I got after the last at the old hote, there was def something up.
It's really a shame when Jim was the GM there he had that place amazing and everything spot on. Once Jose took over things looked ok for starters but when fursuiters complain that their paws are getting dirty from the carpet something is up.
I can't tell you how many hotels i looked out before the decision was made on Whispering Woods and I know not everyone was happy with it. We are making things great I think at Whispering Woods and looking at this year's schedule there is a lot to look forward to!
It's really a shame when Jim was the GM there he had that place amazing and everything spot on. Once Jose took over things looked ok for starters but when fursuiters complain that their paws are getting dirty from the carpet something is up.
I can't tell you how many hotels i looked out before the decision was made on Whispering Woods and I know not everyone was happy with it. We are making things great I think at Whispering Woods and looking at this year's schedule there is a lot to look forward to!
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