2016: Booking the Moonrise Hotel

Anyone who attended the 2016 party will remember that was held at The Ready Room, but that was not the original plan.

We originally hoped to host the party at the space-themed Moonrise Hotel in the Delmar Loop. The Observation Room on the roof offers great views of University City and lots of astronomical decor.

We booked the event space for the night of the party, as well as two hotel rooms where we planned to host a “Colin” and an “AJ” after party.

But since the Moonrise is primarily a corporate events and wedding venue, their contract was rife with scam-like clauses: non-negotiable food and beverage minimums, staffing fees, and so forth. We were just trying to fill the room up on a weeknight during the slow season and help them sell some drinks.

But take a look at this nutty contract:

Colin, overconfident in his newfound negotiating skills as the rookie talent buyer of The Ready Room, tried to ask for waivers of some of the more unreasonable terms. The hotel immediately balked and released us from our agreement (to our relief). We had held the date on The Ready Room’s calendar as a backup and were able to shift the party there just in time to print the new location on the invitations.