Leasing an "Entertainer" Coach, Part II - Getting Quotes
by Dale Roethlisberger on 05.17.06 @ 03:58 PM EST [link]

It's more than three months before the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the event tickets and camping passes still aren't available to purchase online. One would assume that, if we are willing to pay the fees and meet the contractual requirements, our group should be able attend the weekend event in the style and luxury of an "Entertainer" or "Crew/Band" motor coach. First, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to find on the Internet some links to the companies that lease these types of motor coaches. By using a large number of "search word" combinations, I was finally able to find a half-dozen or so companies that might be able to accomodate our group's plans. Of course, we had to eliminate a few of the selections due to geographical constraints. It makes no sense to have to pay for cross-country or cross-region pre and post event positioning logistics, and the potential for stretching a four or five day leasing window to potentially a week or more. Unfortunately, we did not consider that the leasing companies for these types of motor coaches, for the most part, aren't really in the business of leasing to private groups for a "luxury" one-time event.

Certainly, from the leasing company's point of view, there is a bit of the prestige factor involved. These types of motor coach conversions are an expensive proposition and it does make sense to try to squeeze as much promotional value (i.e. top name Stars and Entertainers as endorsements), as well as, per day leasing dollars, and preserve these resources for the longest lease period potential customers. Our research indicates there may be as few as 400 of this style of motor coach conversion and, at best, maybe 1000 for lease in the entire USA. ...More - Read Full Story

Leasing an "Entertainer" Coach for the Philadelphia Folk Festival
by Dale Roethlisberger on 05.10.06 @ 09:45 AM EST [link]

There comes a time in life when you want to do something "First-Class" as a perk for all those years you worked hard and were careful about your budget in every way. Last year, my wife and I decided to return to the Philadelphia Folk Festival after a hiatus of 20 years. The Philadelphia Folk Festival is a three-day weekend event with live music on multiple stages all day long, and a big evening concert each day. There are workshops, crafts, food and an opportunity to meet and even play music with some of the performers over this weekend event. However, the folk festival is held on a farm in the country-side outside of Philadelphia and the small towns in the area have limited motel/hotel space and it has been a tradition that the best way to attend is to camp at the festival site. Camping was fine twenty years ago, but we must be honest and tell you that the prospect of camping in late August on a farm outside of Philadelphia was one of the reasons we had not attended in many years aside from our normally heavy travel schedule.

For the 2005 Philadelphia Folk Festival, we rented a Recreational Vehicle (RV) and spent the weekend in semi-luxury. We chose CruiseAmerica and our experience was perfect for the two of us. For 2006, our plans for the folk festival will exceed the types of RV's regularly available for lease. We have four couples and a single for a total of 9 people. The only option we felt was appropriate for this size group is an "entertainer" or "crew/band" style motorcoach conversion. We will be reporting regularly here to journal what it takes to accomplish this plan.