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Got a question on what is “proper” with Travel Bug Hotels … please don’t read anger or hard feeling towards others into this … I’m just trying to understand “unwritten rules” better
…When someone places a Travel Bug Hotel, includes a paragraph in bold/red that says “This is a Travel Bug Exchange: Don’t take a travel bug, unless you are leaving another one. Feel free to add to the collection.” Why do some of the finders ignore the request and empty the TBs out? I saw this happen to a Hotel in Appleton and it happened recently to my Hotel in Cedarburg.
Am I expecting to much to hope that the Hotel request be honored? On my first weekend of caching, I happened to be a first finder at a cache, being a rookie I took the TB that was in there (all excited first TB I ever saw, blah, blah). I have felt bad about even taking a TB on a non-Hotel cache, ever since. I’m still a rookie, but I always carry 2 TBs in my bag, so I’m ready to trade TBs anytime I stumble on one … in my case, they happen to be my own TBs (so don’t be concerned that I’m keeping someone else’s out of circulation).
P.S. – Super Giant Thanks to “econrangers” for “feeling my pain” and restocking my Hotel.
[This message has been edited by EnergySaver (edited 06-25-2004).]
If trading instructions are posted on the cache page, I would hope that they are followed.
If there are no instructions, I would say the unwritten rule is “trade fairly”. This does not necessarily mean bug for bug, or item for item. Bugs are about moving, not trading. (Bug motels are the exception) I will take a bug and leave an item or if the cache is light, I will leave something and take nothing. More often than not these days, my main interest is the logbook, and I don’t trade at all.
Personally, I would prefer for “trade up” to be the rule. When I leave a $20 trade item in my cache, I expect at least a equal value item in return. Unfortunately, it does seem to work out that way.
Be good, Have Fun, Trade Nicely.
[This message has been edited by Cathunter (edited 06-25-2004).]
I was happy to help you out EnergySaver. I was hoping to put a couple of those tb’s in the Hotel 8.5 & Spa travel bug cache but I/we couldn’t find the first waypoint! Our lost is your gain.
We’ve been disappointed at least twice when we opened up a travel bug cache and there were none to trade.
Keep up the great caches EnergySaver…Bring them on! Earth AngelI may be one of the scoundrels who took travel bugs from your cache without putting any in their place. By the time I got to the final cache in the Oz series, I figured I would rescue two travel bugs that were in there because not many people would want to venture into that area to get them out. I did not have the cache page printed out and did not read the instructions on my PDA for this cache. It was simply a “hit it and get out” cache visit. So, if I broke a rule, I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the bug owners a favor by moving them along.
I’m really beginning to dislike travel bugs. Seems like you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t move them along.
[This message has been edited by kbraband (edited 06-26-2004).]
Thanks for the comments so far. After posting this question, I did find a couple similar comments on the GC website. Seems to be mixed feelings on the issue … based on the GC I do see AND AGREE with the point that the main goal of TBs is to Travel … which I guess by logic would make any TB Hotel a semi-bad idea. I guess as the owner of the Hotel, my attitude should be (and is becoming) that you hope it works for the best, but as the owner by choosing to make a Hotel part of general maintenance means keeping it stocked. I still welcome more comments. To “kbraband” please don’t be ticked (or skeetered) at me for my question, you are right in keeping the TBs moving … I’m new at this and would rather make new friends, than have a ammo box full of TBs … I’m more excited when you or another finder logs a visit to my caches, than anti-excited about lesser TBs. Maybe the next question I could ask … is the fact that I have a TB Hotel (in this case the “Valley of Oz TB Zoo”) likely to DECREASE finders because of the limitations, vs. a standard cache with no “rules”? I never considered that, especially since I put tons of non-TB things in the cache. Again, I much rather have visitors than people turned off by rules?
EnergySaver, thanks for the explanation. I’m not ticked at all. I’m glad you’re not either.
One thing that I noticed about other TB hotels is that many of them are located along well-traveled highways where they’re likely to see lots of geocaching visitors who can move the TBs along. Since yours is at the end of a multi-part hunt in a fairly secluded nature park that doesn’t see much traffic, I thought I would help the TB owners out by moving the TBs along. But again, I’m sorry I didn’t read your instructions about trading TBs.
I Love TBs!!! I also have a Travel Bug Spa..and we placed it not too far off of I-94 so that it would be easy to get on and off to help to move the bugs. I also made it an easy find for the same reason.
We didn’t leave any instructions as far as take one leave one as we want them to move. Right now there is only one bug in my spa and I am fine with that. I do drop them off in there if it is needed, but I don’t feel obligated to keep it stocked. Others will drop off bugs…less rules the easier it is. We did chose to make ours a Members Only cache-not to be exclusionary, but because we didn’t want any added possiblity of plundering since we are talking about bugs…and also it is a nice little bonus for paid memebers.
Bugs are fun! Let’s keep them moving.
Ms. WISearcher
oh, and I made the mistake once of grabbing a whole bunch of bugs because I could help them move…and then when I got home and looked at the cache page to log the cache I realized that it was a take one leave one situation. I felt bad. I did make a note of my mistake on the cache page, and made a special trip back again at a later date to add a few more bugs back in it (and swapped a few too).
Thanks all.
I see the point about a Hotel making more sense near an easy to get to location. Maybe I will reword my “rules” on the page to be a little less pushy, let the finder decide. For it’s location, the Hotel has had pretty good traffic … I’ve noticed bugs sitting in other “regular” caches in Ozaukee County not moving much more … wish there were more of us in this area.Sadly, we’re tending to agree with kbraband lately – “I’m really beginning to dislike travel bugs. Seems like you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t move them along”.
It seems TBs have gotten awfully complicated lately. Two of the three we’ve moved are missing in action. One was picked up and is being hung on to and the other was picked up with no log entry.
Four caches we did last weekend were supposed to have bugs in them, but none did and there were no online log entries documenting their fate.
We can assure any owner whose TB we pick up that it will be moved expeditiously and logged promptly. If we can’t, we either won’t pick it up or we’ll contact the owner to make a mutually agreeable arrangement.
We recognize others feel differently, but our philosophy is that Travel Bugs were meant to travel; if they weren’t, they’d just be called Bugs.
Ootek and Sherpa Girl
The Fugawiquote:
Originally posted by Ootek:
Sadly, we’re tending to agree with kbraband latelyDon’t be sad. This is such a rarity for me so I’m delighted!
just to make kbraband’s day twice … I’ll agree with him again, on everything that has been said … at the same time, these forums are a great place to “tweak” ideas back in forth … one more “personal viewpoint” that I’d like to throw into the mix and await response from all points of view (I will duck if need be):
Could one not argue that by making a cache hotel hard for geomugglers to find (which I think my “Valley of Oz TB Zoo” is), do I not potentially protect the TBs in it from being swiped by geomugglers. I’d rather have a TB in a hard to get to hotel, than have it disappear from the face of the geocaching earth. Not saying anyone else’s is hotel is in a bad spot, just pointing out the good side of putting TBs “behind bars” .
Also, I feel bad that I’ve added to “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” frustration. I think we (mainly me) need to “sit loose in the saddle” and keep this stuff fun. Do what you think is right and fair and don’t look back. The only enemy out there are those stupid mosquitoes … a rasberry to those mosquitoes … my next cache is going to have an anti-skeeter theme, I’ve already made a Travel bug to get the thing started: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=0b71a584-db1b-4098-83ef-f8525d9a44a9
[This message has been edited by EnergySaver (edited 06-29-2004).]
A WISearchers suggested, I would say that the safest way to have a bug hotel is to make it a “members only” cache. The bugs might not move as quickly, but the chances of them being taken and held would go way down.
Hi all,
I thought this was an interesting topic and decided to post my thoughts. I have recently created a TB resort here in Green Bay. In the three weeks since it has been created, there have been over 20 TB’s through it. We started out with 3 and there are currently 4 in there. To me this is the exciting part about the resort theme-the variety of bugs going through. I like to look and see how many miles they have traveled and what their goal is.
I don’t know what other people do, but when I created my resort, I also left some normal trade items as well so people could still trade something even if they do not have a bug to leave.
As the owner of the resort, my opinion is that if I see a bug or bugs that have been sitting here for a while, their vacation is over and I will try to grab them and move them along to somewhere else. Even if it is only a few miles down the road, at least it shows that there has been some activity with it.
If I know that I am going to be heading somewhere, I will check the bugs purpose and see if I can help it in its goal. If I am heading in the complete opposite direction, I would just leave it in the hopes that someone else can do better by it than I can.
I wonder if bug owners could do a better job in spelling out the bugs purpose? We were on vacation in Florida and picked up a bug that had nothing but the tag with it. When we got back home and were able to look it up, we found that it was placed in the cache about an hour before we got there and it’s goal was to get to Disney World. To top it off, the owner was there from Illinois. So we took a bug that was less than 300 miles from its goal and brought it further north than it started out. Had we known it’s goal, we would have left it. Talk about frequent flyer miles!
Gee, maybe that could be the next promotion after the Jeep one is done, get frequent flyer miles based on how far your travel bug goes!
Don
I like “AstroD-Team”‘s comments! The other day I’d typed a list of MY “ideals” regarding travel bugs. Then I decided that a list of 10 items that went on for 2 screens would make people roll their eyes at me, so I canceled the whole darn thing. But “AstroD-Team” has spurred me into action on a couple items, so roll away .
One of my “ideals” was the same concept about keeping a bug moving, but in the wrong direction. Would it be better off where it is? Of course, you can argue that you will never know, because you don’t know what the next person would have done in either the old location or new location.
I also think as a hotel owner, that it appears that I have a responsibility to remove TBs that are not moving and replace them with ones in my possession. This of course, also comes with the “unknown” of not knowing what the NEXT guy that found my hotel was going to do. Like I said yesterday, this should be fun and I think I’m trying to hard.
About TBs with no PRINTED goals attached … amen to that … everytime I find a TB that is just loose in a cache, I take that TB, hit “Print Bug Sheet” on the web page and give the TB a nice home in a brand new ziplock bag with the sheet in it. My daugter is making a series of 8 “creatures” as we speak, that she is very proud of, when the get their TB tags they will even have tiny little Gladware containers to protect them from getting broken (at least for awhile).
[This message has been edited by EnergySaver (edited 06-30-2004).]
i don’t even bother going to the tb hotels if i don’t have a tb to trade, never even thought there were trade items in them. i always consider finding a tb a bonus and take it if i find it. but i try to keep them moving–sometimes hard when all i seem to find are micros.
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