A Go Fair Story: A Bulgarian’s First Time to an American Convention
In early February 2015, I learned I had been selected to attend World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, New York as part of an outreach program targeting international writers without financial means to travel to the United States on their own. The fund sponsoring me would cover airfare and the hotel stay, but I had to organize the trip myself – a rather stressful thought to entertain. I rarely travel, you see, and when I do, I’m an extremely nervous person!
For additional context, I want to mention I’d to run a funding campaign that would determine whether I’d receive the money or not. There was a lot hanging in the balance – certainly a lot of uncertainty. If I got the money, I had to act in a matter of days and was more pressure than I wanted in my life. You’ve to understand that in addition to working full time, I also had to promote the campaign and research hotel accommodation. It’s not a one-person job, which is why I turned to Go Fair ltd.
There were two main factors in choosing to work with an agency – stress and convenience. I was simply too tired to have to worry about getting the best deals on both airplane tickets and rooms rates. Just because I was being funded didn’t mean I could book whatever hotel came to my attention or board any flight. The price mattered. Time mattered. Frankly, I was in no way, shape or form capable to do this without someone to split the load with me.
Enter Go Fair ltd, of which I learned from an old colleague of mine and it cost me nothing to use them. Why wouldn’t I use them? Even though the campaign didn’t start until June and I wasn’t due to fly out in November, I got in touch and started searching for hotels on the lower price range in mid-February. Basically, I remember asking for the cheapest possible hotel that is also nearest to the convention hotel (the convention hotel had already been booked at this point). I expected to wait for a week or at least a few days, but I got my options on the same day.
Since I could hold onto a room for a few months without a cancellation fee, I decided to go ahead and reserve a room at the Hampton Inn & Suites Saratoga Springs Downtown, which was a good five-minute walk away from the convention hotel. With this crossed off my list, I could relax and carry the program through to the end, which was successfully funded and we then moved on to the flight details.
Go Fair ltd responded again in one day and that very same day, I booked my plane ticket. The whole trip was planned in a total of two days over the course of two months, where I had no more to do than say what I want and then make a decision. Go Fair was kind enough to stay in touch right before flights, updating me on departure times and did a lot of handholding when I feared my return flight to Paris would be cancelled at the time of the Parisian attacks.
As a whole, the trip went incredibly well and I have to thank the whole at Go Fair ltd for their hard work. I’ll definitely be using them in the future.
