I've never been to party conference. The autumn one is always in our arrivals week at university. But I spent half a day at Harrogate in 2006 supposedly staffing the ALTER stand.

So, having received a nice letter the other day from an oldish chap with scary eyes and named after a newsagent chain, I've booked up to go to Harrogate in Spring 2007. I'm not a local party rep - I presume that's no problem. But what about accommodation? I have booked a room in the Holiday Inn on the conference site, but it's a tad expensive (though it is a twin so could probably share with someone if they could suffer me for a couple of nights). Where do any others of you stay when in Harrogate? The White Hart I like but it's already full that weekend it would seem, and so is the Crown, but there are plenty of other rooms still available nearby which are cheaper than the conference centre hotel and, being Harrogate, have probably got loads more character.

But does that matter? Is one likely to see one's hotel for more than a few minutes before falling asleep? Is the conference hotel a load of hassle (security and so on) to stay in? Or are there benefits in terms of bumping into important people on the way to the shared bathrooms...:) I thought the bar (downstairs by the entrance) I visited was a bit too much like an airport lounge on the day air traffic control go on strike.

My big four-oh is two days before conference so I might like to let my hair down a little more than usual, so I suppose I might want somewhere away from the conference centre for that.