Hotel congestion in Tonsberg during Skup – participants are required to register to live in the Sandefjord

The room is cramped when more than 700 journalists gather in Tonsberg.

“We will be more involved than ever. This means that we must use all the hotels in Tonsberg. The interest in SKUP was huge this year, and it was not possible to find a hotel room in the city for several weeks”, began the general manager John Bones I’m creating an email sent to attendees this week.

Since the conference was fully booked, a refugee crisis had arisen in Europe, and Skup’s president wrote that one of the hotels Skup had rooms in had entered into an agreement with the UDI to house refugees.

“SKUP will, of course, contribute everything we can to help the Ukrainians escape. These people need the rooms and the security they can have. This means we are currently short of 36 hotel rooms in Tonsberg,” writes Bones, asking if the 36 participants will sign up for a hotel stay. In the neighboring town of Sandefjord 25 minutes away, with access to a shuttle bus throughout the weekend.

Alternatively, registered participants who book single rooms can consider whether they have the opportunity to share a double room, Bones writes.

Update: On Thursday afternoon, Bones announced that eight rooms in Tonsberg had been liberated by 16 people moving together in a double room.

Skup Conference begins Friday, April 1st.