Very important notice for all hotel guests. Please read!
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One of the primary complaints we hear every year is, "I requested XXXX from the hotel and did not get it." This is extremely important: Your room is guaranteed, but the TYPE OF ROOM (double or king) is not guaranteed until you actually show up at the check-in desk. DO NOT count on having a double room just because you have four people on the reservation! If you request a cot or a mini-fridge or an extra pillow, it MAY NOT be available. If you request a room on a low floor or a high floor or a fursuit floor or the mysterious floor between 6 and 7, you MAY NOT be able to be located there. Anthrocon members (and all travellers for that matter) must understand that the hotel cannot fulfill every request; they work very hard to accommodate their guests' wishes, but sometimes it simply is not possible. This is a reality not just at the Westin or the Omni, but at every hotel in the world. The reason that every request cannot be accommodated is the same reason that airlines overbook flights: they never know if someone is simply not going to show up or change their minds at the last minute. Rather than have an airplane take off with ten reserved but empty seats while ten unhappy people wonder why they couldn't be in them, the airline will make an educated guess based on the average number of cancellations on a given flight and will overbook the flight by that number of seats. Sometimes it doesn't work, but it works often enough to make the practice viable. Hotels face the exact same problem. When you reserve a room, the room is guaranteed, so you do not need to worry about where you will stay. The type of room and the optional furnishings, though, are NOT guaranteed. They only have so many double-bed rooms; they will make a guess that a certain number of people will fail to show up or will change their minds at the last minute and will overbook the number of doubles by a few before they stop taking requests for them. At check-in, though, if someone shows up and says "I reserved a king and would prefer a double," they cannot afford to wait until you arrive to give you the last double room, because how do they know you are going to show up? And for that matter, how do they know you won't decide on a different room type when you arrive? When faced with that conundrum, they are going to accommodate the person who is standing in front of them ready to check in. Hotels have the very same problem with extras like cots and refrigerators and additional pillows and such, which they "overbook" by a small percentage. The hotel does not have a giant warehouse full of cots; they only have about twenty-five, and at a furry convention, dozens of people will be requesting a cot. The hotel will note your request and will do its best to hang onto one for you, but for the same reasons as stated above, they have little choice but to give out the cots to the people who are standing in front of them asking for them. The best advice we can give to our attendees is, "Hope for the best; plan for the worst." If you are going to need an extra pillow, bring an extra pillow. If you have four people in the room, bring along a pair of air mattresses just in case, or be ready to put a bundling-board between you on the bed. The Westin will -- and you have my personal guarantee of this -- do everything in its power to try to give everyone what they want. You must, however, recognize that their power is limited, and that despite their best efforts, you may have to settle for the next best thing. |
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And another one that I hear every year:
"I asked for a double but they gave me a king. A friend who checked in the next day was given a double, though!"
Remember, there are other people in the hotel who do not have the good fortune to be furries. When you check in on Thursday, all of the double rooms may be taken; when your friend checks in on Friday, someone may recently have checked out of a double and freed it up, which is why your friend got it. People are also frequently shuffling rooms for an endless variety of reasons (This room is too cold! This room is too hot! This room is too high! This room is too low! This room has ugly carpeting! This room smells like chocolate -- ooo, wait, I'll keep it!)
The bottom line is that the poor folks at the front desk never know from one minute to the next what is going to be available when they tap-tap-tap on their computer. The best you can do (and the best they can do for you) is to check back periodically with the front desk to see if the double room (or pillow, or cot, or refrigerator, or dancing girls or robotic trouser-press) that you requested but did not receive has come available.
And, again, have a contingency plan! If you bring along a folded-up air mattress and it sits in your suitcase the entire time, all it has cost you is an extra 0.34 cubic feet of space and 3-4 pounds in your luggage.
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permalinkLocation: Philadelphia area, PA
Wise words.
If you have a medical reason why you *need* this, that, or the other--if, for instance, you're on a medication that has to be kept refrigerated--it never hurts to mention that. Plan for the hotel to be unable to help you, sure; better not to get completely stuck in an unsafe situation. But mention the concern when you reserve, if you can, and when you check in, and ask *super nicely* if there's anything they can do to help you. They may not have that mini fridge you wanted, but who knows if they might have another idea--or at least know where you can buy a cheap cooler and some ice packs.
And please don't mix up "my health is in jeopardy if i don't have this available to me" with "it's a royal pain in the butt if i don't have this available to me". We all have our fair share of butt pains, after all. ;=8)
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permalinkLocation: Honey Creek, Iowa
Not to sound like a total jerk here (something I am very good at by the way), but if I make a reservation, and get the reservation for a double for 4 people, is there any other industry in the the world that would tell you "tough luck, you take what we got" and expect you to just take it?
To make matters worse, you gotta pay in advance, and then they don't deliver?
Personally, I have never gotten downgraded at a convention, but the idea that I might, means I can only plan on 2 people in my room, even if I pay in advance for 4.
It seems if I am paying in advance, non-refundable, they should damn well give me what I paid for, or get a computer and system that actually works.
Jeefers - Rampaging Raccoon
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permalinkBlog: [Link]
Though they try not to put it in quite that way, yes.
1) The airline industry. I have flown dozens of times, but twice in the last twenty-five years I have been told, "sorry, even though you have a ticket, this flight is full. You'll have to take the next one."
2) The automobile rental industry. I don't rent cars that often, but I did once arrive to be told, "We have no cars available at all. We'll have to refer you to..."
3) The live-entertainment industry. "Due to an unforeseen circumstance, Mr. Blanc is unable to perform this evening. Instead, the role of Fearless Freep will be played by Mr. Takamoto."
4) Our elected officials. "When I promised to put a halt to oil drilling within the confines of nursing homes, my intention was to say that we were going to be doing it quite a lot."
As I said, this is not something the Westin invented just to annoy you. This is a situation that the entire hotel industry has struggled with since hotels were invented. Thus far this is the best solution they could come up with; if you have a better one, you can be a rich man if you can make it work!
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permalinkLocation: NJ
What's wrong with drilling for oil near nursing homes? The spills will lubricate things nicely and help all the seniors do "The Electric Slide" and play shuffleboard! XD
Plus, I have a controlling stake in nursing home oil rigs. >:}
*hands Kage a HUGE check* This oughta change your mind. Ooooor... we could always drill in Alaska instead. Take your pick! We win either way! MUWAH HA HA! >:D
And as far as rooms go, that's why I get there Wednesday. I take no chances.
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my friend and I already registered by November, that means we still have no way to know if we will get what we asked? ( double beds )? o_O
thats kinda.. scary :/
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permalinkBlog: [Link]
It is not a very big risk, not enough to worry overly about, but it is still a risk that you take any time you reserve a hotel room, particularly in a hotel that is going to be full on the night you are staying. It is probably no more risky than arriving for an airline flight only to hear the dreaded "we're overbooked" announcement and having to give up your seat. It doesn't happen often, but you always need to be prepared for the possibility that it can.
In general, the earlier you arrive, the better your chances of not having this sort of situation occur. It's most likely to happen to folks who arrive very late on Thursday, or after Friday afternoon.
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gods Kage, dont say that word again..
my flight from PITT after AC2007 to my home in Mexico was OVERBOOKED, and the next plane had engine failure, they gave me a 1st class int he last flight and had to stay at houston's airport's hotel for one night
*edit*
and I think I might be more safe, since Im gonna get my ass to the Westin 2 days prior to AC...
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permalinkBack in 2006, I wanted to be on the mysterious floor between 12 and 14. Oddly, my math teacher swears there is supposed to be an integer between those two numbers, however the hotel staff seemed to never hear of it, nor did the elevators even stop there. It was like...the twilight zone...
...this year I'm waiting for the fursuit floor requests to become available
I got some suiters this year again.
-If someone walks up to you and says they are a pathological liar, would you believe them?
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permalinkWebsite: [Link]
floor 13 is actually a portal to a demon fortress, remember ghost busters?
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permalinkLocation: NJ
I've actually heard that some old buildings collapsed because they didn't want to put in a 13th floor and just had a sort of little space in between 12 and 14. But, because the stress points were amplified at that space, the greatest weakness to the building was there!
Bah, stupid people and their stupid superstitions. it's like black cats. We have a black catin the family, and we're just as badly off now as we always have been. ;P
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I actually giggled when I Found there wasnt 13th floor in pitt, nor in philly.
why not just put all the machines and maintenance in the 13th?
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permalinkLocation: DelMarVa
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You know how folkds in theatre will say "good luck" instead of "break a leg" because its bad luck? And they're super super supersticious? Apparently its bad luck for a hotel to have a 13th floor, labelled as such. In FACT the older hotels that DID have 13th floors for guests to stay in plastered over them and made them inaccessable!!! Crazy stuff. There was a movie about an evil 13th floor where people got murdered and you had to like.. turn the 12th floor button sideways and press it to get there. It was weird.
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what movie was it?
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permalinkIt's NOT a demon fortress, it's my humble accommodations when "conquering abroad"
>.>
-If someone walks up to you and says they are a pathological liar, would you believe them?
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permalinkLocation: Knoxville TN
Happy B-DAY (i havent gone to the con but have one none the less)
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permalinkLocation: Lexington, Ky.
Uhm, how odd... Why don't they, you know, make room X unavailable if someone reserves it? If they have 100 double rooms, and I make a reservation for one, they should knock it down to having only 99 double rooms. If they don't have a double room to offer, they shouldn't let me reserve it. I understand that things happen, but for this to be enough of an issue to bring up here, that is a bit odd. If they don't have a double room for four people available if I reserved one, will they be providing my air mattress and extra pillows and blankets? I mean, if I reserve a double, have three people staying with me, the hotel sells out, we all get there, and suddenly we can't have the double room we reserved, what then? "Tough luck" won't sit too well with me, because suddenly I have people with nowhere to sleep or put their things.
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I've already explained why it is done, and every hotel does it this way. No, they will not provide the extras for you. We made this posting so that all of our attendees are aware that there is a possibility -- a slim possibility, but a finite one -- that the type of room they requested will not be available.
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permalink...which has ALWAYS been true whenever you reserved a room at a hotel, whether or not
someone announced it to you when you made the reservation.
(I felt that bore repeating.)
This isn't a change in policy, this is just a reminder of a longstanding policy of the
industry.
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permalinkLocation: Lexington, Ky.
Yes, but that doesn't make it any less sucky. I am well aware that you are talking about the industry as a whole, and I understand that it happens everywhere, but that doesn't make it acceptable. If I reserve a room, a specific room, and they say "Your room will be held until xx:xx on this day' then they should keep it reserved until that time. Once that time passes, do whatever. If all you have to do is get there before the person who reserved a room and decide "Hey, I want a double room now" and then get the room you want, what exactly is the point of reserving a room in the first place? I could just wait until the last minute, reserve a suite, get there as early as possible and decide I want a double instead. It makes no sense. And on that note, Kagé mentioned bringing air mattresses with you. OK, so if I plan on going somewhere, I need to buy air mattresses and take up the space in my car that I need for my luggage for something that may or may not happen.
I am not bashing the Westin, nor am I trying to be a prick, but the whole "Well, we have your business, who cares" attitude of the industry irks me. There are other ways to go about this where people can get the rooms they reserved without issue. And if there is an issue and someone who reserves a specific room doesn't get it, it is the hotel's fault, not the guest's, so the hotel needs to find a way to fix it. Have -them- keep a supply of air mattresses for when things like that happen. Why should we, the guests that are paying for a certain room, have to suffer because the hotel overbooked or some guy decided they wanted to change rooms at the last second.
And so I don't sound like I am picking on hotels, the same goes for airlines or any other industry that uses guesses instead of actual numbers to guarantee their customers something.
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Please detail your plan in a letter addressed to:
Westin Convention Center Hotel
1000 Penn Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Attn: General Manager
They will be glad to implement your plan if it is at all feasible.
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permalinkLocation: Lexington, Ky.
I somehow doubt that they will even attempt to consider it. I may be wrong, but usually a random letter from someone complaining about something that never happened to them isn't going to do much of anything (people that have had it happen to them can't even get hotels to listen).
All I ask of all hotels (not just the Westin) is to help their customers when this happens. It would be great if they would stop guessing how many cancellations they will get so they won't overbook, but I guarantee you that won't happen. So the least they can do is keep a full supply of cots or air mattresses on hand for the people that suddenly have nowhere to sleep. It is the hotels fault, so the hotel should be the one to fix the problem.
By the way, my brother was watching me as I was typing my last reply, and he said that the same thing happened to him when he went to Wizard World in Chicago. He had four people, all in one car with their luggage (so no room for air mattresses) and was told when he got there that the double room he booked many months in advanced wasn't available anymore and he would have to take a king room. He asked for a cot, and they said they were out and refused to give him any sort of help. It wasn't until he complained (over and over again) to the manager that they finally found him a cot.
This is what I am talking about. Why did he have to go through all of the trouble of complaining, getting a manager, and getting no help until he did, that they decided to give him a cot when they weren't out of them to begin with? And if they were out of cots, why couldn't they give him a discount on his room so he could go buy an air mattress. That would have been better than just saying "Oh well" and that being the end of it.
Again I say, I am not trying to whine and say the Westin is a bad place, I am just complaining that crap like this is allowed to go on in the hotel industry.
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permalinkWhen someone takes the effort to mail a physical letter, companies take it
seriously. They usually figure a number of people agree, but not enough to bother
mailing them-they'll just quietly take their business elsewhere.
If you have a viable idea, they will consider it. Sorry we can't grant a guarantee
they will move to implement any idea you think is perfect or brilliant, but if we
had THAT kind of pull, we'd own the DLCC. (And as some schmuck who just goes to the
convention, I certainly have no more pull than you do.)
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permalinkI work in the hotel industry and I've been getting hotel rooms for conventions pretty steadily since 1980.
Nearly 300 conventions later I can honestly say every time I've made a hotel reservation well in advance of the convention, arrived at the time I told the hotel I would arrive, I have never not gotten the room I requested. Now I've missed out on getting the room I would like by waiting too long to make my reservations.
Hotels to endevour to hold the style of room you've asked for when they block out reservations. But it is in a first come first serve basis, so the earlier you get your reservations in, the better.
So, calling at least once in the interim to confirm your reservation and request is a very good thing to do. You can also ask when will the actually room assignments be made (each hotel procedures for doing this) and call just after that to confirm your room.
Now, some hotels use the older method of not assigning you a room till you walk in. When them, it pays to arrive just as early as you can.
You can "check in" before check in time, when will get you assigned your room, but you just might not be able to get into till later.
Due diligence and planning on your part can make you hotel reservation experience excellent for you.
-----------------------------------------------
David M Stein, DI
"Not Unlike the Toaster, I Control the Darkness"
-- Abby Normal, "You Suck"
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permalinkLocation: Honey Creek, Iowa
With a 100% fill rate and a long waiting list to get doubles....why are they overbooking doubles in the first place? Maybe we should talk to the hotel about a special arrangement on the doubles to prevent people getting inconvenienced.
If thats possible?
Jeefers
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permalinkBlog: [Link]
We have a 100% fill rate, but a nearly constant rate of cancellations throughout the year. We are hoping that with the deposit being due in April that things will stabilize and will allow us (and the hotel) to get a better handle on exactly what the demand is. As it is right now, nobody knows exactly what the demand is going to be five minutes from now.
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permalinkLocation: Honey Creek, Iowa
Thats the problem with being so darn popular that people have to reserve so far in advance.
*Sigh*
Jeef - trying to develop a solution using furry math...
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permalinkLocation: Roseville, CA, USA
I tried this the first year at the Westin; I had a request for a double, on the lowest floor possible, fearing the untried elevators. This was, admittedly, a "special request", and one made when I arrived at 9:30 in the morning on Thursday; Because of the early arrival, a double was _almost_ assured, but that plus a low floor - I would have to wait.
And this is quite EASY, if you ask the Bell Captain to take and store your baggage, until you can actually receive the room. This is an opportunity to tip, by the way; I left a dollar per item (two), plus a dollar. And perhaps this was sufficient. But I came back to the same desk receptionist 4 times throughout the morning, interspersed with exploratory walks through town - I saw the multitude of places to eat, walked across a John Roebling link suspension bridge, saw the Three Rivers Folk Art Festival, spent a couple hours in quiet contemplation of the river from that wharf under the convention center - before the receptionist was able to grant my wish. I had the bell staff bring my luggage up to the room, and gave out a Fin at this point, and wrote a letter on the hotel stationary to the management, thanking specifically the receptionist who handled my request.
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Bear in mind that 90% of the people who check in ask for a double on a low floor when they arrive.
The ideal hotel for us would be one that had only one floor and all doubles.
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permalinkLocation: Hainesville, IL
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Didn't Duckon try that about ten years ago with the (now-leveled) Ramada Plaza O'Hare? Walking from the lobby to my room on the first floor took a solid ten minutes!
---
Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley and Con Store Manager
For fastest replies to questions about Artists Alley, e-mail me at
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Hrm! I guess it isn't so ideal, after all!
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permalinkLocation: Roseville, CA, USA
Actually - what I was trying to do was to augment Skippy DI's point; that if one was checking in early, and was willing to wait rather than just grumpily accepting what was available right at the moment, that one had a very good chance of getting what one wished. And to aid in the waiting, there is a cheap service available at the hotel - namely, the bell staff - who can store your luggage while you pursue other pastimes, and who will bring your luggage up to your room when it is finally ready.
I wasn't trying to complain, but wished to show that a flexible and friendly attitude gave a friendly staffer the latitude (and attitude) to fulfill my request.
I guess that I was just not very clear on that point.
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permalinkI've attended minitruckin' conventions in Mechanicsville, PA the past few years and always managed to get the room I requested. As it gets closer to the con, I'm sure a few rooms will open up to ensure you'll get close to what you requested. While I'm not as huge traveler and hotel user as others are, like Skippy, and I can't vouch that you will or won't, it's still early in the game and you just might get lucky when the con rolls around. I think the earlier you show up, the better your chances.
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permalinkLocation: NewCastle Delaware
Hee. I almost always get the room I want..cuz I request the top floor everytime. Almost no one wants the top floor, so I generally get what I want
SunShadow
Mrow-a-purr
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