Westin is now full
The Westin Hotel is now full. We may be able to squeeze a few more rooms out, but that will not be able to be settled until after everyone is back from the New Year holiday. There are still plenty of rooms available at the Doubletree.
A manual one per http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/StarGroupsWeb/booking/checkAvailability.go
please contact Terri Eberle at 412.281.3700 ext 7143 [] if you would like to be added to the Westin Waitlist.
Wild speculation:
Holding out for a spot from a waiting list is risky, since with the nonrefundable deposit policy in effect, one is basing their chances of getting a room on someone being forced to cancel, thus losing their deposit. Therefore if one knows at this point that they can attend, the only practical means of securing accomodations at this point is to commit to booking in the Doubletree, since the remaining choices are:
1: Put yourself on the waiting list and book a room at the Doubletree, knowing that you'll lose a deposit there should a spot at the Westin open up.
2: Put yourself on a Westin waiting list and risk not having accomodations when AC rolls around.
Correct?
---PCJ
Oh, and will there be a "percent full" report for the Doubletree now that the Westin is full?
No, that's not correct. The Doubletree still has a large number of rooms, and we have a bit of wiggle room to add more if we need to. If the Doubletree sells out, we will select another hotel nearby and coerceconvince them to give us a nice discount on a room block. Everyone will have a room an opportunity to get a room within a few blocks of the Convention Center.
Well, yes I would imagine that the Doubletree has plenty of rooms now. Last year I didn't get my reservation in at the Westin before it initially filled up. I put my name on the waiting list and made a reservation at the Omni. Prior to the date when the first day's stay was charged, a slot opened up and I got a room in the primary hotel, allowing me to cancel in the overflow. This year, I failed to monitor the forum (thinking the new policy would slow the fill rate significantly) and only looked at this forum a few days after the Westin filled up--right about the time it filled up last year 
.
With the nonrefundable-first-day-charged-upon-reservation policy in effect, the odds of a waiting list (assuming there will be one) being of any benefit to a significant percentage of those who would use it is greatly reduced. So, the only workable way to hold out for a room in the primary hotel is to risk losing a first day's room charge at the Doubletree should a spot open in the Westin. That is the "risky" part I was alluding to.
What I suggested was that for those waiting to see how the situation at the primary hotel pans out, that the percentage of the Doubletree room block that is occupied is posted perodically so that fence-sitters don't wind up in a second overflow due to being preoccupied with a Westin waiting list (again, assuming one is established--at this point I don't actually know if one will be)
---PCJ
FurAffinity stuff -- VCL Stuff
Mike
Cool. Did you recieve my message kage?
Mike