As Shirley Ghostman might say, I feel your pain, I feel your shame, but you're not to blame.Despite the fact that San Diego Comic-Con isn't for several months, the always frustrating hotel reservation process began yesterday, which lit up Twitter with horror stories of reservations gone horribly awry and guests being given none of their twelve top choices--a new feature this year--and instead being placed miles away from the convention center.
(Personally, after several years of frustrating experiences that left me nearly ripping out my hair, I ended up landing my first choice this year and didn't have as much of a madness-inducing experience as several people I know.)
While it's not a television-related topic per se, I am wondering who at this point is still going to Comic-Con 2010, who has thrown in the towel, and who is still on the fence. Plus, if you are going, where did you end up in the hotel lottery? And did you find the reservation process this year improved, the same, or worse?
Discuss.
Comments
Not Exciting? The fact I put in a reservation request within the first 5 minutes yesterday and STILL haven't received a confirmation...so I don't know if I a) actually got anything or b) didn't get something and have to work on Plan B.
I'm guessing from your post that it is always this frustrating...but with the added pressure of going for work, I have to admit to being quite stressed out right now.
Is anyone else still waiting on their confirmation email?
Does it normally take this long?
This is the first year they've done it this way with 12 choices and confirmation emails so there's no real rule as to how long it will or should take. Sit tight and know that there are always rooms that open up closer to the convention itself!
Also, I'm close enough that if I can't get a place, I can drive back and forth. Tiring by Sunday, but not as bad as it could be.
It's going to be interesting to hit Comicon w/Twitter this year. I was always completely oblivious to the hotel woes. So much going on that I never knew!
Best of luck to everyone. Hope it sorts itself out!
Ah...totally missed it was the first year for the whole process (12 choices AND the emails, etc.). The confusion is making more sense now!
I'll sit tight here with my fingers crossed and come up with a Plan B just in case!
Thanks!
There are 2 major problems with this here:
-Travel Planners has never been able to handle the load and gotten progressively worse each year. This year is especially hilarious. Did they honestly think they were going to be able to shutter out all those reservations and people were going to be all happy dappy that they got a hotel practically in Arizona instead of...horrors...actually in the city? Why the hell is a place in New York doing West Coast Travel Planning anyway...you know a bunch punched the clock at 5 EST and left us with a bunch of WTF.
-Manchester Grand Hyatt - One of the biggest if not THE biggest hotels were all fine to reserve until, whoops....we forgot to tell you we are having another convention inside the hotel so no rooms for you guys. The Hyatt has always had a beef with Comic Con for some reason and this was a direct salvo that practically screamed "WE DON'T LIKE YOU AND WISH YOU WOULD GO AWAY." from them. There is no way around it simply because some jerk in power does not like the 'weirdos' and keeps forgetting that SDCC brings about 60 MILLION dollars to the city in a week.
The other thing with Twitter: I saw several people who sent in their requests later than I did, that have already heard back. Some got their first choice, but most people have not even gotten ANY of the top 12. To say this system is flawed is a HUGE understatement.
Remember earlier in the year, there was some talk of Comic Con leaving SD? Man, it would be nice to have it here in LA!!!
It used to be good...a lil crowded but overall fun and pleasant. then it became this unreal monster.
Yea...god you should have seen it like 10 years ago. Open walk ins, easy to get hotels, good times. Hell, one year in early 90's convention I not only met Ian McKellan but drank beers with John Carpenter and shot the shit with Tarentino....ON THE CON FLOOR. It was an actual comic convention with some nice lil extras now.
For the most part, a lot of old timers come down to see their friends nowadays. We visit the con, maybe see 1 or 2 of the presentations but avoid almost all the movie crap since it will show up on the net within minutes.
The funny thing is that no one has thought about actually recording the panels and presenting them directly on a hotel beam so that people don't try to stuff themselves into Hall H to get a look. Even better a small subscription fee and you could put it out nationally like a PPV.
We'll try again next year, but my soul still cries for what we'll be missing....
https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=1482101
I did, got my 3 days without a problem...but I foresee a ton of trouble with them requesting more info because they want to make sure the 'right people' get in. I suspect the usage of 'creative bullshit' may come into play.
Whatever the case, I am holding on to the reservation until I see what Travel Planners has cooked up for me. If I get set up in a hotel in North Dakota, I supposed I can always get through to it.
Besides, its not like they were declaring I had to attend the AHA conference, did they?
To Mysterious Guy... I did as a back up. Staying there instead of a SDCC room. The rates are a bit higher than I wanted to spend but considering my other options its good. Plus it's right next door to the convention center!
Jack
oh no word from the fools from travel planners yet 24 hour later
When I didn't receive an email confirmation after waiting for five hours, I booked on that link, but felt kinda wonky doing it. If I end up doing cosplay like I like to do sometimes, and I'm booked under the code, someone might raise an eyebrow.
Now we're finding out that the Manchester had a block of SDCC rooms that sold out... but I didn't see them on the online form at all, meaning they probably booked to exhibitors well in advance of the public bookings. Kind of a cop-out :/
Fortunately, after I poked the cci-info@comic-con.org email, Travel Planners got back to me within minutes confirming my room at the Bayfront. It's more expensive, but I don't have to worry about paranoia. Just one of the lucky few who got a decent hotel nearby (pick #4) instead of getting pick #12 or getting stuck at a hotel I didn't even choose (like many did).
Imagine my surprise when I got an email last night giving me a hotel that was not even on my list and NINE MILES away. By being one of the FIRST people to call in! I cannot fathom what possible reason would have 12 hotels' worth of room blocks would be sold out in the 50-odd seconds before I called. I would have rather been told rooms would be given out on a lottery basis. At least then I could have chalked up the actual results to bad luck.
Even more frustrating was how their customer service has been all but shut down. I can't speak to a human by calling your phone number; only leave a message or send an email into a black void.
Unbelievable.
Interesting I hope mine doesn't get cancelled. But the Manchester was one of hotels listed in the SDCC hotel PDF AND It's where DC has their headquarters? This hotel registration system has been a complete crap shoot. Last years system was slow but you knew if had a hotel or not.
In any case I'll download the AHA conference PDF and brush up on my hospital management jargon.
It's worth noting, however, that what might have been one person's first choice may not have even been on someone else's top 12. There's a strange and complicated rubric at play here because while we all had to pick 12 options--in order--the placement and selection of those differ wildly from person to person.
Yeah that's true. I guess my thought process is slightly clouded at the moment. But I was just guessing most people preferenced the closest ones to the con. I'm really happy for everyone that did get their choices but there are so many people that have been seemingly messed around by this that it seems a little silly.
-Manchester Grand Hyatt tweeted they had rooms open for the SDCC but were taken (omitting that they were taken before any attendees got them by ONE exhibitor). Then said they could reserve them out of the Travel Planners. I called them a minute after this and got this quote "Don't know what they are looking at but all rooms are sold out". Now tweeting they are all sold out.
-Now a 24-48 hours backlog for 'processing'.
-People are tweeting that some people won't give confirmation for a week.
-Still waiting for mine.
A few of my friends got responses within a few hours but my husband's didn't show up till 4:48 PDT
http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/business-reviews/hotels-reservations/quikbook-inc-in-new-york-ny-4138/
Quikbook, Inc is Travel Planners
While I would just wait for them if you have not received any response, I would suggest hitting their 'A' rating if you got screwed over
Registered 5 minutes apart for 2 different bookings for the same hotel rooms:
Original booking gets this
"Comic-Con Guest,
We apologize for the long delay getting back to you. We want to let you know that we do have an official Comic-Con hotel for you, but we’re still working out the details. We’re asking that you extend your patience until early next week, when we will email your confirmation to you.
Please note these important items:
-Once you receive your confirmation, you will need to provide the deposit no later than Thursday, March 25th.
-If you no longer need this room, please let us know via comicconres@tphousing.com."
Second one gets this:
"Thank you for submitting your request for Comic-Con 2010 hotel reservations.
While we’ve not been able to process your request yet, we will continue trying to place your request in one of the official hotels in the coming days. With this year’s new deposit requirement, plus the higher than usual number of duplicate requests submitted, we anticipate an increased amount of inventory coming back into our system, which will allow us to continue processing many of the outstanding requests.
-If we are able to get your request into one of the official hotels, we will notify you via the email address that you provided.
-We cannot guarantee that we will be able to fulfill your request.
-If you no longer want us to try to fulfill your request, please notify us by sending your name and email address to comicconres@tphousing.com.
We’re sorry that we’ve not been able to process your request yet. As many of you know from the past few years, the discounted rates offered in the Comic-Con hotel blocks means that they tend to sell out almost instantaneously. Yesterday was no exception. But we will continue working hard to get your request into one of the official hotels."
Ladies and Gentlemen, something is rotten in fuckin Denmark!
Comic Con is getting less and less fun and more and more irritating as years go by. Last year, I stood in line for hours and hardly got in to see any panels. We also had a ton of theft at our booth (crowds are too large to keep an eye on).
If they had more space, it would really help. Both for exhibitors and the crowds.
The hotel fiasco alone is aggravating and a pretty good reason to not go. Travel Planners have been doing this for years and some how they still weren't prepared for the massive onslaught of reservations. How can it be that they weren't prepared when they KNOW it's going to be crazy? Will it kill them to hire more CSR to process the reservations?
I was at work and could not get to submitting my reservation request until 9:45am. It took Travel Planners 48 hours to send me an email saying that they were not able to reserve a room for me but that they will still continue to try. I also called them to clarify and the reps were not able to give me any timelines and their excuse for the fiasco this year was "we did not expect thousands of people to submit requests at once at 9am". This is complete utter bullshit and Comic Con needs to find another vendor to handle hotel reservations because clearly, Travel Planners just can't do it right and have had years to perfect it but the experience only has been getting worse every year.
We're paying too much money for these hotel rooms and paying a lot to even attend the convention to have to deal with the extra aggravation of just getting a hotel room.
The stupid hotel people say they might get back to me by 26th March. But seriously, it's not like I can ring up from the UK and see how I'm doing. There's no hope.
I guess we may end up spending a FORTUNE to get a room. But I've already spent a lot just to get to the US.
I'm really sick of it all, and this will be my last Comic Con, because right now.. I don't want to go at all. This has ruined all my excitement.. and even once I get a room it'll be a sour taste in the mouth.
I was always a proponent of San Diego for Comic Con. But now I'm thinking they may as well move, because I won't play this lottery again, or watch as people get replies when I get nothing at all, no explanation email, no apology for the cluster****, and a system not open to scrutiny for fairness.
In any case, I submitted like 3 hours after the site opened and didn't get anything.
I'm actually a little disappointed being at the Hyatt now, but maybe with the AHA convention I'll get better service. I love the con atmosphere at the bar and being close to the convention center. If that part doesn't change, I'll be ok.
My guess is that the main after con scene moves to another hotel this year after how pissed everybody will be at what the hyatt did.
otoh, maybe this new con will tank and a bunch of rooms will open up for cheap in June. :)
I was trying to plan a family vacation around that whole week, but if I can not get a hotel on the buss route I may have to change my plans.
It is hard to believe that this process is so cumbersom this many years after Travel Planners has been doing it.
Why didn't TP do a beta test before hand. Clearly they knew the responds would be overwhelming. It happens every year.
IMO his makes the SDCC look very bad. they need to get others involved to do the job that TP obviously isn't do right.
And to think I thought I really had a chance at getting a hotel really close to SDCC...
"Will Al Gore Ruin Comic-Con?"
As thousands of hapless Comic-Con attendees discovered yesterday when they tried to register for their hotels, one of the biggest San Diego hotels, and one of the closest to the San Diego Convention Center, has pulled out of Comic-Con. The bayfront Manchester Grand Hyatt will not participate in this year's Nerd Prom. The reason? Well, it has something to do with environmental activist and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. And it could be the beginning of the end for Comic-Con as we know it. More info after the jump.
According to The Beat, the Hyatt will, instead of Comic-Con, host the 2010 AHA Health Forum Leadership Summit, the guest list for which includes Newt Gingrich, DeeDee Myers, Ken Burns and Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt, as well as Gore.
Needless to say, this has created much more than mere frustration that a popular, geographically desirable hotel had pulled out of the mix, it's also a harbinger of Much Worse Things to Come, when, in July, gridlock traffic will flood the streets of San Diego's Gaslamp District, along with dramatically increased crowds (as all of this year's sure-to-be-record-high number of Comic-Con attendees combines with the full occupancy of the Grand Hyatt, with its AHA Leadership people).
For years, people have complained that Comic-Con has outgrown San Diego, as the convention that began in a nearby hotel's basement swelled to take over every room and hall of the convention center. Now, with increased overcrowding making the situation significantly worse, Comic-Con could be forced to abandon San Diego, and head north for Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
As longtime attendees of Comic-Con, some of us will be disappointed to see Comic-Con leave the still quaint Gaslamp District, with its almost New Orleans French Quarter feel. But some of us are hoping for the excitement of Vegas to join with that of Nerd Prom. The saga continues...
LINK:
http://www.fearnet.com/news/b18526_will_al_gore_ruin_comic_con.html