Room stuffing

[Touya no Miko]

 Have you done it before? Is it really all right to sneak in extra roommates into your hotel room, despite the reserve being limited to a party of four? Do you feel like it's cheating the hotel staff? Will it cause a disturbance? Will the hotel not allow it? Or will they just not care, since you're paying for it anyway?

EDIT: And no, I'm not going to be stuffing my own room (better safe than sorry). However, one of my buddiess might bring another person, but that's because her friend has some handicaps which makes it hard to move around by herself. Sorry about that misunderstanding.

[heeroyuy135]

Don't do it.

[Charis]

The important thing to keep in mind is that, strictly speaking, extra people in a room does break fire codes, so the hotel has grounds to kick you out if they suspect you've got extras in there.  It depends a lot on hotel, but most seem to turn a blind eye as long as the occupants are reasonably well-behaved.  The hotels aren't stupid; they have to know that room stuffing goes on.

I personally prefer not to room-stuff.  One extra person at most for a four-person room doesn't put too much of a strain on the resources, and I like being able to have maid service come in and pick up, change towels, etc. -- which becomes infinitely harder when you have to hide several extra people's stuff.  Last-minute craziness is an exception, but even there I'm leery of too many extra folks.  It all comes down to personal opinion, and what you're inclined to risk.

(Pet peeve: "But we have to stuff the room or we can't afford the con!"  Cons are a luxury, not a right. /snark)

[Touya no Miko]

(Pet peeve: "But we have to stuff the room or we can't afford the con!"  Cons are a luxury, not a right. /snark)

Luckily, the three day stay at the Hilton is easily affordable even if its just 3 or four of my friends. Having two extra people wouldn't be too bad, would it?

[Pimpstress Rei]

Please keep in mind that we negotiate special deals with the hotels for our attendees to benefit you guys. It's not very nice to post a thread like this where the hotel representatives can see them. We want everyone to get along and play nice, afterall.

Official answer: do not stuff your rooms because not only will this annoy the hotels, you're also breaking fire codes as mentioned before.

[BrightHeart76]

I believe the legal term is "Defrauding an Inn Keeper".  I dont' know about California, but in Nevada It's a misdimeaner if your bill is less than a specific ammount, and a felony if it's more.  You can get jail time.  They usually use this law for people who try to skip their bill (i.e. Dine and Dash) but it can be used for stuffing the room too.  I'm not a lawyer, but I have worked for several hotels / motels in the past and I've seen the law applied.

Most places won't push it that far.  However, it is important to know that by lying to the hotel about how many people are in your room you are commiting a crime. 

In the long run it's just not worth it.  At least in my opinion.

[Glitch]

It starts to become overcrowded when having more than four people in a hotel room.(this is something I always address roommates every year) Use your money wisely because the hotel bill will always take top priority over spending for the dealer's room. It's not the end of the world if you can't buy that figurine.(I run into so many of these people) And of course you can earn money back from your badge by volunteering if you really need the cash.
Then there are people who want you to help them go to fanime at all cost. Well these friends should have thought ahead of time instead waiting till the last minute in planning fanime.

[BenihimeSama]

Honestly, don't do it. I mean when it comes to Fanime, there are so many people that I don't think there's really anything the hotel can do about it, so long as you guys don't do anything reckless or stupid. But when you take in everyone' luggage and stuff they buy from the convention, it's better off to try and keep it to four. If you get that one person tho who is only staying a day or two, then share if you need to. I know that the economy is really tight right now, but there are just somethings you don't compromise on and that's room space.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

I have done it before, though in my case it was not with a Hotel associated with the Con. Technically speaking you should not be doing it. There is little harm in doing so (but there is harm), but the bottom line is that if you are not supposed to have a certain amount of people in a room, then your not. You are cheating the hotel out of some money, but I can't say you are actually cheating the hotel staff.
It can cause a disturbance if there is a large enough group. But then again a group of 3-4 can cause just a large disturbance if they are loud and acting like douches. Over all most hotels won't care that you do it though unless the manager is very strict, or you are basically telling the world you have to many people (ie Coming in with a group of 7 people and requesting 7 keys.)

[BonjourHoney]

Hmm, on this thread then, is having three to four people in a king-bedded room (the ones at the Fairmont were the only ones left now, haha, but I assume they are intended for one to two people) counting as 'stuffing' or is that okay in terms of legality/fire safety/etc.?

[FanFicGuru]

Hmm, on this thread then, is having three to four people in a king-bedded room (the ones at the Fairmont were the only ones left now, haha, but I assume they are intended for one to two people) counting as 'stuffing' or is that okay in terms of legality/fire safety/etc.?

Thing is, most King rooms and double-double rooms have exactly the same amount of square footage. I mean, if you really want a king bed but you have 4 people staying most hotels won't mind that, they figure it's your stay and if everyone's gonna spoon on the bed or if 3 people are on the floor it's your call. So in short, no, 4 people in a king room isn't "stuffing".

It's when you have 8-10 people in the same sized room, with all their swag, and someone sleeping in the tub, and another in the closet, etc, that things get weird, and dangerous. I would love to say "To each their own..." on this one, but it gives the convention a bad name, as well as the rash of hotel guests that stay that weekend, which makes them less likely to want to work with us. lol.

[BonjourHoney]

Someone sleeping in the tub...huh, that just made me think how startling it would be to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, haha.

Anyhow, mkay. Thanks for answering my question. x) Just wanted to make sure.

[Foxberry]

Really, don't do it. Not only for the "innkeeper" but also for the thought of those rooming. Originally on one of my stays at a friend's room, we ended up with 9 people when we only were supposed to have 4-5 people, which was a double room. Somehow a bunch of people ended up in our room and I HATED it. I missed parts of the convention because everyone wanted to hog the shower for hours on end or used the rest room when I needed to get ready, when most people weren't cosplaying. It overall, just was a mess. It causes problems. So don't room stuff.

[Moonblossom]

Safety really is the #1 factor here. If you've got seven or eight people in a room intended for two or four, you are going to be tripping over things, knocking things over, etc. It may not seem like a huge issue for normal coingoings, but imagine there's a fire at four AM.

The people in the bed will stumble out, trip over people on the floors, trip over someone sleeping in the hall.. God forbid you put an air mattress anywhere near the hallway to the door. It's just dangerous.

And it does put undue strain on housekeeping, whether you make a huge mess or not. They are allotted a certain amount of time per room, based on the estimated number of occupants. Double the people = double the towels, double cups and tissues and toilet paper used, double the garbage produced, etc. It may not seem like a huge deal, but it does add up.

[Dany]

I would prefer not to stuff. I am fine with one or two extra people depending on the room size, but if someone has to sleep in a bathtub that's too many.

Additional thoughts:

Safety: This is my biggest concern. Fire codes puts a lot of responsibility on the hotel to make sure they are not overpopulated. If the room can handle an extra person without a safety risk, then I am more likely to consider it. But people better be able to get to the door safely.
Housekeeping: I am sure housekeeping gets annoyed when the room is a complete sty, no matter the occupancy.  I've found that doing a little bit of basic stuff yourself like pre-piling all the dirty towels and tidying up the garbage (and leaving a goodly tip for the housekeeping) has kept me in good graces in the past.
Disturbance: This depends on the people. Five quiet people will not be noticed next to two noisy ones.

I think that also costumers versus non-costumers is also a factor.  It's problematic enough when you have non-costumed folks, but it becomes especially bad when you have costumers rooming together in droves. There's not enough closet space. Only a couple of people can do makeup at the same time because of the size of the mirror. Somebody spills their makeup all over the carpet.  You trip over the giant foam Cloud sword when you have to pee, and wigs on foam heads look like people staring at you from the dark...

Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.  :-\

Estimate for every one costumer they will carry about one additional person worth of costumes/props/etc. with them, unless what they do is very simplistic.

[Jerry]

Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.  :-\

Ghostbusters Quote for the win. :D

[N.E.R.V.agent220]

For crimeny sake 7-10 people, bathtub as a bed, hogging the shower come on folks you don't want to end up like this.

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/data/925/ThreesCjacktripper1.jpg

Be Smart Don't Stuff.

[michiko nakano]

yes, it does make the hotels think that fanime is a liability not an asset.  so in the future, if we become notorious for cheating them, they might not be so generous in their fanime housing discounts. 

[ollieMaxwell]

For the 2 years I hotel'd at Fanime I did stay in hotel rooms with more people than bed space. Once at the Fairmont which actually let us have 8 people in our room when we asked and the Crowne Plaza where there were 7 people in a room. From my experience I guess it just depends on the hotel.

[PrincessPolka]

I know this happens with a lot of people, because rooms for fanime sell out so fast! One year we had 6 people stay in a room, and it wasn't too bad. But several of my friends werent even in the room at night, and they napped in the morning, so we kind of had rotating sleeping schedules!