Attendee housing to open Nov. 10

Started by ewu, November 02, 2014, 08:23:06 PM

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Xanreo

After 3 hours, I finally checked out and got both my rooms but when I logged into the Fanime registration site, my rooms disappeared.
I have the hotel summary and confirmation too but my reservations just aren't listed under my profile anymore.

Anyone else get anything like this?
I just hope I didn't get kicked after I got confirmed.

Fanime 2017
Eromanga-Sensei | Digimon World: Next Order

Admiral Donuts

Quote from: Xanreo on November 10, 2014, 04:40:44 PM
After 3 hours, I finally checked out and got both my rooms but when I logged into the Fanime registration site, my rooms disappeared.
I have the hotel summary and confirmation too but my reservations just aren't listed under my profile anymore.

Anyone else get anything like this?
I just hope I didn't get kicked after I got confirmed.

If you got a confirmation e-mail, you should be good.

If you didn't, I'd give housing a call.

Vasyenka

Quote from: Vasyenka on November 10, 2014, 04:13:02 PM
Quick question! The last part of the hotel registration is stating that "Your credit card will be charged immediately upon clicking 'Accept Conditions and Submit Payment'". Does this mean your card gets charged full amount? I can't seem to reserve a hotel any other way, and I'm hesitant to click on this if I'm going to be charged the full amount right away. This is the first I've seen this, so may I please have verification?
While I'm a little disappointed that I haven't received a response to this and thus lost my reservation, my girlfriend was able to get through calling CMR and winded up with a confirmed reservation for our group without getting this supposed 'payment submission'. I understood that we didn't need a paid membership with our hotel reservation, thus my confusion on the matter.

Whichever. Good luck to everyone else!
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reyn

Finally managed to book a room for all con days at one of the airport hotels. I'm a bit disappointed because I had managed to get through and almost booked the Westin until the site timed out when trying to process my credit card info...and continued to time out on every attempt to check out thereafter until I lost the hold on the reservation and had to start from scratch.

A new system should definitely be put in place for hotel reservations. Maybe give first wave priority to those who purchased their badge at last year's con. Second wave to those who already purchased for early reg. And then third wave open to anyone. Just something to try and stem the complete four hour overload.

Admiral Donuts

Quote from: Vasyenka on November 10, 2014, 05:55:53 PM
Quote from: Vasyenka on November 10, 2014, 04:13:02 PM
Quick question! The last part of the hotel registration is stating that "Your credit card will be charged immediately upon clicking 'Accept Conditions and Submit Payment'". Does this mean your card gets charged full amount? I can't seem to reserve a hotel any other way, and I'm hesitant to click on this if I'm going to be charged the full amount right away. This is the first I've seen this, so may I please have verification?
While I'm a little disappointed that I haven't received a response to this and thus lost my reservation, my girlfriend was able to get through calling CMR and winded up with a confirmed reservation for our group without getting this supposed 'payment submission'. I understood that we didn't need a paid membership with our hotel reservation, thus my confusion on the matter.

Whichever. Good luck to everyone else!


I just tried registering online to get to the screen you're stuck on... same problem. Doesn't want to let you pay for JUST a hotel it looks like.


DangerHeart

Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 10, 2014, 06:38:10 PM
Quote from: Vasyenka on November 10, 2014, 05:55:53 PM
Quote from: Vasyenka on November 10, 2014, 04:13:02 PM
Quick question! The last part of the hotel registration is stating that "Your credit card will be charged immediately upon clicking 'Accept Conditions and Submit Payment'". Does this mean your card gets charged full amount? I can't seem to reserve a hotel any other way, and I'm hesitant to click on this if I'm going to be charged the full amount right away. This is the first I've seen this, so may I please have verification?
While I'm a little disappointed that I haven't received a response to this and thus lost my reservation, my girlfriend was able to get through calling CMR and winded up with a confirmed reservation for our group without getting this supposed 'payment submission'. I understood that we didn't need a paid membership with our hotel reservation, thus my confusion on the matter.

Whichever. Good luck to everyone else!


I just tried registering online to get to the screen you're stuck on... same problem. Doesn't want to let you pay for JUST a hotel it looks like.

Seems like a problem a lot of people had. I guess others who didn't have any membership information added didn't have to worry, but I'd already added my groups info since every where I looked said I didn't need to buy a badge before registering the hotel. I wish I'd known that any memberships on the account at the time of booking would be charged to the credit card...yeah, that would've been really handy to know ahead of time.

Admiral Donuts

Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 06:54:50 PM
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 10, 2014, 06:38:10 PM
I just tried registering online to get to the screen you're stuck on... same problem. Doesn't want to let you pay for JUST a hotel it looks like.
Seems like a problem a lot of people had. I guess others who didn't have any membership information added didn't have to worry, but I'd already added my groups info since every where I looked said I didn't need to buy a badge before registering the hotel. I wish I'd known that any memberships on the account at the time of booking would be charged to the credit card...yeah, that would've been really handy to know ahead of time.

I don't think you can get to the hotel reservation page without entering membership information. so far the only people I know who registered online successfully had already pre-registered.

DangerHeart

Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 10, 2014, 07:03:56 PM
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 06:54:50 PM
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 10, 2014, 06:38:10 PM
I just tried registering online to get to the screen you're stuck on... same problem. Doesn't want to let you pay for JUST a hotel it looks like.
Seems like a problem a lot of people had. I guess others who didn't have any membership information added didn't have to worry, but I'd already added my groups info since every where I looked said I didn't need to buy a badge before registering the hotel. I wish I'd known that any memberships on the account at the time of booking would be charged to the credit card...yeah, that would've been really handy to know ahead of time.

I don't think you can get to the hotel reservation page without entering membership information. so far the only people I know who registered online successfully had already pre-registered.

That's disappointing. I really hope this doesn't happen again next year. I'm lucky my group can pay me back for their badges this weekend, but if I'd known about this problem I would've only added myself so I'd be out less money.

BunofGovt

Just checked the Fanime site, clicked on Hotel Reservations and got this message:  Fanime Housing is now closed. Please contact your confirmed hotel directly for changes and cancellations starting Friday, May 16, 2014. 

I made a reservation less than half an hour earlier, but had to send an email to housing to see if it could be changed because I selected a two-bed room, but my confirmation shows a King bed only.  Hoping for the best!  Still haven't gotten an email confirmation, although it looks like my reservation is there...
Life is too important to take seriously.  Seriously.

Mr Lex

Quote from: Vasyenka on November 10, 2014, 05:55:53 PM
Quote from: Vasyenka on November 10, 2014, 04:13:02 PM
Quick question! The last part of the hotel registration is stating that "Your credit card will be charged immediately upon clicking 'Accept Conditions and Submit Payment'". Does this mean your card gets charged full amount? I can't seem to reserve a hotel any other way, and I'm hesitant to click on this if I'm going to be charged the full amount right away. This is the first I've seen this, so may I please have verification?
While I'm a little disappointed that I haven't received a response to this and thus lost my reservation, my girlfriend was able to get through calling CMR and winded up with a confirmed reservation for our group without getting this supposed 'payment submission'. I understood that we didn't need a paid membership with our hotel reservation, thus my confusion on the matter.

Whichever. Good luck to everyone else!


D'oh, this is a bit late, but I think I understand what the "payment" is. The checkout page works like most online purchases that have a more easily identified "cart" system. Each time you checkout, whether it's for badges, hotels, or both, it notifies you that any actual payments you need to make will be charged immediately. If you have unpaid badges they'll get paid for automatically if you attempt to check out. The only way to avoid this as far as I can tell is to book a hotel first, and THEN put a badge into the cart after and leave the outstanding balance for later.

For me, all I had was a paid badge on my account, so when I booked the hotel it didn't charge me anything. The immediate payment notification still came up, but since the payments totaled to $0.00, nothing happened.

SkaiRa1n

It took me 4 hours to book my hotel :(. Last year it only took me less than an hour.

Admiral Donuts

Quote from: Mr Lex on November 10, 2014, 07:46:01 PM
The only way to avoid this as far as I can tell is to book a hotel first, and THEN put a badge into the cart after and leave the outstanding balance for later.

Which is impossible to do.

Firefury Amahira

Well, my group's staying offsite yet again. We had like 3 people trying and couldn't get through on anything. :-\
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Hachimitsu

Quote from: Xanreo on November 10, 2014, 04:40:44 PM
After 3 hours, I finally checked out and got both my rooms but when I logged into the Fanime registration site, my rooms disappeared.
I have the hotel summary and confirmation too but my reservations just aren't listed under my profile anymore.

Anyone else get anything like this?
I just hope I didn't get kicked after I got confirmed.

I DID and it left me with hashtags everywhere!!!!
I think what has happened is because of the internet cache that was left over, resulting to have people think they reserved it but didn't!

Also I got another error saying THIS::

There was a problem adding your reservation. (lock failed on may 22 2015 12:00am. system reports: locking this night would result in oversold inventory). Please call fanimecon housing at (INSert ####) if you need further assistance.

this was written after i tried to get the san jose marriot for friday to monday!

Xanreo

Quote from: Hachimitsu-ink on November 11, 2014, 01:33:19 AM
Quote from: Xanreo on November 10, 2014, 04:40:44 PM
After 3 hours, I finally checked out and got both my rooms but when I logged into the Fanime registration site, my rooms disappeared.
I have the hotel summary and confirmation too but my reservations just aren't listed under my profile anymore.

Anyone else get anything like this?
I just hope I didn't get kicked after I got confirmed.

I DID and it left me with hashtags everywhere!!!!
I think what has happened is because of the internet cache that was left over, resulting to have people think they reserved it but didn't!

That's what I initially thought too but I completed the transaction with my card and received a set of confirmation numbers so I got through the system and it wasn't cache.

Anyway, I contacted housing and even though the disappearances are still unexplained, I got confirmations for the new rooms I booked but I lost those rooms I first booked.

I figure as long as you have the rooms on your Fanime registration profile, you are good even though you may not have received a confirmation email.
If the rooms on your profile have disappeared, then you're most likely out of luck.

Fanime 2017
Eromanga-Sensei | Digimon World: Next Order

Admiral Donuts

Does it bug anyone else that it's been a week and con staff haven't explained, apologized, or even acknowledge how hotel registration was messed up?

aetherltd

Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 17, 2014, 11:21:14 PM
Does it bug anyone else that it's been a week and con staff haven't explained, apologized, or even acknowledge how hotel registration was messed up?
Fanime housing has become a hot ticket. Convention Management Resources (CMR) wasn't prepared for that.  Look at their client list: American Diabetes Association, Semicon West, the American College of Reumatology, the GPU Technology Conference, and the National Electrical Contractors Association. None of those are going to have 10,000+ people frantically trying to book rooms minutes after registration opens.

Still, not having enough server capacity is kind of embarrassing today. Especially with a system that behaves badly under load, starting transactions and failing to complete them.

SpiritOfKairi

Quote from: aetherltd on November 18, 2014, 12:30:25 AM
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 17, 2014, 11:21:14 PM
Does it bug anyone else that it's been a week and con staff haven't explained, apologized, or even acknowledge how hotel registration was messed up?
Fanime housing has become a hot ticket. Convention Management Resources (CMR) wasn't prepared for that.  Look at their client list: American Diabetes Association, Semicon West, the American College of Reumatology, the GPU Technology Conference, and the National Electrical Contractors Association. None of those are going to have 10,000+ people frantically trying to book rooms minutes after registration opens.

Still, not having enough server capacity is kind of embarrassing today. Especially with a system that behaves badly under load, starting transactions and failing to complete them.

While it does make some sense that CMR would have trouble with the traffic volume due to their other venues simply not being that popular, fact is they have been handling hotel registration for Fanime for the last 5 years, if not longer.  They should know by now how much their servers are going to be overwhelmed, and try to prepare for it as much as possible.  It has become blatantly obvious in the last 3 years that things need to be ramped up, and CMR simply isn't delivering on that.  From what I have heard, the majority of the rooms booked this year happened through the phone (after trying to call 100+ times), rather than the website, which was buggy and slow when it wasn't totally crashed.  I don't know if it would be possible to them to temporarily get more servers to make hotel registration smoother, but if not, maybe a different service should be used; one that doesn't make people wait 1-2 hours to book a room while putting up with server crashes and a busy signal on the phone.

Admiral Donuts

Quote from: aetherltd on November 18, 2014, 12:30:25 AM
Fanime housing has become a hot ticket. Convention Management Resources (CMR) wasn't prepared for that.

I was referring to how you need to pay for a badge to book a room.

citrus

The whole hotel booking thing was even more confusing this year then 2013! And having anybody be able to reserve a hotel without a badge was NOT a good idea! They said they were going to implement this idea NEXT YEAR! But fanime decided to but as of this post this year they decided to have registration and hotels this year MUCH early and still have the same policies. No restriction that will limit the people to go book a hotel...Look I'm really sick and tired of struggling this hard to get a hotel each year and like everybody else. NOBODY wants a hotel that's like 3-4 miles away from a convention! Okay... so they added another hotel to the list but it's just as far away as the other two hotels that are close to the San Jose airport! That really doesn't make a huge difference for people who want convenience!

I don't know about any of you but the reason why me and many others don't want to book a hotel like the double tree or the other two is because of one thing I hear. The shuttle bus was an utter mess and the attendees has some delays to getting the convention.

These are two solutions I could think of that would help make things more convenient for people to book a hotel. 1. Add the numbering system for people who bought a badge to be able to reserve a hotel that fanime originally attended to implement. 2. If somebody who reserves a hotel without a badge are REQUIRED to purchase one and if they don't within a certain number of days, your reservation will be canceled and people who do have a badge can snag the room. This was something I've seen Anime Expo implemented.

And yes, I've heard the complaint's about "This is unfair! I don't have the money to purchase a badge yet!" Well I hate to sound like a jerk but TOO BAD! First of all if your either a new person or a regular fanime attendee then you should have saved up in advance for a badge. It's like this, You don't have the money to purchase a 55$ badge compared to reserving a hotel that will cost you at least close to 100$ a night? That doesn't make any sense! I was the majority that was extremely upset when fanime decided not to implement this system. It could have possibly prevented ANY crashes or overload during the website!

Though from what I hear people couldn't reserve a hotel without buying a badge.

I know I've been posting nothing but complaints or mainly cynical posts but can you blame me? I've been going to this con since 2007. It was my very first convention and at least back then things were really good!. But I'm pretty sure for those who have attend 2011 and then attended 2012 realized the drastic changes the con has gone through. I wanna put my faith in Fanimecon but each year passes by I've been getting discouraged to even attend the con. To those of you that go to facebook I'm sure you seen the heated complaints the fanime facebook page gets.

You know what doesn't help? I feel the staff or at least those who run the facebook page DOESN'T care about their attendees as they NEVER reply to all any of our complaints or messages. When things started to get hot, fanime will just ignore everything. Oh and should I mention they got rid of their 2013 survey on how to improve the convention on facebook? Only those who visited the official website would be able to find it. After poking around after becoming a forum member I been noticing at least the staff around here seems to be a bit more responsive and caring. Though, I can't help but be skeptical about the staff not responding if the forums get flooded with complaints...