Hotels....

[Mango Bunny]

I thought Fanime was opening general bookings on the 29th... What time did it open on the 26th? I booked that night at around 9 pm. That's pretty awful of them to do.

Also pretty cheesy they haven't updated the book hotel button on the front page, but I guess it doesn't matter much now.

I wonder how many people are SOL this year. This is the worst. I'm wait listed for three closer hotels. I do have the whole weekend though, so that's good. Even if it's at the far away land of the Double Tree.

The 800 number customer service was nice though.

Maybe we can have some guest announcements soon so we can find out what we did all this for!

[Konekogami]

So, I went to Trivago (hotel booking site) and I set the dates for May 27th-May 31st set the address to the Convention center, and set the distance to under 2 miles away..  and I did get some results, and the prices are about equal to the Fanime housing prices.  So people may have some luck with that.  Of course being further from the convention center is a pain.  But public transport and such may make it a bit more manageable.

Also hopefully the roommate thread will start seeing more activity soon.

[Amanojaku]

For those who have gone in recent years, is getting on a waiting list worth it?

Last year, I only was able to get a stray doubletree room about a week after housing opened.  I got on the waitlist, and in a couple weeks, they were able to get me the whole weekend.  Definitely worth it to waitlist.

This year, I was fortunate enough to get the full weekend at the Fairmont.  My room booking time was 2/25 at 9am, and Hilton, Hyatt and Marriot were full by that point.  But the Fairmont is nice and close enough to walk without it being a hassle; I've stayed there before.

[Muuka]

Also interesting for myself and maybe others.

The Westin still has rooms. I called and they had no two rooms connecting for the three nights I wanted. ( Thursday, Friday, Sat ) but were able to do it somehow.. magically... All with the Con price rate. I had to book the rooms separate but it all worked out and I'm amazed that this somehow happened. So maybe you can call and get lucky too!

For Hilton which is completely booked; if you're a Diamond member for the Hilton they can get you a room for that weekend and time, but you will be paying anywhere from 270 for the Thursday to 340+ for the weekend. If someone is in desperate need and can fork out the money well being a diamond member. That is an option. They will NOT honor the con rate by any means.

Called around a bit places do have rooms but they want to charge crazy amounts if they do.

Good luck everyone.

[DangerHeart]

So, I went to Trivago (hotel booking site) and I set the dates for May 27th-May 31st set the address to the Convention center, and set the distance to under 2 miles away..  and I did get some results, and the prices are about equal to the Fanime housing prices.  So people may have some luck with that.  Of course being further from the convention center is a pain.  But public transport and such may make it a bit more manageable.

Also hopefully the roommate thread will start seeing more activity soon.

I did the same as soon as the Fairmont and Westin booked up on the 25th. I have a room at the Holiday Inn and wait list request for three closer hotels, but I also booked a hotel on 2nd street outside of the fanime site just to be safe.

Personally I think this was the worst booking year so far. Such a major lack of communication and information.

[Mizuki]

I'm writing this as a con goer now, as last year was my last year staffing Fanime.

This is pretty much utter horseshit. I've staffed Fanime for quite a few years, and have basically put in countless amount of hours to make sure the department I worked for did well and expected little to nothing in return.

I don't pre-reg at con for obvious reasons, I was a staffer every year minus one, Last year I didn't pre-reg. We staffers knew nothing of this new priority system. Now as a staffer, I really don't expect much, it's just a big volunteer gig and I really don't mind that. What I do mind is not being informed of what is to come in the future, there has to be some plan, right? I didn't pre-reg at con last year because I make up my mind to go to Fanime in January, I never know if I am not going to be around for Fanime a literal year in advance, sometimes I have to go back to NY for family, I'm not going to just blindly throw away money for the off-chance I will be attending a whole year later. So here I am, no room. I always get my own room and share it with a friend or two to maintain a quiet atmosphere. I can't do that this year because the very con I put a lot of my blood sweat and tears into did not inform me that this would be happening. No updates, no emails, no tweets, no nothing. This is a fucking joke.

[Angelx624]

Fanime really is lacking in communication this year. Yeah, they did the past few years, but this year really seems bad as far as communicating goes.

They should've announced this new system at the end of last year's Fanime. At least they should've said something during closing ceremonies. I mean, I don't know, it's just common knowledge to me.

I mean, we're in March, already, and on the website the last update was back in January. I mean, I still enjoy Fanime, I really do, but they need to work on communication and telling us things way ahead of time instead of at the last minute and thus leaving its attendees in a panic.

[Amanojaku]

I don't pre-reg at con for obvious reasons, I was a staffer every year minus one, Last year I didn't pre-reg. We staffers knew nothing of this new priority system. Now as a staffer, I really don't expect much, it's just a big volunteer gig and I really don't mind that. What I do mind is not being informed of what is to come in the future, there has to be some plan, right? I didn't pre-reg at con last year because I make up my mind to go to Fanime in January, I never know if I am not going to be around for Fanime a literal year in advance, sometimes I have to go back to NY for family, I'm not going to just blindly throw away money for the off-chance I will be attending a whole year later. So here I am, no room. I always get my own room and share it with a friend or two to maintain a quiet atmosphere. I can't do that this year because the very con I put a lot of my blood sweat and tears into did not inform me that this would be happening. No updates, no emails, no tweets, no nothing. This is a fucking joke.

What is the obvious reason?  Also, you didn't need to pre-reg at the con to get a room this year.  I registered the second day registration opened up, and I got a room.  Its kind of amusing; its a great system if people got a room, and if they didn't, it sucks.  Every year somebody doesn't get a room.  Better luck next time.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

I don't pre-reg at con for obvious reasons, I was a staffer every year minus one, Last year I didn't pre-reg. We staffers knew nothing of this new priority system. Now as a staffer, I really don't expect much, it's just a big volunteer gig and I really don't mind that. What I do mind is not being informed of what is to come in the future, there has to be some plan, right? I didn't pre-reg at con last year because I make up my mind to go to Fanime in January, I never know if I am not going to be around for Fanime a literal year in advance, sometimes I have to go back to NY for family, I'm not going to just blindly throw away money for the off-chance I will be attending a whole year later. So here I am, no room. I always get my own room and share it with a friend or two to maintain a quiet atmosphere. I can't do that this year because the very con I put a lot of my blood sweat and tears into did not inform me that this would be happening. No updates, no emails, no tweets, no nothing. This is a fucking joke.

What is the obvious reason?  Also, you didn't need to pre-reg at the con to get a room this year.  I registered the second day registration opened up, and I got a room.  Its kind of amusing; its a great system if people got a room, and if they didn't, it sucks.  Every year somebody doesn't get a room.  Better luck next time.

Unless they change the system from what they did this year, going through pre-reg at con might be almost mandatory to get a room next year. I am quite positive that pre-reg at con is going to be overrun with people hoping to secure a room for next year.

I dont think the system is good or not because I didnt get a room or not. I Actually got 2 rooms for my group. The system was bad because they announced it several weeks after registration went up, and it didn't solve anything with the booking process except for perhaps deterring scalpers (which I dont believe is a huge issue anyways), sense they apparently broke the booking blocks up based on when people registered rather then as set number of people, causing the booking site to crash like it does every year anyways, and most glaring of all, just shifted the race from a room booking race to a badge registration race.

[Amanojaku]

Unless they change the system from what they did this year, going through pre-reg at con might be almost mandatory to get a room next year. I am quite positive that pre-reg at con is going to be overrun with people hoping to secure a room for next year.

I dont think the system is good or not because I didnt get a room or not. I Actually got 2 rooms for my group. The system was bad because they announced it several weeks after registration went up, and it didn't solve anything with the booking process except for perhaps deterring scalpers (which I dont believe is a huge issue anyways), sense they apparently broke the booking blocks up based on when people registered rather then as set number of people, causing the booking site to crash like it does every year anyways, and most glaring of all, just shifted the race from a room booking race to a badge registration race.

Well that is a fair point; pre-reg may be the most successful way to go in the future but I'm not sure we are there quite yet.  To me, this system seems the most fair though.  Aside from just a free-for-all for who has the best internet connection, what would be a better method?  There is a finite number of hotel rooms, and one method or another, someone is going to come up empty handed.  I am curious as to whether or not there is a way to get more convention rate rooms in the area; I really have no idea what goes into that process.  I imagine they got as many as they were capable of.

[Angelx624]

Well, if the pre-reg lines for next year's Fanime are over-run, I probably won't bother and will just wait til it goes up online, and then pre-reg as soon as it does. Cause next year I think I have a pretty good idea of who I'm gonna be staying with, and we'll all have to work together to make sure we get a room.

And I'm sure that if Fanime is gonna keep this system, that they'll tell us this earlier on this time.

[Mizuki]

I don't pre-reg at con for obvious reasons, I was a staffer every year minus one, Last year I didn't pre-reg. We staffers knew nothing of this new priority system. Now as a staffer, I really don't expect much, it's just a big volunteer gig and I really don't mind that. What I do mind is not being informed of what is to come in the future, there has to be some plan, right? I didn't pre-reg at con last year because I make up my mind to go to Fanime in January, I never know if I am not going to be around for Fanime a literal year in advance, sometimes I have to go back to NY for family, I'm not going to just blindly throw away money for the off-chance I will be attending a whole year later. So here I am, no room. I always get my own room and share it with a friend or two to maintain a quiet atmosphere. I can't do that this year because the very con I put a lot of my blood sweat and tears into did not inform me that this would be happening. No updates, no emails, no tweets, no nothing. This is a fucking joke.

What is the obvious reason?  Also, you didn't need to pre-reg at the con to get a room this year.  I registered the second day registration opened up, and I got a room.  Its kind of amusing; its a great system if people got a room, and if they didn't, it sucks.  Every year somebody doesn't get a room.  Better luck next time.

I used bad wording, I'm just mostly used to staffing and getting a refund from a pre-reg when staffing just is kind of a pain in the butt, and I didn't know for sure if I was officially done staffing at the end of the year.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Unless they change the system from what they did this year, going through pre-reg at con might be almost mandatory to get a room next year. I am quite positive that pre-reg at con is going to be overrun with people hoping to secure a room for next year.

I dont think the system is good or not because I didnt get a room or not. I Actually got 2 rooms for my group. The system was bad because they announced it several weeks after registration went up, and it didn't solve anything with the booking process except for perhaps deterring scalpers (which I dont believe is a huge issue anyways), sense they apparently broke the booking blocks up based on when people registered rather then as set number of people, causing the booking site to crash like it does every year anyways, and most glaring of all, just shifted the race from a room booking race to a badge registration race.

Well that is a fair point; pre-reg may be the most successful way to go in the future but I'm not sure we are there quite yet.  To me, this system seems the most fair though.  Aside from just a free-for-all for who has the best internet connection, what would be a better method?  There is a finite number of hotel rooms, and one method or another, someone is going to come up empty handed.  I am curious as to whether or not there is a way to get more convention rate rooms in the area; I really have no idea what goes into that process.  I imagine they got as many as they were capable of.

Honestly, when the website gets to the point where it is effectively being DDoSed by the hordes of people trying to access it, short of a dial up connection level service a fast internet connection is not going to be helping you out that much. You can only be as fast as the slowest connection effectively. Really its just a luck of the draw of connecting at the right time over connecting faster once the site gets overloaded.

There are quite a few more hotels in the Downtown area that dont work with convention housing. I imagine they dont work with housing for the simple reason that they know they would be able to fill all there rooms at their full rates. Some others might instead not meet some standards or requirements of convention housing as well, particularly the low end non chain hotels.

[citrus]

Anybody find it strange that the button for hotel registration is still grey and not Yellow? They said that on February 29th General attendees would be open to the public. As of this post it is March 8th. And the button is still grey... boy do I sure feel sorry for the people the didn't register before the cut-off date which was 2/17.

[Mango Bunny]

Anybody find it strange that the button for hotel registration is still grey and not Yellow? They said that on February 29th General attendees would be open to the public. As of this post it is March 8th. And the button is still grey... boy do I sure feel sorry for the people the didn't register before the cut-off date which was 2/17.

Oh, they randomly opened it on the 26th at 6pm I guess. I found it through the help and FAQs... Secret link!

Fanime is really screwing up this year.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

At the very least the department in charge of Social Media and Website Management is.

[Nina Star 9]

Has the waitlist moved for anyone yet? Even anecdotally, heard through the vast networks of the web?

I feel like people are going to be holding onto their rooms tighter this year because of all the hotel drama, but I'm curious if it's moved for anyone yet. I want to give myself some hope, haha

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Not for me, though admittedly Im just waiting for a room change to a different location so all my rooms are in the same location, and I imagine I would be low on the priority list

[Vasyenka]

I've been wondering that myself! Neither my or my friends' waitlists have moved at all. >:

[citrus]

Has anybody noticed that the housing/registration button is now blank and unclickable? I guess it just means General attendees can no longer be put on a waitlist or search for other hotels now... There is always a fiasco in hotel registration but it seems even worse... but all of you know that already. What I don't understand is if Fanime has THIS much trouble with anything every single year, Why can't they just invest money to hire professionals? More people are already attending the convention so their budget should be bigger...