Reserving Hotel Rooms 2017... fun times

[Weiss Schwarz]

Even though my day to pick my hotel room isn't until Friday at noon, I decided to take a peek at the site right when it went live just in case someone goofed and made it open access. No luck there but man, have rooms started filling up quick and become unavailable already. And despite this new route they're going for people to reserve rooms based off prereg days/time, it doesn't help too much since the site is still constantly crashing. Although, I will admit, it's doing better than it did back in 2014 when I last went.

So, how's everyone doing with booking your rooms? Get your first choice in hotel/room? Crossing your fingers and toes that your preferred hotel/room is still there when your day/time opens?

14 hour later edit: Honestly, I'm split on how things were handled this year. For people that know they're going to go early on so they can preregister right away, it's great. But for someone like me, that didn't know he was going to be able to go until Dec 29th and registered then. It's... not so fun. I've been watching the hotel site like a hawk since it went live, knowing I can't even pick anything until my day/time slot opens (which is Friday, 10AM PST), just watching as a good 95% of rooms are filled within the first two hours. I'm willing to bet little to no hotel rooms will be available when my time comes to pick a room for me and a friend I'm bringing (to his first con btw), especially for the specific days we'll be staying. I went to Fanime in 2014 and while the system then was literally first come first serve for everyone, I felt that way was fairer because everyone (well, everyone that was keeping a good eye on the fanime announcements) knew when housing opened, they could make plans to be available around that time to try and snag a room. Sure, it was chaotic with the site crashing like crazy. If I'm not mistaken, it took me almost two hours to get my room last time, but I got exactly what I needed so I had no complaints because I felt as though I earned it. I didn't just have a spot reserved for me. The two hours was worth the wait compared to the two DAYS of waiting I'm doing. Rather than now, sitting, and waiting, watching as less and less rooms become available and there's not a thing I can do about it.

Is this way fair for everyone? Nope. Was the previous way fair for everyone? Nope. There's not a single way every person can be pleased with either system. Both have their flaws that there is literally no way to balance it to be fair for everyone. I get that. But at least with the previous way, it was  every man for himself. Those that were persistent in trying and didn't give up more than likely got what they wanted if they were on time and stuck with it. Now, this reserved waiting is like those flash passes at amusement parks (if those are still a thing), you're in line just watching as people pass you up with no way to do anything about it.

Don't get me wrong... I know it sounds like I'm complaining and it sounds like I'm throwing in the towel. But I'm not complaining (in the normal sense of the word, it's weird) and I'm sticking through this because my friend and I have bought our prereg badges. We've bought our plane tickets already. I'm going not only for the con but mainly to see some people I know and want to hang out with again while I'm in the area. Even if I don't get exactly what I want, I still feel as though I've got wiggle room to at least get something good enough to have some kind of a fun time while I'm out there.

[Hachimitsu]

FOR some reason i made the reservation but as soon as the site begins to crash... it gave me the wrong dates!...

really regretting hitting that back button..

I couldnt access my modify/reservation to see if I went through because i havent receive my email confirmation yet.. I had to print screen it!!!'

Right now it says

you are not authorized to view information on the reservation you requested. if you beleive you have reach this page in error, please contact fanimecon housing at (THIS NUMBER)

[Weiss Schwarz]

Just keep trying, they site is playing nice every few minutes.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Well I think I got the room I needed. At least I got to the page saying my reservation was complete an all the information looks correct. Still waiting on an email confirmation.

Site is crashing like a Drunk meth-head on a stormy night. This is pretty much as bad as it has always been. Priority Registration not only doesn't solve the issue with getting a hotel room, it doesn't even alleviate stress on the hotel reservation site when it goes up.

EDIT: Op just got my email confirmation

Still have to go through with this again at 10..

[Hachimitsu]

I am still waiting on mines since i had to re-correct mines...

THe only positive is I am happy i got into artist alley, but then im waiting on their payment page options!..
IF this was an olympic sport, it would be one of those triatholons

Fanime Artist alley
Fanime Registration
Fanime hotel reservation
.......swap meet?

In that order!

but yeah.. got the email of the wrong dates but not the email with the right ones -_-!
(already calling fanime housing for help on viewing a confirmation)

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Godspeed mate.

[Konekogami]

Managed to get my room despite being a bit late!  Freaked out since I got time zones and such mixed up

Took a lot of refreshing (like a LOT) but it was actually fairly pain free.

[Kyra_Maverick]

The site crashed as I submitted my confirmation. I had to call to make sure it all went through. This was at 7:04 and finally connected at 7:15

Not quite as stressful as the old way, but still had me on edge making sure I had a room.

[Hachimitsu]

Apparently I had to go make a new reservation and the old confirmation gets replace instantly with the new changes...

So if you happen to register for the wrong dates... go back and make a new one, and double checck everything...
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HIT REFRESH BUTTON ( F5 I think )BUT DO NOT HIT THE BACK BUTTON!... thats how it reverts to default settings...

So happy i got this fixed because the dates I first had, was wrong.. and had to make a new reservation instead of going to the modify reservation.

So yeah. if you screw up... make a new one As soon as possible, and double check with fanime con housing number.

I'm already set now.. waiting for Swap meet registration to come soon!

[ELDEMONIO]

I logged in at 7am on the dot and managed to check out around 7:21. The crashing was bad. I kept refreshing over and over to get to the next page. I hope theirs an easier way in the future. Knowing Fanime, I doubt they will.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Well I got my 2nd room damn easy like at least.

[Nina Star 9]

That was...totally painless, actually. Got my first choice of room with very few issues. I expected worse. Loading times were a little slow, but no crashes or anything.

One minor gripe about the website: I typo'd my credit card number the first time, and instead of letting me actually go and fix it, it kept giving me endless dialogue boxes telling me it was an invalid number. I had to check the little "prevent this page from creating additional dialogues" box and everything was fine, but it was a little annoying. I'd recommend that got fixed though.

[moondogg]

Was able to book at 10:00 AM without a hitch! Absolutely flawless this year.

[iAteTheRamen]

Woo-hoo! 1pm time slot and there was no lag or crashing for me. I got my first pick! :D

[kookiekween99]

Was anyone else able to reserve a second room by using a group member's registration ID? That's what I did last year, but for some reason, it keeps rejecting all my group members' IDs as "invalid". I'm freaking out now because I NEED a second room in the same hotel, but it looks like THAT'S not happening...

[Kyra_Maverick]

Was anyone else able to reserve a second room by using a group member's registration ID? That's what I did last year, but for some reason, it keeps rejecting all my group members' IDs as "invalid". I'm freaking out now because I NEED a second room in the same hotel, but it looks like THAT'S not happening...

Try calling the housing line directly, they can probably take care of it for you.

[itselguapo]

The reservation process wasn't that bad for me at 10am. The only thing that sucked was that I was about to get the hilton, but forgot to add friday too, and when I went back to change to add friday the hilton just sold out, fortunately there were tons of other hotels to choose from so I went with the marriott two double bed room, and it went well enough. Even after I made that reservation for an hour there was still rooms at the westin, the hilton had a king size rooms available, and the mariott still had all it's rooms available. I didn't stay on for long and went back to sleep so I don't know how long each hotel stayed available for. Overall this was pretty good no stress really of rushing and hoping it went through. Sure I didn't get the hilton, but I heard the marriott is good too. This is way better compared to general registration room reservation where everything is crashing, and rooms go in minutes. Now hopefully they don't have linecon again this year. I don't know what happened, but the 2 times we went we just walked through 2016 was the only time I ever had to wait in line to get my pass. I look forward to fanime this year. Only question I have is if there is any advice to get out of paying deposit fees.

[Konekogami]

Only question I have is if there is any advice to get out of paying deposit fees.

Legal advice? None.  Hotels charge them to cover their butts.  The only assurance is that if you don't trash your room you'll get the money credited back to your account.

[Angelx624]

My Sac-Anime roomies managed to snag the Marriott! And from what I'm seeing from friends they got their rooms with no trouble, as well!

Hope everyone else isn't having much trouble! Then again Fanime is known for site crashes when it comes to hotel booking so I won't be surprised if I hear stories...... :(

[Barnes]

My mom successfully booked my room for me at her work (I didn't want to use my phone to do so at my job).

She even scored my first choice in just a few minutes, yay!