Hello everyone,
Attendee registration will open Monday Nov. 3rd. You may begin to book hotel rooms on Nov 10 through the same site. The exact time is still TBD.
Thanks everybody! And see you at con 2015!
Eric
When can we get the list of hotels and their rates? Hoping to have the info before housing goes live so I can properly plan and communicate with possible roommates.
I second Yaoicat!
Just so I know how much money I need to put aside to pay on time.
;)
I feel like I'm back in the 90's on AIM
I vote for a list of hotels and their rates as well please :)
Quote from: Dinobunny on November 04, 2014, 06:38:33 PM
I vote for a list of hotels and their rates as well please :)
It stated on their FB I believe that the rates and hotels will go up ON the day of :)
Ur... how's this going to work for those of us who go the panelist route, anyway? Do you need the attendee registration to get the hotel? Or will the hotels be the same sort of madhouse free-for-all as in years past?
They've stated before that you don't need registration to get a hotel this year, so if you're waiting to get the panelist deal you should be fine.
It just gets harder to book a hotel room each year. And as time goes by there will be new attendees it will only get even harder. The convention has plenty of room for more people but hotels are a different matter. All the hotels the are close the convention are always booked in just one day and all that's left are hotels two miles away from the convention which nobody wants! Why can't fanime get more hotels or at least put restrictions on the hotels to make it easier to vook?
Quote from: citrus on November 07, 2014, 04:15:40 PM
It just gets harder to book a hotel room each year. And as time goes by there will be new attendees it will only get even harder. The convention has plenty of room for more people but hotels are a different matter. All the hotels the are close the convention are always booked in just one day and all that's left are hotels two miles away from the convention which nobody wants! Why can't fanime get more hotels or at least put restrictions on the hotels to make it easier to vook?
This is a consequence of having a popular convention. FanimeCon already works with the current hotels to get rates that are (I think) roughly half of what the hotels normally charge. The hotels they don't get are ones that are unwilling to work with the con to get lower prices, and you're welcome to book those on your own.
24 hours until Hotel reg opens.
The fanime.com website last said it was TBD.
The Housing page says it's at 10 AM PT.
Facebook says it's 1 PM PST.
There's no list of hotels, rooms, or available rates.
I appreciate hotel reg being offered so early but it seems kinda pointless if it's not actually ready.
Which one is it then I wonder? Everybody is wondering which is the correct time which only creates more tension. That is not something we need for a convention. If Fanime continues to have issues like this, this shows that they are truly, incompetent. Which has shown in the past few years. If you want to earn your attendees trust. Then you shouldn't have problems like these pop up.
Most likely it's going to be at 1 PM PST, since that's what's on Facebook and Twitter.
Also let's not forget last year when they released the URL of the housing website earlier than they said and people who caught it got a few extra minutes of booking time.
I have confirmed that 1p is the opening time.
I'm so glad to see that Fanime was able to get Four Points to offer housing through Fanime this year. Last year they were one of the last hotels with available rooms and were doing some horrible price gouging because of it. (Trust me, I looked up their prices for the following weekend and the difference was ridiculous).
Do we have to sign with our registration info to book the hotel since its on the same page?
yes you do. You sign in to the site with your email address and zip code.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 12:23:15 PM
Do we have to sign with our registration info to book the hotel since its on the same page?
Quote from: ewu on November 10, 2014, 12:26:19 PM
yes you do. You sign in to the site with your email address and zip code.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 12:23:15 PM
Do we have to sign with our registration info to book the hotel since its on the same page?
Thank you for the very speedy reply.
So, we need to buy a badge right now to get a hotel reservation?
The hotel option is after you select to buy a badge, will there be an option to just make a hotel reservation?
I think we done broke it...all of it...
Even the phones...I get between a busy signal and an error message saying the call didn't go through...
D
Has anyone been able to get through? I've been working on it on my end, on the internet (I'm at work...shh...), and my sister is working at it on her end, but all I get is a timeout error when I hit the housing link (from the reg page). Is it down for -everyone-, or have some people gotten through? (If all the servers are down or something, then any estimate on when the site will be uncrashed?)
(I can't check my sister's progress because my phone decided to stop working. Argh.)
This is getting worse and worse every year. :[ It's really ridiculous at this point. Glad to see the increased housing options, but still. Argh.
I AM GETTING NOTHING BUT BUSY SIGNALS ON PHONE
ERRORS AND TIMEOUTS ON WEBSITE
CAN ANY STAFF MEMBER EXPLAIN THIS?
It isa little frustrating
as of now, i think the web developer teams are working hard to get things through.
If I KNow them the most problem they had issue is for them to test if things go through...
its already been 50 minutes adn the only available button that was loaded was during registration.
it's going to be a while but I really advise you follow their twitter/facebook.
I don't want to be left in the dark again like they had when they annouced a backdoor to get in!
I got through on the international phone line. After calling a lot I was put on hold for a bit, and then the operator was really helpful and I got my room locked down. Even they were getting the lag.
i've managaed to get through but all it tells me to do is to check out. i've already paid for my badges, and there are no options to reserve a hotel or anything. has anyone else gotten this?
Quote from: pumbloom on November 10, 2014, 02:21:51 PM
i've managaed to get through but all it tells me to do is to check out. i've already paid for my badges, and there are no options to reserve a hotel or anything. has anyone else gotten this?
sadly im stuck at the check out session,. I havent paid the badge yet but the page is reloading...
IM kinda wondering if its safe to hit check out again and again,... I KNOW NOTHING About webpage html (being viewed ) so im actually kinda worried how this process is working...!!!
Call the housing number. I waited almost 20 minutes but it went thru and I got my reservation
Also, why is are there no Junior Suites available at the Marriott this year?
Quote from: spookdy on November 10, 2014, 02:06:43 PM
I got through on the international phone line. After calling a lot I was put on hold for a bit, and then the operator was really helpful and I got my room locked down. Even they were getting the lag.
Exactly what I did.
On hold right now... what info do we need besides credit card info?
Finally got put on hold. Seriously called 150+ times before I could get through. Website wont load at all.
Quote from: kookiekween99 on November 10, 2014, 02:51:42 PM
On hold right now... what info do we need besides credit card info?
Usually nothing that you shouldn't know off the top of your head. Name, Billing address, phone number, email address (probably the one you registered with if you already got your badge).
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE THE INTERNATIONAL NUMBER IS MUCH EASIER TO GET THRU WITH (AFTER 25 CALLS AND 20 MINUTE HOLD)
MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR
Now I get connection attempt failed on the website. Not just the timeout screen I was getting.
OMG finally! After 300+ redials to the 1-800 number and the website just...no.... I'm finally on hold on the 1-415 number!!!!!!
okay this is bad.. Marriott is sold out and so far I BARELY gotten the hotel from somewhere else.. sadly, the PHONE operators DID A BETTER JOB than the website itself!!!!!
I also manage to get my badge paid.. sorta O_O! i think but when it inolves with checking out with the hotel..it just leave me with
## HOTEL REGIST ### on the top of my badge!
update::
by the time it was 3:15pm, the hotels for marriot sold out! but thats what i heard from my end!
Finally got through, but the lady got my reservation wrong. I asked for Thursday through Monday and she put Thursday through Sunday...
*sigh* Back on the waiting list...
has anyone gotten through on phone and then been disconnected?
thats happened to me twice now
Welp. Just called the international number 3 times, was placed on hold for 4 mins and locked down my room at the Fairmont. The whole ordeal took me all of ten minutes or less. FYI, if your still pulling hair and crying over this, start spamming the international line!
There's no longer a timeout error on the booking anymore.
Now it's just not connecting at all. D:
Both calls are still busy too, and for some reason I keep getting disconnected.
I'm DONE!!!!!!!!! Got my rooms at the Fairmont (Hilton and Marriott are sold out as far as 1 bedded rooms go) after about a 15 minute wait on the international line!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How the hell are people getting in on any phone line? I just get busy and error signals! What does it hate cell phones?
Quote from: Gwydion on November 10, 2014, 03:31:06 PM
How the hell are people getting in on any phone line? I just get busy and error signals! What does it hate cell phones?
speedials kinda help alot... but we also had to do this repeatedly like the right clicking error
..I live in san francisco.. and sadly i tried to get the hotel.. it wsays i have the hotel but when i check out.. I DONT have the hotel
I feel like this is kinda cheating but there are auto-redialers apps out there and that's how I finally got through....
I just put in the 415 number and tell it how often to redial (every 3 seconds)
My sister was finally able to get through on the international line. Got our room at the Hilton, which was our top choice. I'm glad she was able to take care of that. :]
Though, this system is really getting out of hand. It's way too competitive, the systems never work, the phone lines now aren't working, if there's one little error in the process or if someone can't get to the computer or phone in time they can't get a room, it's just a huge mess in general. :[ And, as I see, still no official word on the FB or Twitter about the systems being down, such as an apology for the problems or info about how to go about booking if you can't get through on the website, etc. (It also took a lot longer to get the housing link up on the website than it did to get it up on the actual registration page, which seems like a problem, though since no one seemed to be able to get through either way, it probably didn't create any issues.)
Any way that at least the servers can be stable next year? The mad dash for housing would be much more tolerable (if still totally inexcusable to have housing sell out /that/ quickly) if at least the website worked well enough for people to get the housing they needed. (and I'm a Homestuck fan, I'm used to fans crashing servers. ;])
as of now im trying to contact Housing for two informations.. ONE is the hotel registration i already booked is confirmed or not and the other is...well.. its kinda obvious -_-!.. Plan B..
YEAH I FIND IT TO BELEIVE THIS YEAR the PHONE SYSTEMS was EASIER to get into than the webpages~!....
i was soo close getting the marriot T_T!!!! :'(
I got thru on the site and booked the hotel, but...it seems like I HAD to charge for my badges to get the booking locked? I don't know if I misread something, or missed something completely, but now my bank account is overdrawn.
I managed to get through on the phone line and got a room reserved at the Fairmont!
:/ still haven't received email confirmation yet though.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 03:55:31 PM
I got thru on the site and booked the hotel, but...it seems like I HAD to charge for my badges to get the booking locked? I don't know if I misread something, or missed something completely, but now my bank account is overdrawn.
sorry to hear that. Yeah I ACTUALLY did the full part of this registration and I WAS VERY certain I have the marriott with me on my account, but when it gets checked out..
a huge hashtag apeared reading
## HOTEL ##
and not the actual registration "OF the hotel" and so far ended paying the badge instead..
THIS year was really difficult... I find it to believe the PHONE LINES are MUCH easier to get into. So as of now I have a hotel for my sister and myself at the hyatt.. only downside is that SHE has the thursday while mines is on friday!...
Fanime hotel registration Is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT that I am beginning to worried how Anime expo hotel registration is the same difficulty as Fanime! (with all the shut downs and what nots!)
as of now.. getting a hotel registration should be easier to apply for but sadly only one hotel remains since fairmont, hilton and Marriott are sold out!
Quote from: Avairrianna on November 10, 2014, 03:37:45 PM
I feel like this is kinda cheating but there are auto-redialers apps out there and that's how I finally got through....
I just put in the 415 number and tell it how often to redial (every 3 seconds)
We do what we can to win. victory goes the smartest.
Quote from: Hachimitsu-ink on November 10, 2014, 04:05:23 PM
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 03:55:31 PM
I got thru on the site and booked the hotel, but...it seems like I HAD to charge for my badges to get the booking locked? I don't know if I misread something, or missed something completely, but now my bank account is overdrawn.
sorry to hear that. Yeah I ACTUALLY did the full part of this registration and I WAS VERY certain I have the marriott with me on my account, but when it gets checked out..
a huge hashtag apeared reading
## HOTEL ##
and not the actual registration "OF the hotel" and so far ended paying the badge instead..
THIS year was really difficult... I find it to believe the PHONE LINES are MUCH easier to get into. So as of now I have a hotel for my sister and myself at the hyatt.. only downside is that SHE has the thursday while mines is on friday!...
Fanime hotel registration Is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT that I am beginning to worried how Anime expo hotel registration is the same difficulty as Fanime! (with all the shut downs and what nots!)
as of now.. getting a hotel registration should be easier to apply for but sadly only one hotel remains since fairmont, hilton and Marriott are sold out!
I don't understand why it's so different from last year. Luckily my boyfriend and I have some cash in saving(for a different con) that we can put in the bank to cover this, I just find it insane. It was so much easier last year when housing and badges were separate.
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?
It took me almost 4 hours of refreshes and over 200 calls to both the international and local line to finally book a room. I didnt managed to get any double beds :( but at least I got a thurs-friday which was my biggest goal.
Quote from: pitin on November 10, 2014, 11:28:17 AM
I'm so glad to see that Fanime was able to get Four Points to offer housing through Fanime this year. Last year they were one of the last hotels with available rooms and were doing some horrible price gouging because of it. (Trust me, I looked up their prices for the following weekend and the difference was ridiculous).
Please note that the Four Points that is available this year is not the Four Points near the SJCC. This is their airport location.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 04:11:07 PM
I don't understand why it's so different from last year.
Probably trying out some new system to link badges and hotels so as to try to cut down on scalping or something. Maybe they were going to try out "pre-reg required for a hotel" like they were going to do last year.
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?
I did this and it charged me for groups badges to hold the room.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 04:22:58 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?
I did this and it charged me for groups badges to hold the room.
More like ScamimeCon
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 10, 2014, 04:22:58 PM
I did this and it charged me for groups badges to hold the room.
I'm still a little confused about this. I have a housing account and a hotel reservation showing up on my dashboard, however the reservation is for four people and there's only myself listed on the account. Does this mean I'm going to be charged for one badge, or possibly four? What
exactly am I going to be charged for with this reservation? (I was under the impression that the credit card was merely a means to holding a reservation, as my group and I usually pay in cash~)
Things are so different this year, and I don't know what to do lol~ ;w;
I doubt they'd list all four people on the reservation.
Credit card is safer to book with since you can cancel the charges if there's a problem.
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 10, 2014, 04:36:01 PM
I doubt they'd list all four people on the reservation.
Credit card is safer to book with since you can cancel the charges if there's a problem.
I'm aware, and I always reserve with a credit card in the first place. My question is what
exactly is my credit card going to be charged for with regarding these changes, as I mentioned the statement of "Your credit card will be charged immediately upon clicking 'Accept Conditions and Submit Payment'" has been added.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
It took me 4 hours to book my hotel :(. Last year it only took me less than an hour.
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.
Well, my group's staying offsite yet again. We had like 3 people trying and couldn't get through on anything. :-\
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!
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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...
Quote from: citrus on November 19, 2014, 12:54:40 AM
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 was all for a system requiring a badge to get a hotel room, but since it happened by accident this year there's now some evidence that it won't make getting a hotel room any easier. There might be ways to alleviate the problems like server load during hotel registration, but I don't think having to register up front is going to make any more rooms available.
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 19, 2014, 07:54:40 PM
Quote from: citrus on November 19, 2014, 12:54:40 AM
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 was all for a system requiring a badge to get a hotel room, but since it happened by accident this year there's now some evidence that it won't make getting a hotel room any easier. There might be ways to alleviate the problems like server load during hotel registration, but I don't think having to register up front is going to make any more rooms available.
Actually, it does make sense that people don't have $55 to spare at sudden notice but do have $100 a night for a room since once you book the hotel you know how much to save for. This is the first time since I started attending that it's gone up so early and some people live paycheck to paycheck with little wiggle room. I do agree that having to purchase a badge in order to book a room might lessen the stress on the servers, but I think(as I've seen other people say) Fanime is just outgrowing downtown San Jose. It gets harder to book a room every year because every year there are more people attending. I'm sure there are ways that can make it an easier process, like requiring a badge to book a room and having a limit of so many rooms per badge number, but I don't think it's completely avoidable anymore.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 24, 2014, 12:33:29 PM
Actually, it does make sense that people don't have $55 to spare at sudden notice but do have $100 a night for a room since once you book the hotel you know how much to save for. This is the first time since I started attending that it's gone up so early and some people live paycheck to paycheck with little wiggle room.
Well, it does and it doesn't. Really it comes down to personal preference. Personally, I wouldn't think about going to a convention if $55 was a big issue, but I also think people should be allowed to spend their own money how they want and go into debt if it's to do something they love.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 24, 2014, 12:33:29 PM
I do agree that having to purchase a badge in order to book a room might lessen the stress on the servers, but I think(as I've seen other people say) Fanime is just outgrowing downtown San Jose. It gets harder to book a room every year because every year there are more people attending.
It probably won't given how fast rooms went this year when you needed to pay for a badge to reserve them online. It'd be neat to know how many people have already registered for the con.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 24, 2014, 12:33:29 PM
I'm sure there are ways that can make it an easier process, like requiring a badge to book a room and having a limit of so many rooms per badge number, but I don't think it's completely avoidable anymore.
Isn't there already a limit? I thought it was two per person, but someone on the ClockWork Alchemey Facebook page posted that they got three rooms.
Not that I think a limit would do much. Paying $55 for an extra registration would be worth it to anyone looking to profit off the rooms.
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 24, 2014, 07:13:49 PM
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 24, 2014, 12:33:29 PM
Actually, it does make sense that people don't have $55 to spare at sudden notice but do have $100 a night for a room since once you book the hotel you know how much to save for. This is the first time since I started attending that it's gone up so early and some people live paycheck to paycheck with little wiggle room.
Well, it does and it doesn't. Really it comes down to personal preference. Personally, I wouldn't think about going to a convention if $55 was a big issue, but I also think people should be allowed to spend their own money how they want and go into debt if it's to do something they love.
I'm kind of back and forth on this one. On the one hand, many attendees go to Fanime yearly and save up for it, knowing they will be returning. They have a good idea of what admission will cost, and it's safe to guess that these people would be saving for next year's convention right after the previous one has ended. In this case, it's not too far-fetched that these individuals should have the membership money ready whenever that part pops up. However, there is also the fact that everything came up much earlier this year than in the last 3, and that there are still many individuals living from paycheck to paycheck, making saving much harder to do. So I can see both sides - those who are able to save up throughout the year and are ready whenever things pop up, and those who do not have that luxury and maybe got taken off-guard by things coming up so much earlier.
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 24, 2014, 07:13:49 PM
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 24, 2014, 12:33:29 PM
I do agree that having to purchase a badge in order to book a room might lessen the stress on the servers, but I think(as I've seen other people say) Fanime is just outgrowing downtown San Jose. It gets harder to book a room every year because every year there are more people attending.
It probably won't given how fast rooms went this year when you needed to pay for a badge to reserve them online. It'd be neat to know how many people have already registered for the con.
Quote from: DangerHeart on November 24, 2014, 12:33:29 PM
I'm sure there are ways that can make it an easier process, like requiring a badge to book a room and having a limit of so many rooms per badge number, but I don't think it's completely avoidable anymore.
Isn't there already a limit? I thought it was two per person, but someone on the ClockWork Alchemey Facebook page posted that they got three rooms.
Not that I think a limit would do much. Paying $55 for an extra registration would be worth it to anyone looking to profit off the rooms.
I'm not sure requiring badge registration is the magic bullet we once thought it was. I think one bigger issue here is the service being used to book. I mentioned this once before, and I'll say it again - it's looking about time to move on from CMR. Yes they have been handling hotel registration for the last 7+ years, but the last few they have been consistently dropping the ball. Despite the traffic for hotel registration exploding soon as the service opens these last 3-4 years, booking has gotten significantly worse and worse each year. We have seen the site get increasingly slow, bookings fail at the last moment, error messages due to the servers being clogged, and people waiting for increasing periods of time to book a room. This year alone we saw people waiting around 2 hours, refreshing the site and constantly calling CMR, only to book their second or third hotel of choice. We need a service that has the server space to handle the onslaught of traffic brought on by hotel registration, that won't make people sacrifice hours of their day just to desperately hope they'll get the room they want. CMR has had opportunities the last few years to ramp up their servers to handle the load, and yet they have failed to do so. We need a service that offers a decent online booking experience, rather than one that causes frustration and headaches for all who attempt to use it.
Hmm. I never thought that requiring a badge for hotels would be a magic bullet, or even would put /that/ much of a dent in the hotel problem.
Scalpers may be a problem, yes. I've seen scalpers around. But I doubt that scalpers are that big of a problem that they are putting this much strain on the system. A few more people might be able to get rooms if all the scalpers went away, but it wouldn't solve the problem, and I doubt it would even create enough of a difference that attendees would notice. I think that this year's fiasco proves that, since the online system was (inadvertently?) forcing people to buy registrations in order to book a hotel room.
The problem is, and always has been, two things: too many attendees for the number of rooms available, and a broken hotel registration system.
I think that, short of moving outside of San Jose (which might need to happen in the near future), there needs to be a large overhaul of how the hotel registration system works in order to relieve some of the pressure. Get a working shuttle system. Have some sort of incentive for people to want to stay at hotels further out instead of being disappointed (cheaper prices? some sort of services offered at those hotels?). Get more hotels on board. Ditch CMR. Find some of way to prevent a huge rush of people on the servers all at once (which is caused by people remembering that, in the past, it's been impossible to get hotels rooms unless everyone rushes in at once).
Maybe, instead of requiring badges or anything like that, hotel rooms are released in waves. I'm not entirely sure how this would work, but maybe open up larger blocks of less desirable rooms earlier (hotels further out), and then release a medium-sized block of semi-desirable rooms (maybe the Doubletree [because of CA], Ramada, Sainte Claire, Hyatt), and then a smaller block of the most desirable rooms (Hilton, Marriott, Fairmont). Of course, this would probably cause issues because people would book all the less desirable rooms as insurance and then still rush the system for the more desirable rooms later on, but if there are incentives to actually stay at the more desirable rooms (or some sort of safeguard so that people don't book rooms at different hotels), then that might be less of an issue. Or still release them in waves, but carve up the different hotels so that there are a few waves of hotels of mixed desirability (release the Marriott, Sainte Claire, and an airport hotel or two, then release the Fairmont, the Doubletree, and an airport hotel or two, etc.), so that if people want a specific hotel, they can aim for that wave of hotel releases and put less strain on the booking system when the other waves are happening (and then use one of the backup hotels in that wave if they can't get their first choice). Or maybe a lottery system -- people sign up, get a specific number code unique to them and a group number, and then the groups go, in order, at different times, to choose their hotels (the random number code is to ensure that your email address and code match up, verifying that it is you, giving you access to the hotel choices). Or something else besides rushing the system all at once.
Of course, there simply aren't enough rooms, which is the cause of most of this, so that would need to be addressed in the near future. (The servers are an issue, but I see that as an issue stemming from or compounded by the lack of rooms, since there wouldn't be as much server strain if there were enough rooms, and even after the servers came back up, all the rooms still sold out very quickly and there are still people without a room.)
I don't think that simply tweaking the system we have now is enough. We need something entirely different.
I'm still hoping for a lottery system. No scrambling to get a hotel room because registration goes up at the busiest part of the day.
If they fix the shuttle system then this will not be a problem. For example AX shuttle service is pretty much dialed down. Every hour they have 4-5 busses and routes that go the far way hotels. No one really complains about the shuttles during the day. After midnight then it's downtown 2 busses but the attendees are not that much. So it's a bit of a wait after 2:00am.
But during the day it runs like clock work. But I just don't know how Fanime's shuttles can be that much of a cluster duck. It's way shorter than AX. And less people.
It wouldn't be any easier to book a room if the servers could handle everyone since there'd be a huge rush of bookings and rooms would run out in 10 minutes making it just as full of anxiety.
Releasing the rooms in waves would be a pretty neat idea; the lottery thing seems sketchy; they would have to verify everyone and once someone gets a bad pick, they're basically screwed.
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 24, 2014, 07:13:49 PM
Isn't there already a limit? I thought it was two per person, but someone on the ClockWork Alchemey Facebook page posted that they got three rooms.
I had up to four rooms booked at one time.
I booked three but those rooms started disappearing one by one (for reasons still unexplained) so I booked another three and got those confirmed.
Don't think there is a limit.
If you released rooms in waves you probably still have people rushing every wave, the demand's that high. Still, it'd probably even things out somewhat.
A lottery would require you to have a badge to verify who you are, and some kind of perfernce system. My university does it that way for parking, you sign-up and give your preferences and on the day of the lottery you get an e-mail saying if you got a parking pass or not. Its kind of a pipe dream that Fanime will establish a similar system, but here's hoping.
Someone at Clockwork Alchemey claimed someone else had booked seven rooms at the DoubleTree, and regardless if they did or not one of the staff said they would "deal with it if it happened." So if your rooms started disappearing, maybe there is some kind of limit, and like everything else nobody talks about it.
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 25, 2014, 11:12:53 PM
A lottery would require you to have a badge to verify who you are, and some kind of preference system. My university does it that way for parking, you sign-up and give your preferences and on the day of the lottery you get an e-mail saying if you got a parking pass or not. Its kind of a pipe dream that Fanime will establish a similar system, but here's hoping.
I would rather bet on my own persistence than on the luck of the draw.
I'm not sure how often or efficient the two parties get in touch but the delay of the "hotel booking" button on the Fanime website redirecting to the CMR site was bananas and complex enough.
Quote from: Admiral Donuts on November 25, 2014, 11:12:53 PM
Someone at Clockwork Alchemy claimed someone else had booked seven rooms at the DoubleTree, and regardless if they did or not one of the staff said they would "deal with it if it happened." So if your rooms started disappearing, maybe there is some kind of limit, and like everything else nobody talks about it.
I'm going to chalk it up to a server error since the CMR person I spoke with didn't know why it was happening either.
People posted on the facebook page about losing their one or to rooms too.
Hopefully they booked backup rooms like I did and did not wait around since CMR couldn't find a cancellation or even a trace of the disappeared rooms. Ooo spooky~
Quote from: Xanreo on November 26, 2014, 06:56:10 PM
I'm not sure how often or efficient the two parties get in touch but the delay of the "hotel booking" button on the Fanime website redirecting to the CMR site was bananas and complex enough.
Oh yeah, another total fuster cluck.
They didn't even link to anything different. If you mouseover or take a look at the code, both buttons
take you to the same place! And it's using a shortned url redirect link thingie (that's the technical term) from Bitly!? Those're great for twitter but why don't they just link to it directly?
My friend was posting on Facebook about getting a room and he was sitting there waiting for the button to change colors. I told him he need to just go to the reg site directly... I wonder how many people were sitting there waiting for it to go "live."
Quote from: echoshadow on November 25, 2014, 08:54:22 PMBut I just don't know how Fanime's shuttles can be that much of a cluster duck. It's way shorter than AX. And less people.
It varies from year to year.
- 2012 - A real bus service, with large luxury buses. Lots of empty seats. Nice.
- 2013 - Short buses with totally lost bus drivers from a parking lot shuttle company. Trips went miles off course. Buses jammed. Long waits. Awful.
- 2014 - Less clueless bus drivers from same parking lot shuttle company. Buses jammed. Moderate waits. Adequate.
Quote from: aetherltd on November 29, 2014, 03:03:51 PM
Quote from: echoshadow on November 25, 2014, 08:54:22 PMBut I just don't know how Fanime's shuttles can be that much of a cluster duck. It's way shorter than AX. And less people.
It varies from year to year.
- 2012 - A real bus service, with large luxury buses. Lots of empty seats. Nice.
- 2013 - Short buses with totally lost bus drivers from a parking lot shuttle company. Trips went miles off course. Buses jammed. Long waits. Awful.
- 2014 - Less clueless bus drivers from same parking lot shuttle company. Buses jammed. Moderate waits. Adequate.
Since Fanime probably isn't moving anytime soon despite the convention's growth, making shuttle service consistently fluent would probably help people feel better about reserving a room farther away from the CC, and possibly drive competition for the Hilton and Marriott down a tad.