2017 Worldcon Room Booking

[kevin_standlee]

The initial hotel announcement from Worldcon 75 in Helsinki went out yesterday, and as is usual with such things, has triggered Outrage and Horror, particularly from people who are unaware that most European cities do not build convention centers with mega hotels with thousands of rooms adjacent to them. We're facing next year roughly the same thing as we had at the Worldcons in London and Glasgow (and other European sites before that): a bunch of hotels, spread out all over the place, and some or even most of them requiring a ride on transit. One good thing about Helsinki is that apparently Worldcon members will get transit passes; however, the details of where you get them and for how long they are good haven't come out yet. For instance, we don't seem to know whether you'll have to pay a transit fare to go to a place where you collect the credentials that include the transit pass, or whether it's good for any of the "shoulder" days before and after the convention. I assume that these details will be forthcoming.

Most galling to most people is that all of the rooms in the only hotel that's connected to the convention center have been held back by the convention for people with access/disability issues. The Holiday Inn at the conference center is apparently not that large. Even this far out, and even for someone like me with a Spire membership in their program (that's the highest level there is), can get no rooms there during the core of the convention. (I looked outside of the hotel block; no room at the Inn.)

Another complaint is that the rooms are more expensive than what was originally promised. Well, yes; as the committee have said, these are only the initial rooms for which they have blocks reserved. They're negotiating for more. And don't make the mistake of assuming that the hotels listed there are the only hotels in all of Helsinki; far from it. For example, I'm seeing availability at the Holiday Inn City Center (adjacent to the main train station) as low as €116/night (includes tax, but not breakfast; some discounted rates are advance purchase/non-refundable). That puts you two stops (about 5 minutes on the train) from the Convention Center with very frequent train service (Sometimes the headways appears to be less than what I've had to endure for an elevator at some conventions.) It's not ideal (and I certainly hope that the convention arranges for a check room so people can store stuff they'd normally haul back to their hotel rooms on site), but it's not the apocalypse that some people seem to be making it out to be.

Me? I've booked the run-of-con at the Holiday Inn City Center (at a somewhat higher and refundable rate that includes breakfast) and will move to something better if possible.

Cheryl Morgan has written today about her previous site visit to Helsinki, which I hope some of you will find helpful. Just don't expect things to be like a standard American Big City.

Comments

[bunnybutt.livejournal.com]

I got a little verklempt at the idea that the Convention has reserved the most accessible spaces for people with accessibility issues. It's a small step toward being considered full human members of society, but it's a step. No sympathy for able-bodied people for whom it is an inconvenience - for someone with mobility issues, it can literally make the difference in whether someone is able to attend at all, or not.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

My response too, in every respect and 100%.

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

The pass will not cover the initial travel from the airport. It will cover a week - I think they said they're trying to get it slightly extended for those coming in for longer. They did answer questions at this at the FI in KC. They didn't say when/where one would get the pass, but did confirm it only covers the central city zone, and the airport is outside this.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I figured that the trip from the airport wasn't covered. What would be mildly annoying is having to pay a fare from (say) the Holiday Inn City Centre to the convention center in order to collect the pass that would have otherwise have covered it.

[kjn]

I'm not an expert in Helsinki public transit, but there are several ways to save the EUR 3 single ticket from the hotel to Messukeskus, even if you don't get the travelcard until you register at Messukeskus.

1. If one is touristing in Helsinki early, then just buy day tickets (valid for 1-7 days) for the initial stay. Once that ticket runs out, switch to the con-supplied ticket.

2. If one arrives Tuesday or Wednesday, the single-ticket you buy at the airport is, I think, valid for 80 minutes. Get off at Messukeskus (it's on the way) and collect your con-supplied ticket. Or get to the hotel, put your luggage in the hotel's luggage room, and travel back out to Messukeskus.

Personally, I just chalk it down to that some people will always gripe. No matter that the con and the city provides them with a EUR 32 travelcard.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Fine, but if you don't already know all this stuff, you're going to be surprised, insufficiently informed, and maybe as a result a little perturbed.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I think the only people who should be surprised are those who have never attended a European Worldcon. And for that matter, I think that nothing a bid could do would actually educate them. They're going to be shocked no matter what.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

You know, Kevin, I've never attended a European Worldcon, and I don't think it's reasonable or helpful to imply that my ignorance implies ineducability.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

(Well, except for LonCon, which had a significantly better hotel situation.)

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm sorry, but I've attended (counts) four European Worldcon (The Hague, Glasgow x2, and London), and the complaints are almost the same every single time. Oh, it's different people making them, but the complaints themselves never change.(Incidentally, in 1990 in The Hague, I was in one of the farthest-away con hotels, with a tram ride necessary from the hotel to the convention center. The travel time was roughly what I'm facing next year in Helsinki. Okay, yes, I was 27 years younger than I am now, but I and the rest of the San Francisco in 1993 Worldcon bid dealt with it.)

For information, here's what you can expect of any Worldcon not held in a major American city: Lots of smaller hotels, spread out over a larger area than you would expect. This doesn't change. There are only a handful of cities in the USA that have mega hotels either with or immediately adjacent to convention space large enough to hold a Worldcon. Unless we limit ourselves to perhaps as many as ten US cities for Worldcon (if that), this is going to happen every single year.

See also last year's Worldcon in Spokane, which is one of the smallest cities that has ever held a Worldcon, and Reno in 2011, which is in a dead heat with Spokane for that title. Both of them were bitterly criticized for the vast distances between the convention center and their hotels, and neither of which had "one big hotel with enough rooms to house most or all of the members" adjacent to it. Even the Chicago Hyatt, which is the closest to a "one roof Worldcon" we've had all of the years I've been attending (back to 1984) isn't enough.

Of course, we could consider limiting Worldcon to only about 2000 attendees or so, which would not only significantly reduce the cost but also make it much easier to fit into smaller, more compact facilities. But personally I don't think that's a good idea.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

And how the fuck does any of that imply that I, personally, can't be taught and will make the same complaints next time? You're being an ass, Kevin, and a willfully stupid one at that.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

You are taking personally the fact that English doesn't have a clear second person pronoun that you can use to replace "you" with "everyone except me."

I'm sorry that you (singular, personally), are offended. I also have lost a lot of patience with people, (not necessarily including you (singular, personally)), who are convinced that all places in the world are just like Big American Cities, and that it is the responsibility of those places to be just like Big American Cities.

And I am reminded of a certain participant in this discussion (not you (singular, personally)) who notoriously called Australia a "small country" on the record.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I'd be a lot more sympathetic to a "they'll complain no matter what you do" argument if it weren't accompanied by what appears to be a toxic combination of not bothering to inform people of these strange foreign customs and a condescending exasperation that they don't already know them.

And, of course, your kindly after-the-explosion explanation of how these things work, buried in a 2016 LJ comment, excellent as it is, will serve as a universally available resource that no American fan planning to attend some future European Worldcon will have any excuse not to have read.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is a European City, but ...

There were a lot more hotels within walking distance in London.

These rates are higher than they implied; they most probably knew these rates by the time of the Inquisition in KC and chose not to share them.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall Howls of Protest when London's hotels were announced that there was only one hotel that was "walking distance" and that all of he others were hundreds of miles away across a howling wasteland. I exaggerate only slightly.

Americans expect that there should be thousands of inexpensive hotel rooms, all of which are less than 100 steps away from what they want, all of which are part of their hotel loyalty program, all of which are simultaneously close to parties and also very quiet, all of which have no elevator waits and no stairs to negotiate, all of which have lots of cheap food and fine dining within a few steps of their doors, and anything that does not meet all of these mutually-incompatible requirements is going to be pilloried for some reason. DC's Worldcon would be being yelled at for some other reason about now (or whenever their hotel information came out).

[qeldoq.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying learning more about Helsinki from my desk, as I look at the various hotel websites, look at the maps, start to get an understanding of how their local transit works.

And this is part of the fun of traveling to different places.

I do wish they had an overall map with all of the hotels shown. And I may well see if I can create one. But really, they have told you how long it takes to get between hotel and convention center, which exact route (tram, local train, etc), and how to access the transit info.

Now to decide where we want to stay.

[danceswithlife]

Mark Gerrits posted on Twitter and over on File 770 has got you covered: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Iiu0EwyuGmmRYsmNY-IlnDJ5T4k

[andrew barton (from livejournal.com)]

As one of the members who has mobility issues I thank commenters for their understanding.