Paying for Two Worldcons at Once

[kevin_standlee]

As spotted in this message, online booking for Nippon2007 is now available. It's not a very good system -- certainly not compared to the excellent online booking that Interaction had -- but at least it works.

I knew the prices were going to be bad, but this is worse than I thought. The hotel closest to the convention center is the Intercontinental (the highest end hotel in the IC Group, which contains Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express). Rooms in that hotel for July 2007 are running as low as JPY13,333 through IC's web site. That's the price per room, not per person. Rooms in that hotel through the booking agency during the convention (I booked the maximum stay allowed -- August 28 through September 3 -- are JPY15,500 per person per night. JPY31,000 per night is about USD272 per night!

Rooms are only available from the Tuesday before the con to the Monday of the final night. That's an awful narrow booking window, it seems to me. It works okay for me, assuming I get the flights I want, but I would have thought they'd want more rooms around the shoulder nights. On the other hand, at those rates, I'm not sure I'd want to say any more days than that.

Adding to the burden is that the booking agency required full payment in advance. That is, my credit card was charged about $1800 today, while I'm still dealing with the charges from this year's Worldcon trip. It appears this charge is refundable up to 14 days pre-con, although the web site isn't very clear about that.

When I first submitted the charge, it declined. I decided to leave it alone for a while and went to take a shower and have breakfast. When I got out of the shower, I found that my credit card company had contacted me about what looked like a fraudulent charge to them. I called them back and reassured them that the Japanese charge was legitimate. They told me I'd have to re-submit it, which I did, and it went through.

I guess the good news is that when I get there, the room will be paid for. I just wish I could get to work on booking the airfare; however, I don't think I'll be able to do that until late October, on account of the last day of one's travel needs to be at least 330 days in the future, it seems. There appears to be such a thing as planning too far in advance.

Comments

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Going to have to wait a little while before booking this.

For LACon III and LoneStarCon, we booked a room off site for less than half the rate of the convention hotels. One hates to contemplate this, but to save a thousand bucks, it's worth thinking about (might save money even after renting a car and GPS).

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

There are rooms in the city for under a $100 US. You just have to be willing to go further from the city. The city has a good public transit system and many of the hotels are within a 20 minute walk of the main venue.

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

The Committee is expecting that many fans will be looking at the other hotels on the list. Many are much less, just a little further away.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

Are you on the committee? It seems odd that they wouldn't work more closely with the hotels.

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

I'm doing opening/closing ceremonies.

From what was explained to me at LAcon was that there are 5-Diamond Hotels near the CC and are priced accordingly. The rates published in the last PR were correct based on an exchange rate that was a tad more favorable than it is today.

Beyond that, I'm not familiar with the hotel negotiations.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Ouch!!! Definitely Not Going to Japan unless we win the lottery. There isn't enough money in the bank.

[ashi.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm planning a room party at least one night. Would be kind of nice for me to pay the room in advance so I can save up for other portions of the trip (finally have enough frequent flier miles to fly that way though).

Maybe I'll splurge and go for 3 room nights... and find cheaper housing for the rest of my stay.

Thanks for the info.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. That is bad. One hopes the dollar will strengthen before then... but if you pay now you are stuck with that rate. Of course more likely the dollar will get weaker and you are actually saving by paying early, but going to Worldcon should not be about playing the currency markets... or about being priced way out of the market. I'm hoping they do an awful lot more to make it easier for fans to get there, otherwise it will be almost impossible for most fans -- and this I learned running PR for Interaction, which was way cheaper.

Cars in Japan

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Do remember that Japan drives on the left so Americans hiring cars there for the first time (in the middle of the bigest conurbation on the planet) are going to have a truly SFnal experience.

Interesting point -- in the period 2005 to 2007, two-thirds of the Worldcons will have been held in countries which drive on the "wrong" side of the road.

Re: Cars in Japan

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

It only took a few minutes to figure out driving on the left in Britain last year.

Re: Cars in Japan

[nojay.livejournal.com]

A lady I spoke with a few years ago in Atlanta asked if it was true that people in the UK drove on the left. I answered in the affirmative.

"So does that mean if I went to England I'd have to drive on the left as well?"

I informed her it would be pretty much obligatory.

Re: Cars in Japan

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Wow, I fear for my life if that woman is driving on either side of the road.

Seriously, avt_tor is right that it's not that hard (for most of us) to get used to.

It sounds like it would be cost-effective to book a nearby cheaper hotel, and use some of the money saved on taxis or a rental car. I hate spending 40 minutes a day of vacation time walking if taxis are reasonable.

It's probably only worth renting a car if we'd use it for more than going to and from.

Re: Cars in Japan

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure the net savings would be so great. Remember that you'd be spending between JPY5,000-15,000 plus parking at both ends, and while I don't know the parking costs, I bet they're expensive. Now, taking the subway or train between the sites might make sense, but I doubt driving does.

Re: Cars in Japan

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

You're right, of course. It's only worth renting a car if one plans to use it for more than just going back and forth; otherwise you're paying a lot of money just to pay even more money to park it somewhere.

I'm leaning towards subway or train if they're convenient, otherwise taxis.

The prices are surprising!

[barclays218.livejournal.com]

The prices are surprising! And especially the prices should be paid up front. But if you can earn some kind of priority club points for it, then you can use to stay in a better value hotel like say, Holiday Inn Express.

For me, I am not really that familiar with all of the hotel negotiations but definitely the prices are so high. The convention could have requested for some special discount at least with the hotels for this event. Anyway, you can look for a roommate if you want to afford such rates. Then you would be splitting the cost

Simmons Barclay
http://www.checkpaydayloan.info

Re: The prices are surprising!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can earn some Priority Club points with it, but they put a cap on how many I could earn. If I earned points at the same rate as the other hotels in the chain, I'd probably earn at least two Holiday Inn Express nights out of the deal, maybe more. And as I'm staying at a HIX on the "out night" (the night we get back to Portland), that would have been a good thing. Phooey.

The convention's rates are discounted, at least compared to what you can get off of the web site now. This was just a momentary hiccup by the hotel's booking system that put cheaper rooms on offer than the convention rate. That didn't stop me jumping on it, though.

And roommates are not an option for me. My wife and I are in the room, and my wife barely tolerates me, let alone someone else sharing the room. I just have to grin and bear the bills.