Release the Hounds

[kevin_standlee]

Hotel booking for Denvention Three is now open as of 10 AM MST today.

People trying to book at the Hyatt (attached to the convention center, but not the party hotel) are reporting that reservations are going smoothly. Booking at the Crowne Plaza (my choice) and the Courtyard has been a bit rougher.

I picked the Crowne Plaza because (a) it's equidistant from the convention center and party hotels; (b) the room rate is better than the surrounding hotels; (c) I think the internet connection is included in the room rate instead of being an extra $9-$12/day the way it's likely to be in the other "upscale" hotels; and (c) I'm a Priority Club Gold member, partially due to having stayed in the Intercontinental at last year's Worldcon, but also because I like Holiday Inn Express hotels.

When I tried to book, it showed no rooms available. That seemed unlikely, and I reported it through channels. The D3 housing team were on it, and rooms showed up within an hour or so. Now as of that moment, only 1-king rooms were showing, not the 2-double I was trying to book, but it seemed prudent to go ahead and book the room at the con rate and worry about the room type later. I also left a message with the responsible person at the CP Denver itself. Not too long ago, I got a call back from that person, who explained that the only way to get any rooms on line today was to push the 1-kings out there; however, by giving her my booking number, she was able to manually change it to a 2-double. I expect we'll see all of the room types online soon, possibly as soon as tomorrow.

As I said elsewhere, I'm not surprised there were start-up glitches. I am impressed, however, at how quickly people have responded to try and fix things. Being trouble-free is an admirable but impossible goal; being able to fix problems when they happen, however, is excellent.

Comments

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

I'm really impressed with how quickly everyone has been responding to the glitches - I'm sure that many of us are not working today has probably helped. I had wanted to be at the Courtyard for reasons you mention, but it wasn't that big of a deal since I will be sharing my room with someone, so I just went ahead and booked at the Hyatt.

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

I think the internet connection is included in the room rate instead of being an extra $9-$12/day the way it's likely to be in the other "upscale" hotels

What amuses me is that the regular guest rooms show that they have free high speed access, but the "Executive Club Level" and the suites apparently only have analog dial-up!

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

The Courtyard would not let me book for Tuesday the 5th. I contacted the housing team, and they are working on getting the reservation fixed. Didn't anyone tell the Democratic Party that there's a WorldCon? :)

[kproche.livejournal.com]

We've discovered the Adams Mark has no King rooms available for the full period from the 5th to the 11th. Queens, yes, Kings, no. One of the shoulder nights appears to be sold out of king bed rooms.

[(Anonymous)]

couldn't book at crown plaza for Aug 6-10. I finally changed everything to "no preferences" an still no-go. They must be full.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

As of 17:25 PST, the system shows rooms available for those dates at the con rate. This may change at any time. If you are still not seeing anything, you may want to try calling the hotel directly. (303-573-1450; ask for in-house reservations)

[laminahospes.livejournal.com]

I wound up just booking a King at the Crowne Plaza, myself. I figure that's better than nothing, and it'll be nice to have some room to congregate if I need a place for folks to work on a one-shot or to have a super-secret smoffing session.

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

...or to have a super-secret smoffing session.

Aren't all smoffing sessions super-secret? :-D

[laminahospes.livejournal.com]

Well, there are smoffing sessions at parties on the balcony, and then there are smoffing sessions in a private room with the door locked....

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I am glad that I have a roommate handling this. I am in a room with two other people and I am probably going to be sleeping on a cot. I may be better off getting my own room for Denvention.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

Ghod I hate those hotel cots. The mattress is generally so thin you feel the wire frame cut into you...and if you put it on the floor it makes little difference from the floor.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

But the floor is less likely than the wire frame to suddenly fold itself up with you inside it.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

There is that... but your room mates may have paid extra to see that.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Possibly. :)