Worldcon Hotel Reservations Open

[kevin_standlee]

The Anticipation hotel booking page went online a few hours ago. I think it was probably a few hours earlier than planned; some announcements had said the pages wouldn't go live until 0800 EST, whereas it looks a bit like they went live at 0000 EST instead.

That link above takes you to the hotel booking page, where you enter the dates you want and the number of rooms and guests per room. Click "find lodging" and you'll get a list of hotels with Anticipation's room rates. In order to actually book a room at one of those hotels, you need to then select "View Rooms and Rates," or click on that hotel's name to get more information about it -- you can book the room from either path.

If you need a map to tell you where the hotels are relative to the Palais (convention centre), refer to the hotel locations page on the Anticipation web site.

Generally you don't want to book a room directly with any of the hotels, although I did just notice that the advance purchase (pay now, no refund) rate for the Intercontinental is just slightly less than Anticipation's $175 rate. I don't think saving $3.50/night is worth paying the entire bill up front now with no way of canceling or refunding, though, so I don't recommend the hotel-direct path at all.

Comments

[sethb.livejournal.com]

I booked at the Holiday Inn a few weeks ago; the rate was lower than the convention rate (and may be more likely to generate an upgrade and earn points).

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd done that myself when I noticed they were still showing a lower rate than what we'd be getting. But as a member of Anticipation's board of directors, it didn't seem right to take away nights from the convention's own room block. I later heard from the head of Facilities that the contract says the con gets credit for the members' nights no matter what rate they use (assuming they can connect the members to the reservations, I guess, but I didn't ask for details), but by the time I learned that, the Holiday Inn had wised up and taken those less-expensive rooms out of inventory.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Whether I'd do that depends on the block: if I think the convention will have trouble meeting it, that's one thing. If the hotel didn't give the convention enough rooms (that is, as many as the con desired) that's another.