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[East] Hotel Discussion Thread *Westin Waterfront & Seaport are SOLD OUT*
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Anime Boston is alright, but definitely not as big as PAX. I went to it in 2010, the week after PAX on a saturday and it looked like a sunday's PAX attendance cut in half.
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You can't beat PAX attendence. It's not even fair of Anime Boston to compare them. Its like saying "man have you seen all those people in the US?...pshh, they look like a half populated city compared to that China place."
RenaissanceSeaport. Seems like everything close is starting to fill up. Look forward to meeting new people.Note: on a hunch i decided to call onpeak and see if any rooms were freed up. They were very friendly and helped switch my hotel. Just remember if you want a hotel try and call. its worth the shot.
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I know juju started up a google doc so people can start (stalking)friending/following others in their hotels or nearby, you should give that a whirl. (It's up on the first page, guarded by a cute pokemon avatar)
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Yeah, that's about it. But since we didn't end up getting back until about 3 AM, there wasn't much sleep to be had.
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PAX East 2013 Checklist: Passes Purchased [X] Passes Received [ ] Transportation [X] Hotel Reservation [X]
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Sunday night and Thursday night fill up first. I think they get far smaller room quantities for those two nights. I booked at the Westin an hour after the twitter announcement, and there were no more thurs-sun doubles left.
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The Renaissance is the next closest hotel after the Westin and the Seaport. It is also very close to the BCEC and is a nice hotel.
I believe the hotels that are further away have shuttle service (provided by PAX) to and from the hotels.
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Also call onpeak every now and then. If there are any cancellations they will switch your reservation for you. It's how I got into Seaport.
It's always worth a shot.
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Also now that I'm looking at the onpeak booking system is seems that they don't charge you until you actually stay? So I could book and if I decided to change my mind or look at a different hotel there wouldn't be a penalty?
From what I read after I booked was that they require a 72 hour notice for any change of reservation. Though i know there will be a deposit (usually one nights stay) you should get most of that back. I have decided to stay closer to PAX due to not having to worry about the T shutting down at 2. I also have a lot more friends staying closer (at Seaport) so the decision was logical.
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I stayed at the Colonnade for PAX East 2011 (our first PAX). We ended up taking cab rides to get there (which was about $10ish if I remember correctly..) and taking the shuttle back to the hotel. We could have waited to be picked up by the shuttle but we wanted to get there uber early for the lines. Our room was very nice.. and the view from our floor to ceiling window was amazing to wake up to! AND you get a little Colonnade rubber duck! /relevant.
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OnPeak transfers the reservations to the actual PAX hotels about two weeks prior to PAX. I would say that you'd need at least 2 weeks prior to PAX to switch your booking with OnPeak. That's separate from the 72 hour cancellation notice for the hotel itself once the reservation is transferred to the hotel.
If you book with a credit card, you are not charged unless you cancel with the hotel with less than 72 hours notice. A deposit will be "authed" to your card close to PAX to verify that your payment method is valid, but you will only be charged that deposit if you fail to check in to the hotel or if you cancel with less than 72 hours notice. Otherwise, the deposit auth will go away once you check in and you will only be charged once your stay is completed. This is how it's worked for most of the hotels in the past, but as I do not represent the hotels or OnPeak, YMMV.
The hotels themselves don't offer the shuttle service, it is a service provided by PAX to and from the partner hotels that are further away (not the seaport, renaissance, or westin). Not sure on the hours. I believe they ran right up until the end of PAX, but I'm not sure how often they showed up.
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To be honest this has been covered a bit in the thread, but I would understand why going through 8 pages would be a bit... annoying.
Here's my take.
As far as I am concerned there is no definitive guide to "Staying in a hotel that's a bit far from PAX", but I can tell you that it's doable. If you have access to a shuttle service then most of your problems should be solved, but if not, there's always a cab near a hotel and a line of them at the event. Boston has a good public transportation system as well, but it won't last late into the night when PAX closes. It's still worth looking into though since it will help with all day time and evening travels to and from should you need it. Keep in mind that a 7 day pass is only 15$. You could use the service all day and use a cab when the event closes - just know that there's a considerable line up when the place shuts down.
To help you plan ahead there are cab fair calculators out there for Boston, however in my experience the results were off. They kept telling me my rides should be about 7$ tip included but it was usually 10%.
The real thing you have to take into account is fatigue. PAX can (more like... will) be very demanding both physically and mentally. It can have a cascading effect on your plans if you aren't too careful. Plan yourself at good two trips back during the event (not counting the first time you go there and the time you intend to leave), that will probably help out the most. Don't make it so that you will feel "stranded", if you know what I mean. My best tip on this matter would be to get on with all the important, "can't miss" shopping early on and carry everything back to the hotel early on so you don't have to carry or worry about any of that.
Send me a PM if you want to talk about it in depth.
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It seems like Hyatt is one of the last hotels to fill up and it's kind of a nice little secret lol.
I'm doing the exact same thing with Hyatt! Haha. Do you guys have comp rooms, too?
PAX arranged the shuttles to and from various hotels, free of charge. Most of the shuttles ran every 55 minutes from 8-11 AM and then every thirty minutes from 5-8 PM. They also ran every 30 minutes from 12AM-3AM Friday and Saturday nights.
Perfect. Thanks!
Edit NM sounds like they are booked solid and giveing huge numbers to try and over book.
pax discount is obtained by booking through the pax site. westin is booked up, but many other area hotels are still available. booking outside the pax reserved block is not recommended, both for price and because if the hotel overbooks, reservations outside the block will be the first to get bumped.
I "believe" that hotels also generally prioritize paid-in-full/advance customers from prior experience, but that could also just be luck.
that depends on if you booked directly with the hotel or if you booked via hotwire or some other site like that.
Which is why I don't like booking through third parties. Heard enough horror stories.
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in general that's probably true, but with a con block situation it is very much in the hotel's best interest to keep con folk happy, even at the expense of some angry individual customers. also, last year the westin did overbook and a lot of outside-the-block people were, in fact, bumped.
Fixed it for ya.
For those of you who don't remember or weren't there. Back in 2009 (I think), the Oakland Raiders were in town for a preseason game the same weekend as PAX. The Grand Hyatt bumped a bunch of PAX people (booked in the PAX block) over to the Hyatt on Olive 8. The Grand Hyatt being across the street from the convention center and the Hyatt on Olive 8 being about a half-mile away. In addition to regular attendees, enforcers and possibly friends of PA were bumped. Robert Khoo went down and had a "talk" with the management there.
In the end, the Oakland Raiders were removed from the rooms they had already checked into and sent packing.
Thus is the power of Robert Khoo with a contract.
And THIS is why it's in your best interests to book inside the PAX block through OnPeak.
Zerzhul told me that story at last PAX. He added, "Beware the wrath of Khoo".
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FYI
The ones on the list that are still close and VERY accessible to the convention center are the Intercontinental Hotel, Omni Parker House, and the Hyatt Regency. The last two are short walking distance from the 7 Bus, which runs approximately every 5-15 minutes from the corner of Milk St and Summer St and stops directly in front of the BCEC. The Intercontinental is close to the convention center and an easy walk, but not for someone who is not comfortable with lugging around swag and plans to acquire many things to carry.
The Hilton Boston Financial District is an excellent option for anyone who will be doing a lot of pre-PAX Community events. It is the closest hotel to the Pokecrawl and any Faneuil Hall events the community will plan. It's a pretty inexpensive taxi ride as well.
Courtyard Boston Tremont Hotel, Radisson Hotel, and Park Plaza Hotel are near the Boylston/Arlington area of town, which is a very manageable cab ride fare especially when split. The one on Tremont is in a weird area, a mix of food courts, night clubs, and concert venues. Park Plaza is in the middle of many upscale restaurants and a short walk from ritzy shopping. They are manageable especially with the shuttles.
Colonnade Boston, Hilton Back Bay and MidTown Hotel are far, close to the old PAX East 2009 venue. If you can navigate the T well or utilize the shuttles, it may be worth it with the preplanning. The area around it has more things to do and relevant nightlife/eats for the average PAXer than the Boylston/Arlington hotels. Be prepared for a ~25-30 minute commute to PAX, though. If you're okay with that, it may be worth the value.
The Holiday Inn Brookline... hmm. This puzzles me as to why it's on the list because it's so, so very far. I live walking distance from this hotel and I'm hotelling it much closer
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