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PAX East 2014 Hotel Discussion Thread
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Damn, I thought Rascrush wrote Kayak for some reason. I read that too quickly and I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
So yeah, what Zerzhul said.
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In a lot of hotels, a lot of the connecting rooms are between a two-bed room and a king room, so availability for connecting between two two-bed rooms might be limited.
The past three years that I've booked at the Renaissance I have always asked for connected rooms, but they never give them to me. The first year I got two rooms on two separate floors, the second year they were both on the same floor but ~5 rooms apart. Last year we had a lot of problems with our reservation and complained so they gave us the Suite with the two attached rooms.
If you really want attached rooms make sure you try to specify in the booking request (if there is any way to do so), and call OnPeak after you make your reservations to see what they can do. If OnPeak does say that you will have connecting rooms, make sure to print out their confirmation.
I'm booking 4 rooms this year (my group keeps growing), so I'm definitely going to be contacting OnPeak/whatever hotel I'm saying at a lot.
It's a gamble. Personally, I've been attending conventions and expo's since 2005, and more frequently than not, we would put down 2 people in the room, then put between 5 and 9 people in the room. We haven't been caught yet, and the hotel's I've stayed in haven't been too overly vigilant about enforcement, but we are still breaking our reservation agreement.
Basically, what I've done is pretty common among con goers, we just all want you to know it is against the rules should you try to do the same thing.
Could you get kicked out? Maybe. I'm guessing the hotel staff would ask you politely (firmly), to have the people not on the reservation not stay in the room.
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This is true. I know people who regularly do it. Then again, they don't draw attention to the fact. The hotels are probably almost always aware anyway
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I put down 2 and ended up with 6 in my room. Like others say, don't draw attention or be loud or anything and you'll be fine... for the record I'm not recommending you do this lol.
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I would assume OnPeak can't do anything except put it as a request for when the hotel gets it. In the end, the hotel decides which reservations go into which rooms. You can only make a request for connecting rooms, hotels will rarely say (at least in my 7 years of convention attending) that a request like this is confirmed, because everything is up to availability. Unless maybe you're a super-ultra-diamond-platinum level member or something. For example, I always try to request low floors so I don't have to worry with elevators during a con. I'd say I end up getting one about 90% of the time, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.
These hotels are taking their normal prices, and in some cases chopping them in half for PAX. They would likely book to capacity even if OnPeak didn't exist, because PAX would still drive the demand. Most of the hotels are very accomdating to our fellow PAXers - we are not these hotels typical clientele, but for the most part, they go out of their way to provide to our needs (see the Westin Pre-Pax gaming night last year). Sure they sometimes screw stuff up (Menolly's unfortunate luggage incident at Prime comes to mind), but that can happen any time.
My point is, if you're going to cram 4 or more people in the room, tell the hotel you're bringing 4 people. That extra $30-$60 is easily disbursed among that many people anyway, and it shows the hotel a little bit of respect. Think of it as a thank-you for being willing to discount their prices so that you can enjoy PAX.
I'll get off my soapbox now. And no, I do not work in the hospitality industry.
I always declare my full party, personally I do not nickel and dime people ... I am always fully prepared to pay my way.
Also, as far as discounting the prices, yes, the PAX prices are discounted, BUT, they're STILL vastly, vastly inflated. Having worked a lot with room bookings, especially seeing people come in through sites like priceline, I've noticed the incredible disparity between what a hotel will charge and what they actually need to pull a profit. Lots of these places simply charge what they know businesses and tourists are willing to pay versus the actual value of the accommodations.
That's a nice way to rationalize away just about anything that costs money and has a wealthy owner. Do you make sure to steal the pillows and towels when you leave? I'm sure they can afford it. 8->
Pillows and towels? ppfftt thats too low key. PAX is more of a "throw your mattress off a roof" event
PAX East 2019!
Badges [X] Hotel [X] Time off request [X]
https://www.pinnypals.com/pals/Streetlight345
The point was more that the respects being paid by putting down the extra people on the room (and thus paying more on the already grossly inflated "discount" hotel price) won't be noticed even a little bit by the people at the hotel. Like I said, it's mostly matter of pay grade. If you do want to pay your respects for the good service, be a darling and leave a tip. Keep your room clean, don't trash it, and don't be noisy. Don't steal the pillows, they have your credit card and will charge you (oh man did we get some bitching between that and the people who smoked in the rooms and got hit with the fee for getting that wretched stench out).
Yes, it is within their rights to kick you out of the hotel. Will it happen? Almost certainly not. Four to five people in a two bed hotel room is practically de rigueur at conventions.
I've noticed in general that the Westin staff is much less amenable to the nerd crowd than the Seaport staff. I'm not sure if it's because they bear the brunt of the ancillary nerd activities in their lobby and cafe area, or because they're getting tipped poorly, but it's a definite difference. Actually had one guy try to wrangle tip out of us before our bags were even to the car. After staying at the Seaport, I'll probably not swap back to the Westin. Much better, cheerier, and more accommodating service.
Also, as a little bonus, no booze in the hotel rooms. Friend of mine found out that in Boston it's illegal to bring your own drinks into a hotel room the hard way (An employee seized his liquor bottle.)
Alcohol Policy
State law prohibits us from allowing outside alcohol on the premises. Any liquor brought into the hotel by guests will be kept at the front desk until checkout. We reserve the right to search luggage and bags if a guest is suspected of carrying alcohol.
If you are interested in hosting a post-hospitality event, please coordinate with our catering manager to have the event held in a private function room. Alcohol must be purchased through the hotel and is restricted to those 21 years of age or older with valid ID.
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Since this is sometimes an issue of fire code, they simply don't have the option to ignore it (as it makes them liable). The Sheraton actually had a paper with the regular pax info this year for Prime, that talked about this (calling it Room Stuffing) and hinted that they would potentially evict people caught with more than the allowed capacity (for fire code reasons).
It was in shepd's post, I was curious and looked it up