RubyConf hotel: Only single-bed rooms available at group rate?

[James Britt]

Yesterday, the day or the day after I got the RubyConf E-mail giving me
the conference group discount code, I went to book 2 rooms for 4 people
at the conference hotel. The Web site only offered me rooms with 1
King bed.

I called the hotel and was told that *only* 1-King rooms were available
for that rate.

Were there only some tiny number of 2-bed rooms available that just got
booked fast, or is this some group booking screw-up where no one thought
that people would be doubling up for the stay?

Has anyone else ran into this? Any way to get 1-King swapped for
2-doubles?

I like my co-workers, but I'm just not that into cuddling with them.

And $160 (+ insane taxes and fees) per person is pricey.

--
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff

 

[Gregory Brown]

And $160 (+ insane taxes and fees) per person is pricey.

The fees will be waived, apparently, but the base rate + taxes are pricey.
I think, unfortunately, that's the cost of expansion. The cheap
hotels don't easily accommodate 500. :-/

 

[James Britt]

The fees will be waived, apparently, but the base rate + taxes are pricey.
I think, unfortunately, that's the cost of expansion. The cheap
hotels don't easily accommodate 500. :-/

Well, it wouldn't be so bad if shared with another person, but forcing
people to go with one bed if they want that price is criminal.


--
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff

 

[Craig Demyanovich]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

My partners and I were only able to book a non-smoking room with 1 king bed
or a smoking room with 2 double beds. We ended going with one of each, since
two of us really didn't want a smoking room.

Craig

 

[James Britt]

My partners and I were only able to book a non-smoking room with 1 king bed
or a smoking room with 2 double beds. We ended going with one of each, since
two of us really didn't want a smoking room.

Seems all the rooms at the conference rate are now sold out.

Little wonder; people are discourage from doubling up.

Nice business.


--
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff

 

[Charles Oliver Nutter]

Seems all the rooms at the conference rate are now sold out.

Little wonder; people are discourage from doubling up.

Nice business.

That was quick. What were there, a dozen of them?

- Charlie

 

[Rick DeNatale]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

If true, that's unfortunate, since at least one of the speakers (me) hasn't
booked a room yet!

As I sent that my wife was getting us reservations. She managed to get two
nights at the convention rate, and three at $30/night more.

 

[David A. Black]

Hi --

Seems all the rooms at the conference rate are now sold out.

Little wonder; people are discourage from doubling up.

Nice business.

If there's something wrong with the hotel system, please let us
know ([email protected]). It's extremely unlikely that it's sold
out; we have not been notified by the hotel that they have run out of
our block of rooms. It's very possible, though, that their reservation
system is screwing up in some way, and we will of course talk to them
about that.

It will be more efficient if people having problems can contact
(e-mail address removed) directly, since we don't monitor this list for
event-specific problem reports.

Thanks --


David

--
Rails training from David A. Black and Ruby Power and Light:
Intro to Ruby on Rails January 12-15 Fort Lauderdale, FL
Advancing with Rails January 19-22 Fort Lauderdale, FL *
* Co-taught with Patrick Ewing!
See http://www.rubypal.com for details and updates!

 

[James Britt]

If there's something wrong with the hotel system, please let us
know ([email protected]).

I tried contacting you personally; I gather it got lost someplace. I
then posted here in the hopes that some had some ideas on how to correct
this before the hotel got more full for the target dates (making it
harder for them to fix things even if they wanted to).

I've now sent an account my problems to the rubycentral e-mail address.

Hopefully, people who have booked the 1-bed rooms can get them changed
to 2-bed rooms, making more rooms available overall. (And reducing some
amount of "inappropriate touching". )

--
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff

 

[Richard Kilmer]

We very much apologize if this has inconvenienced folks, our intent
was to make this run smoothly, but we don't control all these hotel
employees and the horrible systems that they use.

We signed for 700 room nights and an option of 150 more. We have to
fill 90% of those or WE PAY (RubyCentral). This is the way hotels
work for conferences of our size. (so yeah, Charles, its a few more
than a dozen).

We should have plenty of rooms at last count. We have single-bed
rooms and double-bed rooms for the rate of $159/night which extends
from Oct 31 - Nov 13.

If the booking person you are speaking with says otherwise, they are
wrong and you should ask for the head of hotel reservations or email
us at (e-mail address removed)

We will contact the hotel (again) today to ensure things are flowing
properly.

Best regards,

Rich Kilmer

 

[James Britt]

We very much apologize if this has inconvenienced folks, our intent was
to make this run smoothly, but we don't control all these hotel
employees and the horrible systems that they use.

Things look much, much better now, and thanks very much for your time
and trouble to make things go right.




James Britt

(Ex-hotel worker who knows just how horribly wrong things can go)

 

[Richard Kilmer]

All,

I just wanted to let you know the report we received from the OMNI,
Orlando hotel this morning. We have over 100 of one and two-bed rooms
available in our block on the peak nights (5th, 6th, 7th) and can get
more if we need them. If a reservations agent tells you otherwise
they are not correct and you should let them know that Oscar Vargas,
Group Reservations Coordinator, sent us a report to show that they
have availability.

Note that you should be able to reserve your rooms online at the
following URL:

http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/OrlandoChampionsGate/MeetingFacilities/RubyConference2008.aspx

There were issues with the web-based system last week and there were
issues with the (central) OMNI reservations agents and our group code,
but both of those have been resolved, again, we apologize for any
inconvenience.

The hotel researched whether anyone had been charged more for their
rooms (using the conference code), and the found none. If you have
been told that you had to pay more please email us at (e-mail address removed)
You should not be changed any additional fee above the $159 from
Oct 31 - Nov 13.

We currently have 160 folks booked at the hotel and hope that more of
you will register there before the Oct 6th cutoff date. Its going to
be a great time for us at RubyConf this year and staying in this hotel
will be worth it.

Best,

Rich

 

[Charles Oliver Nutter]

We very much apologize if this has inconvenienced folks, our intent was
to make this run smoothly, but we don't control all these hotel
employees and the horrible systems that they use.

We signed for 700 room nights and an option of 150 more. We have to
fill 90% of those or WE PAY (RubyCentral). This is the way hotels work
for conferences of our size. (so yeah, Charles, its a few more than a
dozen).

I was joking.