reserving hotel room blocks

[Guest Lind L. Tailor]

when and how will i be able to reserve otakon room blocks at the special rate for otakon 2009, will i be able to reserve them as i leave this year on sunday, i'm staying at the marriot inner harbor and would probably be making reservations to stay there again next year, thanks...

[AVY 0]

Hotels are within their right to check that the people staying in the room are the people listed. However, most people don't all check in together; just think of all the families with kids who just have mom or dad check in for everybody. You should, however, make sure that you get a list of names of who is in the room at least somewhat before the convention, and change your information on PassKey to reflect this. If your friends arrive late, they just can come and ask you for a key. But if they arrive early, and ask the front desk if you'e checked in already, the front desk can't help them unless their name is on the room (and they have a valid photo ID).

[evaunit01berserk 0]

just got off the phone with the bacva

Someone is reserving rooms in bulk, they are trying to scalp the rooms

I hope Otakon has a plan for this

[Pincer 0]

Just snagged a room at the Holiday Inn Inner Harbor and I did call the Housing Office to confirm that yes, you have to go through them on the reservations.

Only scary thing is, even though the reservations are set in the system they aren't transferred to the actual hotels until one week prior to the con.

Can an Otakon rep please elaborate more on this? I'm a little curious as to how this will work if people call the hotels directly and get reservations that way. Would that screw up the hotel room block setup?

[animal_crackers 3]

Just two quick questions about reserving hotel rooms, since this is going to be my first time doing this and I want to DO IT RIGHT:

When you reserve a room, do you have to pay right then and there or after your stay at the hotel? Right now, I don't have the money to do so, and I'm not sure if my friends are going to go through with me on this, but I think that by next summer I should have saved up enough money for the room itself (being a poor college student sucks...). I'd really like to reserve a room now so that I can have a place to stay because this year I missed out on all of the late night panels and some morning panels .

Also, how old do you have to be to reserve a room? I'm going to be 20 in April next year, but I found on the Radisson website that you have to be 21 or older to reserve a room. Is this just a general thing with all the hotels in the area or is it best for me to just call and ask about it?

I really hope the rooms haven't sold out just yet...

[OtakonOtaku 0]

you will pay for a hotell when you check in the first day (pay for parking on the day you leave)

I asked the same question about age... but it seems to be diffrent for other hotells... and I was told that some hotels are 18 to reserve... you might want to ask the hotel about the age

[bats 0]

just got off the phone with the bacva

Someone is reserving rooms in bulk, they are trying to scalp the rooms

I hope Otakon has a plan for this

[Frostline 0]

I think this is TERRIBLE how apparently you can't specify one or two beds from this new reservation site, nor am I seemingly able to reserve more than one room.

[toujourspret 0]

I just called the Sheraton and we've already crashed their registration system! Here's hoping I can get a room before they're all gone?

Edited August 11, 2008 by toujourspret

[Eddie 2 18]

I just booked at the new Hilton hotel VIA the Otakon website. But I

[OtakonOtaku 0]

just got off the phone with the bacva

Someone is reserving rooms in bulk, they are trying to scalp the rooms

I hope Otakon has a plan for this

wow, that is ridiculous. can an admin chime on this please?

[cxt217 0]

you have to be kidding ... thats just wrong can't people be honest, please for your own sake and Otakon in general they should stop it at 3 rooms or soemthing ;_;

I saw that too... you have to add the special request of 2 beds but you can chose from the start

[ithilienne 2]

I know you're all anxious to have hotel space for the con. Don't worry - there are plenty of hotel rooms in the city.

We're still recovering from the convention and some of us are still traveling home (a few are even at the BCC still), but someone will be posting more information about it when they have a chance. Please be patient.

[Ollie 0]

I think this is TERRIBLE how apparently you can't specify one or two beds from this new reservation site, nor am I seemingly able to reserve more than one room. Poor choice on Otakon's part, going with this new system if you ask me... either that or whoever's running it really needs to work out all the kinks.

[evaunit01berserk 0]

also i forgot to mention another problem that arose while i was leaving the hotel. i found out that the hotels where handing out slips of paper with the cons dates for next year. they started handing these out friday. now why the heck did i have to wait till sunday for my chance to book a hotel room, but some nitwit had to give the dates for next years con with the number to call to reserve it to some people that are already reserving bulk rooms for purposes of scalping?

[OtakonOtaku 0]

@cxt217 - yes I ment I wish - I was going fot can't but I was really tired typing and .t got lost >_<

anyway no one at our hotel seemed to be handing things out ...

I'm not sure how I feel about this system ... it's nice but what about peoplr who don't have CC???

and isn't there soemthing that can be done about thoe who are getting rooms in bulk?? that not fair to the rest of us who only need one room

[Chaoseffect 0]

I got a paper from the Holiday Inn for the con dates for next year when I was checking in. It had July 15-20th. They told me they had been given them to give out to people by the Otakon staff. I thought it was strange they would have 5 days on them.

[Nayuki 0]

I hope more hotels will come out over the next couple weeks. I went to Otakon this year, and I'm from Canada. So when the hotel blocks for next year went up, (which is around 7PM I'm guessing from the timestamp of the posts in this thread), we weren't even home to even be able to book. We were still in transit to go back home to Canada. And alot of the hotels that were up are all gone. Maybe for the future they should delay the opening of the blocks to a week or couple days later. I think it helps Baltimore and Otakon if they were able to accommodate and make it easier for people outside the area that have to fly in and out a better chance at securing a room.

[Daniel Perales 95]

I booked the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore last night...had so much fun this year and can't wait... was wondering though if anyone stayed there this year and would mind telling me how they liked it...or if they have heard good thing about it.

[cxt217 0]

You can. When you look at room rate and details for a particular hotel, the different room types (ie number of beds) will show. If they don't have a two-bed option, it's probably sold out. So, you can choose your room type, of course only based on what is available.

[w-deremer 2]

Just two quick questions about reserving hotel rooms, since this is going to be my first time doing this and I want to DO IT RIGHT:

When you reserve a room, do you have to pay right then and there or after your stay at the hotel? Right now, I don't have the money to do so, and I'm not sure if my friends are going to go through with me on this, but I think that by next summer I should have saved up enough money for the room itself (being a poor college student sucks...). I'd really like to reserve a room now so that I can have a place to stay because this year I missed out on all of the late night panels and some morning panels .

Also, how old do you have to be to reserve a room? I'm going to be 20 in April next year, but I found on the Radisson website that you have to be 21 or older to reserve a room. Is this just a general thing with all the hotels in the area or is it best for me to just call and ask about it?

I really hope the rooms haven't sold out just yet...

[anita7601 0]

I love the dramatic drop in the price for the hotels! Many thanks to negotiating such a fabulous rate for the con. I WAS sincerely hoping that once the Hilton opened up with their over 700+ guest rooms, it would force the other hotels to be a bit more competitive with their prices. I'm thrilled to see that it's done just that!!!

[XellosNoHimitsu 0]

The new way to reserve is both invasive and inconvenient. How am I supposed to know who

s going to be staying with me next year? the names change so much over the year that it's probably not going to be the same...also the way to reserve on the phone is only open while I'm at work so there's no help that way. According to the site every hotel but the radisson is sold out, which is pretty ridiculous if it's true since con ended yesterday :/

[Akira 0]

When I search for hotel rooms only the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel and Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore appear - am I doing something wrong or are these the only rooms available now?

[Eddie 2 18]

I hope more hotels will come out over the next couple weeks. I went to Otakon this year, and I'm from Canada. So when the hotel blocks for next year went up, (which is around 7PM I'm guessing from the timestamp of the posts in this thread), we weren't even home to even be able to book. We were still in transit to go back home to Canada. And alot of the hotels that were up are all gone. Maybe for the future they should delay the opening of the blocks to a week or couple days later. I think it helps Baltimore and Otakon if they were able to accommodate and make it easier for people outside the area that have to fly in and out a better chance at securing a room.

[Transepoch 9]

I booked the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore last night...had so much fun this year and can't wait... was wondering though if anyone stayed there this year and would mind telling me how they liked it...or if they have heard good thing about it.

That's the hotel where I stayed over this pass weekend.

I was on the 9th Floor, and it was pretty quiet, overall (don't know about the rest of the floors). I had a room with 2 queen-sized bed, and the space of the entire room wasn't really all that big. In fact, you'll probably will have a hard time to fit at least 5 in there (2 per bed, and one on the floor). One thing though, the bed was sure comfortable. The tv was a regular 20inch CRT. Everything in the room was nice and neat, especially the bathroom.

The staff that I've dealt with were pretty friendly and, and most importantly, all the elevators worked.

The only 2 negative things that I can say is: I had such a problem with the wireless internet, that I only managed to connect Friday evening for about 15 minutes tops and couldn't connect again until mid Sunday evening (I stayed over until just before noon, today).

The second is, I didn't mind walking a bit to the BCC, but I had to go through a gauntlet of homeless people asking for money, and that's was on Charles Street sometimes in mid afternoon. It's best to walk with a group of people, if you can.

I was down on the third floor, but the room was a dive and service wasn't much better. The restaurant was good, and as Danny mentioned the elevators worked, but any thoughts of repeating next year are long gone (can send link for pics if anyone PMs interest.)

[F00LY 36]

If I book a room now through Otakon's thing, and get something better later, I can cancel this current one, free of charge, correct?

Also if you stuff more people in (I have 4 confirmed, 6 potential) and you only listed 4 guests, what happens?

Edited August 12, 2008 by F00LY

[Pincer 0]

You can always cancel free of charge. That goes for just about any hotel out there. Just remember to double check what is the latest you can cancel reservations by. Most hotels have up until 48 hours until check out or else you pay a cancellation fee.

Most hotels won't bust your chops on packing in a few more people into the room without their knowledge. Hell, a lot of them know people do that, but usually they'll only bust occupants on that if they suspect there's a big safety issue on occupancy overflow or if they're feeling assinine. It just depends on where you stay at.

[tstidm1 0]

When I search for hotel rooms only the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel and Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore appear - am I doing something wrong or are these the only rooms available now?

[F00LY 36]

Well hopefully I can get my extension stayed at the Hilton to Thrusday night, was only able to grab Friday and Saturday there.

What I'm worried about now is the "Do not call 'just to be sure' until after July 9th" thing. How else am I supposed to see if I can change my reservation to add Thursday night?

Edited August 12, 2008 by F00LY

[Nan 0]

The online system works for one room, if you need more than one or you want more hotel options try calling them at 800-282-6632 and tell them you want a room they will help you. My biggest problem with this number is that each person you can call will have you reserve the rooms a different way.

Another alternative is that you can reserve through emailing them at conventionhousing@baltimore.org which is what I had to do to reserve five rooms today (though yesterday they were prepared to reserve them all under my name over the phone).

# of Rooms w/one name for each room

Arrival and Departure dates

Phone number

Address for CC

CC #

CC exp (the Credit Card information I was told is to hold the room and will not be charged till you check in, and yes I feel amazingly paranoid doing this but that's what the lady on the phone told me to do)

These are only suggestions I'm not staff and am in no way official for things like this this is just what I've picked up as useful.

[bats 0]

I just called. The only hotel the rep said they expect to sign up soon was the Days Inn. However no actual date time they would appear on the site.

Also, she didn't hear about someone bulk reserving rooms.

[evaunit01berserk 0]

I just called. The only hotel the rep said they expect to sign up soon was the Days Inn. However no actual date time they would appear on the site.

Also, she didn't hear about someone bulk reserving rooms.

[tomoe27 0]

Does anyone know what hotels are on the otakon site? When i tried searching for rooms for 4 people Thurs-Sun, i came up with no hotels, and 2 people only 2 hotels came up... It sounds almost like there are only a couple hotels setup already. I know most years the Sheraton (old wyndham) doesn't fill up right away... I'm a little worried I won't be able to find a room for next year...

[Ollie 0]

I just called. The only hotel the rep said they expect to sign up soon was the Days Inn. However no actual date time they would appear on the site.

Also, she didn't hear about someone bulk reserving rooms.

yeah, the only reason i found out about the bulk rooms was because i was talking to the operator to reserve a room and shes like oh theres 50 rooms still available at so-so hotel, then when we went to reserve it, she said oops, someone just took the all of them

[MattTheMinion 0]

Regarding the rooming system.

As for the passkey thing. The large blocks of rooms that are reserved are those we (Otakon Staff) have set aside for ourselves. We do this every year to make sure that we have enough rooms for our staff. After all if our staff are not there, there is no convention.

Finally, more hotels will be added as soon as we have signed contracts with them. Unfortunately while we have contracts, not all of the hotels were in positions to sign them with us by the end of this year's convention.

If you work with the hotels directly, you may not get the Otakon rate. It pretty much depends on the hotel itself.

The hotels that appear depend on the days that you search for and the rooms that are available.

If you switch the dates then you will get different results. Again this will change as we add more hotels through signing contracts with them.

[vanstane 0]

I really don't understand why people get so upset and start going on about how unfair it is that this or that hotel is booked. Is it because they are unfamiliar with Otakon? I'm assuming so, because anyone that has been to Otakon for the last few years ought to know better. As soon as you know the dates, book. If you are traveling, have someone back home to keep an eye on the forums for you. What's unfair about people not knowing to check the website or forums? Live and learn. I hope people stop being so negative. Complaining about how unfair the situation is doesn't change anything and in some cases can make matters worse. It is unfortunate, I get that. Obviously, I can't speak for Otakon but it's just common sense that they can't help every single person with a complaint. Obviously, the online reservation system is new, obviously there will be problems with it. For such a massive con they do a pretty damn good job, so try to chill and trust a little.

Someone brought up a good point about not knowing who will be in your room... as long as you don't have like 15+ ppl in your room its true that most hotels turn a blind eye if there are a few more people. Last year I had around 7-11... but a couple friends lived in the area and only stayed one night, so really only 9 people total. As long as you keep the room neat (aka no fire hazards) and don't make a ton of noise you should be okay. You won't draw attention to a few additional roomies that way.

Also as it's been mentioned a few times, there will be a lot of cancellations in the coming months, so I'd suggest checking back weekly. One last thing about the hotels, if Otakon was over a year away no one would be able to book because most if not all hotels won't even allow reservations over a year. So for people new to reserving rooms, that's a real stress relieving tip to keep in mind. Also, having wireless internet laptop is a real stress reliever when heading home from the con on Sunday too... you can keep checking the forums

Good luck and take care all!

Edited August 12, 2008 by vanstane

[Nan 0]

If we are unhappy with the current location of our hotel can we call to change to different hotel when more contracts are signed?

[Revengel 29]

I really don't understand why people get so upset and start going on about how unfair it is that this or that hotel is booked. Is it because they are unfamiliar with Otakon? I'm assuming so, because anyone that has been to Otakon for the last few years ought to know better. As soon as you know the dates, book. If you are traveling, have someone back home to keep an eye on the forums for you. What's unfair about people not knowing to check the website or forums? Live and learn. I hope people stop being so negative. Complaining about how unfair the situation is doesn't change anything and in some cases can make matters worse. It is unfortunate, I get that. Obviously, I can't speak for Otakon but it's just common sense that they can't help every single person with a complaint. Obviously, the online reservation system is new, obviously there will be problems with it. For such a massive con they do a pretty damn good job, so try to chill and trust a little.

Someone brought up a good point about not knowing who will be in your room... as long as you don't have like 15+ ppl in your room its true that most hotels turn a blind eye if there are a few more people. Last year I had around 7-11... but a couple friends lived in the area and only stayed one night, so really only 9 people total. As long as you keep the room neat (aka no fire hazards) and don't make a ton of noise you should be okay. You won't draw attention to a few additional roomies that way.

Also as it's been mentioned a few times, there will be a lot of cancellations in the coming months, so I'd suggest checking back weekly. One last thing about the hotels, if Otakon was over a year away no one would be able to book because most if not all hotels won't even allow reservations over a year. So for people new to reserving rooms, that's a real stress relieving tip to keep in mind. Also, having wireless internet laptop is a real stress reliever when heading home from the con on Sunday too... you can keep checking the forums

Good luck and take care all!

[Amishpriest 3]

I just booked a room at Holiday Inn...I really appreciate how much more of a simple, streamlined process this is than in years past...not to mention better rates. I'll be going next year for three nights at the same total price that I paid this year for two nights at the Harborplace.

[lambogirl 0]

I booked a room at hilton AND sheraton just in case x: sucks that I can't book a room for thursday @ Hilton though

[crismas 0]

I thought the 15-20 thing was odd at first. That's why I didn't bother reserving anything during my stay, I figured I'd just wait to hear more on the website. Unfortunately by the time I checked and called up the Holiday Inn was sold out (which is where I stayed this year), though I understand now (duh @ me) that the 15-20 thing was a block I'm assuming for staff and such that is reserved for that Otakon rate. Anyway, I booked my hotel for the Renaissance...lol is there anything wrong with that hotel? I don't see many people signing up for it. Either way I'm content that I got my hotel.

[Vetes 0]

All I need to know is will I pay for the hotel room now? I don't want to pay for it a year before the con. It says you do on the Otakon hotel reservations page.

[F00LY 36]

I thought the 15-20 thing was odd at first. That's why I didn't bother reserving anything during my stay, I figured I'd just wait to hear more on the website. Unfortunately by the time I checked and called up the Holiday Inn was sold out (which is where I stayed this year), though I understand now (duh @ me) that the 15-20 thing was a block I'm assuming for staff and such that is reserved for that Otakon rate. Anyway, I booked my hotel for the Renaissance...lol is there anything wrong with that hotel? I don't see many people signing up for it. Either way I'm content that I got my hotel.

[F00LY 36]

Double post )

Anyway, I got 2 nights at the Hilton. Thursday isn't available for some reason, so I'm planning on keeping that as long as possible and adding Thursday whenever I can. Until then, I have a reservation also from my friend at the Days Inn. $120/night for 4 people/room. Anyone else wants it it looks like more rooms are still available, and if / when I cancel mine due to a Thursday opening at the Hilton opens up, I'll put it here immediately for anyone else still searching for a room.

[Revengel 29]

I thought the 15-20 thing was odd at first. That's why I didn't bother reserving anything during my stay, I figured I'd just wait to hear more on the website. Unfortunately by the time I checked and called up the Holiday Inn was sold out (which is where I stayed this year), though I understand now (duh @ me) that the 15-20 thing was a block I'm assuming for staff and such that is reserved for that Otakon rate. Anyway, I booked my hotel for the Renaissance...lol is there anything wrong with that hotel? I don't see many people signing up for it. Either way I'm content that I got my hotel.

[bats 0]

FYI: Days Inn is available

I just booked two rooms for four people.

[lambogirl 0]

All I need to know is will I pay for the hotel room now? I don't want to pay for it a year before the con. It says you do on the Otakon hotel reservations page.

[alabaster 0]

I know the Holiday Inn (from staying there before) does not require payment until check-out (confirmed with a phone call to them last night), and the gentleman also told me they do NOT place a hold on funds.

They place the hold on funds when you check in, however.

[Daniel Perales 95]

Well, I finally got my updated CC and I was fortunate to still have a choice of hotels to reserve a room in (at affordable rates).

Life is good!

[skishy101 0]

The Days Inn is available now. I just booked my two rooms for $120 a night. This is a great deal for how close it is. I was going to book the radison, but it's $185 now and a bit of a walk. I'm glad I caught the Days Inn. Now I'll give it till the morning for it to be completely booked.