jwf@munsell.UUCP (06/15/87)
I made a "guaranteed arrival" reservation at the Phoenix Hyatt Regency a
full month before the USENIX conference, and got a confirmation from the
Hyatt. When I got to the Hyatt on Monday night, they said they didn't
have a room of the requested size available, and would have to put me in
a different room. They also said that the room confirmation meant
nothing.
I was furious. This was a guaranteed arrival reservation! If I hadn't
shown up they would have happily pocketed the cost of the room. I did
show up, and no room! I could understand this if it was an isolated
case, but I watched about six people ahead of me in line get the same
treatment. One guy was pounding on the counter and yelling at the clerks.
I decided that the people behind the counter probably weren't
responsible, and waited until I got my room before flaming the hotel
manager. There is no question in my mind that the Phoenix Hyatt Regency
deliberately overbooked their rooms. I am curious as to how many other
USENIX attendees were jerked around by the Phoenix Hyatt, and whether
the USENIX organization is aware that it happened.
Still pissed off ...
-----
Disclaimer: this is my opinion, not my employer's
{harvard!adelie,{decvax,allegra,talcott}!encore}!munsell!jwf
Jim Franklin, Eikonix Corp., 23 Crosby Drive, Bedford, MA 01730
Phone: (617) 663-2115 x415henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (06/17/87)
Overbooking for conferences is normal for hotels. The hard part is trying
to estimate the percentage of no-shows. I know that this is a standard
problem for science-fiction conventions: they have an unusually low no-show
percentage, and often have to work quite hard to convince hotels of this.
It sounds like Usenix may be a similar case. If so, the thing to do is to
document the fact convincingly, with specific numbers for specific hotels
at specific Usenix conferences, and then use this as ammunition when making
deals with hotels in future.
--
"There is only one spacefaring Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
nation on Earth today, comrade." {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henryron@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (06/18/87)
Sorry, but it is a sad fact of life that certain attributes of rooms such as KING SIZE BEDS are NEVER guaranteed. All they guarantee you is a room with a sufficient number of beds and for a couple that means a single double bed (despite the fact that LIZ and I could never manage to really sleep well like that). -Ron