TOPIC: GenCon 2017 Hotels Reservation Updates

Mike Steele wrote: I just got into the system to see what my hotel choices were - closest is 11.7 miles out. I think I'll stick to booking out of the block.

I wonder if hotels are putting fewer rooms in the block and renting more out of the block. They are pretty much guaranteed to sell out of the downtown rooms, they might as well sell more of the rooms at the higher non-block rates.

Its possible. I imagine block size is part of the now annual process of negotiating a one year extension to the GenCon Contract with Indy.

Harlax wrote:

Mike Steele wrote: I just got into the system to see what my hotel choices were - closest is 11.7 miles out. I think I'll stick to booking out of the block.

I wonder if hotels are putting fewer rooms in the block and renting more out of the block. They are pretty much guaranteed to sell out of the downtown rooms, they might as well sell more of the rooms at the higher non-block rates.

Its possible. I imagine block size is part of the now annual process of negotiating a one year extension to the GenCon Contract with Indy.

Do you think so? Does Indy have any actual control over how many rooms hotels decide to put in the housing block?

Donald Rients wrote: Is there some stat or additional information that points to the 3:30 line in the sand for DT rooms? Information like how many the were allocating for each minute would be nice.

No, I was just estimating based on past years. The last two years, it seemed that, among the total range of times handed out, downtown rooms sold out between 25 and 30% of the total time. This year, seeing times spread out over a little more than 10 hours, I figured a similar 25-30% ratio would put the sell-out time between 2:45 and 3:00. I added a bit to my estimate to get the 'drop dead' 3:30 time...rooms might last a bit longer than I predicted, but not so much more that anyone past 3:30 could expect to get one.

Turns out that I was a bit wrong on the other side...the DT sell-out happened a few minutes after 2:30 by the reports I saw on the FB group.

Mike Steele wrote:

Harlax wrote:

Mike Steele wrote: I just got into the system to see what my hotel choices were - closest is 11.7 miles out. I think I'll stick to booking out of the block.

I wonder if hotels are putting fewer rooms in the block and renting more out of the block. They are pretty much guaranteed to sell out of the downtown rooms, they might as well sell more of the rooms at the higher non-block rates.

Its possible. I imagine block size is part of the now annual process of negotiating a one year extension to the GenCon Contract with Indy.

Do you think so? Does Indy have any actual control over how many rooms hotels decide to put in the housing block?

I have experience in planning conferences, although way, way smaller than GenCon. Usually there is some form of guarantee associated with the setting of the block size. If the block significantly undersells, the event organizer is on the the hook for the difference between actual and the negotiated minimum occupancy. So the organizer has to be careful about the block size they guarantee. Of course something as big as GenCon may work entirely differently. GenCon has way more negotiating power.

Rebeg wrote:

Harlax wrote:

Phil Norton wrote: You would be able to buy one room for the first 2 badges at the early time, the rest would be at the end of the queue.

All downtown are sold out for 4 nights, I tried to piece together 2 and 2 nights but all minimums are 3 nights. What a terrible system.

The three night minimum was instated because a few years ago a lot of downtown rooms were being snagged for Friday night and Saturday night. Locking out availability for people who wanted Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The three night minimum was exactly what the community asked for in response.

While correct. They should up it to a full con stay. Thurs - Sunday. So not to leave fragmented DT rooms which are the premium. Like Phil noted, he might have been able to piece 2 here and 2 there for a full stay, but can't due to the requirement of 3 nights.

Oh well, I have my alt list for further out rooms.

You are correct Harlax I don't want single nights to be booked, but if the housing system is all encompassing let me do my 4 night stay and grab whatever rooms I can. There was even a Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday available at Marriott but because it was contiguous I couldn't book any of them. I would have taken that and found a single on Friday but that didn't work either. So now I'm 10 miles out until I make other arrangements.

Harlax wrote:

lazlo_hollyfeld1985 wrote: its getting to the point (this and then cost)
where people are going not go to gen con and to start going to smaller cons and taking a long vacation and probably still save money

There was much speculation that housing issues were a main cause of atenence growth plateauing last year.

If I could get XP and the full TD experience at a small Con, I'd be all over that. TD is my only reason to go to GenCon now.

Exactly.

Harlax wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Harlax wrote:

Mike Steele wrote: I just got into the system to see what my hotel choices were - closest is 11.7 miles out. I think I'll stick to booking out of the block.

I wonder if hotels are putting fewer rooms in the block and renting more out of the block. They are pretty much guaranteed to sell out of the downtown rooms, they might as well sell more of the rooms at the higher non-block rates.

Its possible. I imagine block size is part of the now annual process of negotiating a one year extension to the GenCon Contract with Indy.

Do you think so? Does Indy have any actual control over how many rooms hotels decide to put in the housing block?

I have experience in planning conferences, although way, way smaller than GenCon. Usually there is some form of guarantee associated with the setting of the block size. If the block significantly undersells, the event organizer is on the the hook for the difference between actual and the negotiated minimum occupancy. So the organizer has to be careful about the block size they guarantee. Of course something as big as GenCon may work entirely differently. GenCon has way more negotiating power.

Harlax, I'm not questioning you at all, I'm just genuinely curious. What influence would the event coordinator for GENCON have over downtown hotels to require them to have a certain percentage of their rooms in the room block? Would it be refusal to have them be a part of the room block at all?

Well, now that I can actually get in, I had to peek. I can still stay about 12 miles away if I want to pay close to $200 a night (with taxes). Seems like hotels are becoming more and more of an issue not just with Gen Con but other cons as well. If you go back five or six years ago it seems like most cons you could still get a close room a few months out. Not so much any more.

For those still looking for rooms, if you go to Hilton.Com, there are still three downtown Hilton properties with nights for the weekend, in the $419 - $499 per night range.

Mike Steele wrote:

Harlax wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Harlax wrote:

Mike Steele wrote: I just got into the system to see what my hotel choices were - closest is 11.7 miles out. I think I'll stick to booking out of the block.

I wonder if hotels are putting fewer rooms in the block and renting more out of the block. They are pretty much guaranteed to sell out of the downtown rooms, they might as well sell more of the rooms at the higher non-block rates.

Its possible. I imagine block size is part of the now annual process of negotiating a one year extension to the GenCon Contract with Indy.

Do you think so? Does Indy have any actual control over how many rooms hotels decide to put in the housing block?

I have experience in planning conferences, although way, way smaller than GenCon. Usually there is some form of guarantee associated with the setting of the block size. If the block significantly undersells, the event organizer is on the the hook for the difference between actual and the negotiated minimum occupancy. So the organizer has to be careful about the block size they guarantee. Of course something as big as GenCon may work entirely differently. GenCon has way more negotiating power.

Harlax, I'm not questioning you at all, I'm just genuinely curious. What influence would the event coordinator for GENCON have over downtown hotels to require them to have a certain percentage of their rooms in the room block? Would it be refusal to have them be a part of the room block at all?

Again, I'm applying my experience with smaller events typically involving one or two hotels. GenCon is way bigger. As I understand it, GenCon negotiates with the Convention and Visitors Bureau (Visit Indy). My guess is that the Bureau works with the hotels to arrange the block. GenCon's leverage comes in what is now a process of annual extension of its contract for one more year. My guess is that hotel availability is part of that process. Is there a fair amount of extrapolation in all that? Yes, yes there is.

Rebeg wrote: Man they are throwing tantrums on the Gencon pages. "OH SO NOT FAIR" post are all over the place.

Have to say this is my favorite

Posted by suburbaknght 15 hours ago
#32

Okay, here we go: the annual Gen Con Make Housing Fair Again discussion:

- Someone points out the current system is unfair citing their particular case as evidence. This is not in any way biased.

- Various people suggest tying housing to other measures of need/value/merit including years of attendance, events run, personal need, etc. By sheer coincidence these suggestions just happen to be measures that would favor these people.

- Someone suggests doing away with housing entirely.

- Free market vs. communism discussion occurs. Shockingly enough no one makes an Ayn Rand reference.

- Someone points out that it's possible to have a good Gen Con experience without a downtown hotel. No one listens to them.

- People point out that some people need a downtown hotel room due to kids, disabilities, etc. When someone responds that going to Gen Con itself is not a need they will be met with an angry response about "my vacation" that does not actually address the point.

- The admins, having been quite for most of the discussion, issue a warning against personal attacks.

- A month after the convention Gen Con sends out a series of customer satisfaction surveys. The results from the thousands of attendees who fill these out guide the convention's future decisions instead of the comparatively fewer angry people on the forums. Our argument has solved nothing and serves merely as a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing.

- After billions of years, the sun becomes a red giant and expands to several magnitudes its current size. The first four planets are engulfed. Earth and with it humanity die. Competition for downtown housing drops to an all-time low.

There, I saved you some time.

This is pure gold!

Well, it looks like every single room in the block is sold out, no matter how far from GENCON it is. That's the first time I recall that happening. I wonder how much of that is a spike in attendance, and how much is fewer rooms in the block. I'll bet there is a complete True Dungeon sellout this year in record time.