Dollism Plus US Sep 19-21, 2014, presented by Dollheart, Den of Angels & Mint on Card

A friend is thinking of maybe going and if she does I'm hitching a ride! I would love to go but I'll have to wait and see how it goes. Only hope there are still some rooms left since it would make it easier for us...

 

Hotels vary on their reservation policies but, if you have one, use a CC. This way no actual funds are held - as might happen with debit cards (even if funds are later released it still ties up your money for a few days).

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From the Hyatt website:
" Will my credit card be charged prior to my arrival at the hotel?"

In some cases, a deposit will be charged prior to your arrival at the hotel. Guarantee policies vary by hotel. If the Hyatt hotel where you are staying requires a credit card deposit, your credit card will be charged as soon as the hotel can process it.

To determine whether your credit card will be charged prior to your arrival, please read the cancellation and deposit policy that displays as you make your reservation online. This information displays immediately below the credit card number field. It may also be seen by following these steps:

Step 1:
Go to Hyatt.com
Type the location (city, state, country or hotel name) that you want to visit
Select check-in and check-out dates
Select the number of adults and children in your party
Click "Check Availability"

Step 2:
Click the "View All Rooms & Rates" button located under the information and photo featuring the hotel of interest

Step 3:
Click "Rate Details" next to the desired rate type name (such as "Hyatt Daily Rate")

 

I should have added that my card was not charged a deposit when I made my reservations a couple months ago. However I was not getting a "special rate" which sometimes affects reservation policy.

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Just got off phone with Hyatt... Fixed my reservation for Thursday-Sunday, so the booking manager must have worked his magic. Phew!

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hi. i called and booked my room last night. they did not have me pay for the first night for the person who asked that. i booked fri/sat/sun. i was told the 139 rate was gone for sunday night but i could still get it for the 149 rate. so as 1130 last night you could get the 139 for fri and sat then 149 for sunday. hope that helps. see everyone there

 

Yeah, I know it's January, but it's looking like I can't go. I don't know if I can find another PT job or a full time. Volks Tea Parties all over again. Ah well. Felt like it'd be fun.

 

Are they going to expand the block of rooms so more of us can book? Tried to make reservations, but the room block was already full

 

Ha! Currently on hold with Hyatt which is "experiencing an unusually high call volume." Working on booking the days around the Friday and Saturday I was able to secure online.

 

yea, I don't think that the block was very big at all. I booked a few hours ago - and they only had king sized beds left So, no double bed rooms. jyrus - how many people did you list? maybe that's the problem - because when I tried for more, it told me no room type ava.

 

the manager can't get in to expand the room block due to weather, have to wait till the weather clears

 

I managed to cobble together a crazy set of reservations. A Hypo-Allergenic room for the 17th and 18th for $259 per night , a standard king for the 19th and 20th, and a double for the 21st. O__o Would gladly trade the double for the king!
The entire hotel only has 300 rooms, but I really wasn't expecting it to sell out so fast! I was told to keep checking back for cancellations/block expansion, because they have no way of notifying us if anything changes.

 

Oh, great! gladly join! Can I come with my husband? He is not a party DoA.

sorry for my bad english

 

That's a huge bummer, I don't think I'll be able to reserve a room in time. I was looking forward to holding a room sale.

EDIT: Aaaaaand rather than waiting (and worrying) I just bit the bullet and reserved a room :P

 

Eniva, your husband does not need to be a DoA member to attend.

 

I was just able to book a standard double for Sept 19 to 22....staying Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night. Didn't give me the option to go longer. Looks like that time frame is still available.

 

Got my reservations! *Dances* Actually got them a couple of hours ago, but called to drop Thursday night since registration doesn't open until 5pm on Friday anyway.

 

I managed to book a room from the block for Thurs, Fri, and Sat nite, and paid $149 for Sunday nite.

Eniva, my husband will also come with me so yours will have company!

Looking forward to this Con.

 

These are the dates and room type I got, as well. I'm going with a non-doll friend (and possibly her husband, too) and we're planning on removing to another hotel after the convention and staying for probably several more days to do sightseeing vacationy things.

 

I just booked for Sept 19 to Sept 22. I was hoping to book for 18th through 22nd, but I'm happy that I was at least able to get a room until Monday. Oh, and it seems that the $139 rate is no longer applicable. My room cost me $149 for each day, which is not a big difference, but does indicate that the block is going extremely quickly!

 

The booking manager wasn't in today, but I got one of the staff to add a couple rooms manually (like 10) for Sunday night for right now. The rest of the Sunday block will be up tomorrow, hopefully, if the reservation manager is able to get in. As I said, the weather up here is horrible. Please don't worry, the Sunday rooms are not sold out. We can also potentially expand the block if they do sell out - this early, the availability is still there for us.

Thanks for your patience, lovelies. I can't wait to meet you all!!

 

Thank you so much for doing that! Since the block is already sold out for Wednesday and Thursday nights, I will keep my fingers crossed that we can expand!

 

I'm confused.. why is mine 20 dollars more a night?

 

Holy crap, is $95 normal!? I can go to PAX for $20 less than that, and I somehow doubt there will be as much content as PAX.

 

I noticed that it charged me an extra $10 a night past one person, even in a room with two beds. Kind of a ripoff, but still better than regular rates.

 

If my parents want to attend the convention, will we pay $95 for all three of us together, or do we have to pay that for each of us?

 

95 dollars is per BADGE, thus you need 3 badges so a total of 285 for all 3 of you to go.

 

Ok, thank you for letting me know.

 

Just to confirm: if we are attending the convention, but staying at a different hotel, we can still shop at the room sales on Friday night? Just not sell (since we won't have a room to sell from!)? Thanks!

 

I don't understand it... really really makes me upset because really? why does a normal person ALONE need two beds for?

 

No problem

 

The convention rate is $139 with a $10 add on per night per person, regardless of the bed configuration.

 

yes which i find STRANGE and honestly aggravating.

 

PAX is an enormous con with a lot of sponsors who pay a lot of money to attend and present; smaller, more niche cons are often more expensive. I don't mean to come off as defensive, but we we priced the badges as low as we could and still break even.

 

Is Thursday, in fact, completely sold out? I just booked Friday-Sunday, but as I am flying in, I will really need a Thursday room.

 

PAX vendor booth also costs $1,760 each. They lower the admission to below cost to draw in hundred of thousands to attend, and make money off sponsors and vendors. Different cons, different structures.

 

Call the hotel, the availability is there.

 

I'll talk to the reservation manager tomorrow. I was told that there was availability and that our room rate was locked in for 3 days before and three days after. If that's not what's on the website, I will try to make sure that it is!

 

Man, what a pain. I wanted to prepay for a hypoallergenic room (so it'd be out of the way) but if they really are going that fast, I may just book one after the website gets fixed if possible.

 

Wow, Well I am probably going to try and call and book myself a room tomorrow. Hopefully I can get one. Does anyone know how long we have to register? Or if there is a limit on number of people who can attend? I am so excited for this! Also one more question, if we register and for whatever reason we can't attend are we able to get a refund (of any kind) on registration?

 

No con I've ever attended allowed refunds or transfers of badges.

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When I mentioned this to the woman who helped me with my reservations today, she said that the rooms with the guaranteed con rate were sold out.

 

Why did I think I could wait to book a room?? I'm going to call tomorrow and hopefully get one. The website died on me tonight when I tried, but I also don't know the full names of everybody in my party (or who is even actually going with me). ^^;;; When I went back to try again, the room I was trying to book was gone! Only one night was available at all. I might just try booking a different hotel all together, but then we'll miss out on room sales. (Will the hotel let non-guests in for those??)

*edit* My doll husband found us two nights, which I just booked. I hope we can tag on extra nights, but if we can't I've explored options at hotels near by. WE WILL MAKE THIS WORK. Not missing this for anything!

 

I could be incorrect, but from what I gathered from armeleia's post was that there ARE rooms available, just the website to book rooms for our event isn't completely functional and thus, why a lot of us are unable to reserve rooms for the amount of time we want. She said she had someone from the hotel manually add a few rooms/ days for Sunday but that it won't be until tomorrow (later today, technically) that the actual manager who is handling our bookings can get on and completely resolve our booking issues. There sound be plenty of rooms/ days available, from what I gathered, the booking site just isn't updated accordingly.

^^; Like I said, perhaps I read it wrong, but I don't believe our rooms/ days are sold out quite yet and hopefully this should be sorted out here in the near future.

I'm waiting for posting from armeleia before I go and reserve a room. XD Worst comes to worst, there's a lot of other hotels in the area. Even if you're not rooming at the hotel you can still participate in the room sales as a buyer (so long as you have a convention badge) you just won't be able to sell.

Also, according to the website badges are nonrefundable and nontransferable.


Hope I helped someone and I hope my information for reservations was correct! Looking forward to hearing more about booking our rooms and such!

 

Well, I certainly hope there are more rooms made available. Right now there is only rooms on Saturday, which is just not going to work. If the reserved convention-rate block is sold out already, it can't have been a very big block...! I hope the block is expanded or a secondary convention hotel is made available for people.

It looks like I'm going to wait until the room situation is worked out before I bother registering for the con... I don't want to go if I can't get a room at the hotel or at one very, very near-by.

Oh... is there a place for looking for room-mates? Just on this thread? So far, I haven't planned for that because so many things are up in the air (like getting any room at all).

--edit--

Found a room-mate! Thanks!

 

I understand that from a business point of view. I do wish there was some "earlybird" pre-registration deal as an incentive to buy your badge early. Some conventions (even small ones) offer this, even if they are only a limited quantity for a certain amount of time.

As it is, I've booked a hotel rooms (since I can cancel that if things don't work out in the next 9 months) but I'm going to hold off on buying my Dollism badge until I can confirm I can go.

Doll North (i.e. Anime North) does. I think the cut-off is 1 week before the convention to either transfer your badge to someone else or roll-over the cost to next year (but no refund iirc).

 

Hey guys!

I was able to book from Friday to Sunday at least, so our reservation was booked with the hotel! Hopefully we can extend our stay to Thursday in the future, but if not we'll just drive up and stay at another hotel for the night.

 

Given the number of con registrations versus the number of rooms in our block, there is no way that the rooms are sold out yet. I am aware that there is a glitch with the site and I will be having a very... pointed conversation with the reservation specialist as soon as the weather permits them to make it in. I have certain things in writing and I am going to gently make sure that they are honored.

One of the problems is that the northeast is being hit with extreme cold, which couples with precipitation is making commuting difficult; and this has unfortunately meant that I have not been able to speak to either the booking manager or our assigned contact directly. I know that the wait is frustrating, but please give it a day or two before freaking out.

 

Thank you for all of your reassurances and hard work, despite the minor setbacks.

 

Also, for those who are being charged $10 extra for double occupancy, I am am trying to get that sorted as well. The prices in our contract are 139 for single/double and 149 for triple/quadruple... And those prices need to be honored by the hotel.

 

FYI- After looking on Kayak, there are other hotels within .25 miles of the host hotel that are actually cheaper. On the face of things they are listed as $10-20 more per night but the include free wi-fi, free breakfast, and free parking so that the final price is actually lower than the Hyatt since they charge for wi-fi- and parking and it doesn't say anything about breakfast on the website.

 

Thank you for all your hard work on this Armeleia!

I was also charged an additional $10 per guest per night (and for three guests besides myself that was an extra $30 each night). I had an issue checking out on my badge as well, but I think it was on my end. I'll try again later from another computer.

 

Thanks! That's really helpful. A friend and I are considering staying for a few extra days as well, looks like we'll be looking for alternatives beside the Hyatt.

 

All right, everything should be set now . The prices are set appropriately at 139 for single/double and 149 for triple/quadruple. They also loaded the discount for the three days before and three days after the event. Gentle persuasion in a soft non-threatening voice works wonders!

If you were charged the extra $10 per occupant, please contact the hotel and they will fix it for you.

I do recommend the Hyatt as a hotel - the prices are very good for the quality of the venue. It's pretty swank. Additionally, if you stay in the room block, you can sell from your room for room sales.

 

Can we still make purchases and visit room sales if we're staying at a different hotel?

 

For anyone who has already booked their room, is this a prepayment for the room or will we get charged later once we arrive? I'm rather confused on this and I'm not going to go through with the booking if I'm charged now. Most places I've been to they charge you once you arrive so I want to conform that this is the same.

 

I've decided I'm not going to this con. It's a long way for me to go and it won't be as fun if smaller artists aren't being supported. I'm going to another con this year instead (the Korean Ball Jointed Doll Show in LA). I hope the rest of you have fun!

 

Nevermine forget what I said. I went ahead and booked it. ^__^

 

Arakushia--In an earlier post, it was stated that room sales were open to anyone, so you're safe there!

armeleia--I agree, the Hyatt is a good brand and I liked that this one was recently renovated. I travel a lot, and the price is really pretty good for the size of the city and the proximity to tourist attractions. I'm glad they finally got the kinks worked out. It seems like the simplest things can become so challenging. I used to arrange much smaller meetings at remote sites and there was never any end to the weird things that could go wrong, lol.

I've booked and registered, and I'm super excited about going now that I've seen some of the vendors. I really wanted to see some companies I haven't seen over and over again at other BJD conventions. Plus, I haven't seen the American side of Niagara Falls (just the Canadian side) so I'm looking forward to that, too, and to hiking out to see the whirlpool and all the other nature things in that area.

 

Same here, allurose. I was under the assumption it was a more of a convention rather than a trade show for large vendors. Though shamefully I wasn't too familiar with dollism in general so I was kinda assuming there tbh! I hope it grows and finds a way to support smaller artists in future years; it would be nice to a have a larger and more local convention for BJD that offers an artist alley.