Comments

1
Reminds me of Ed Begley Jr.'s great scenes as the hotel manager in Best in Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o25afKNz…
2
Yeah, but wasn't his character actually for playing dress-up with the dogs?
3
Never mind, I was thinking of Fred Willard.
4
Yeah, Begley's character was the no-nonsense, straight-laced manager. His scene where he describes how they have to clean up after the big dogs and how the worst was a rock band that barbequed a goat in the room was great.
5
I'm curious what "hotel staff expressed their disapproval of our anti-harassment policy. As we want to put the safety and enjoyment of our guests and attendees first, we requested that the hotel make changes to ensure that our attendees and guests be treated with the same respect as any other Westin hotel guests." was all about.
6
When I worked at the Sheraton they rejected some sort of big sci-fi convention because a) they were packing more people in the guest rooms than they had paid for, b) they had animals in the rooms and c) they were freaking the other guests out.

When the organizers came to meet with the manager, they were in costume, and he refused to see them until they wore regular clothes.

The hotel had a legitimate beef, and the organizers had a legitimate beef, as it was right at the time that Sheraton and Westin were merging, and they had a de facto monopoly on downtown Seattle hotel rooms, and the Westin was shutting them out as well. I left the industry right about that time, so I don't know how they resolved it, but they obviously did.

BTW, the idea that Sci-Fi conventions are "big money" for hotels is dubious. The big money for hotels are the corporate meetings that have full meals and big coffee breaks during the day, and expensive cocktail parties and dinners at night. I'm kind of surprised that Westin - which is supposedly Starwood's "upscale" brand - would book one to begin with.
7
@6 has a very important point: It is de rigueur at these things to have many people crashing in a single room, and traditionally you only pay for the minimum occupancy, or maybe a 2nd person.
8
Catalina also makes a very important point re the meals/coffee breaks.

I worked helping to set up a few conferences (for even sketchier folks...needle exchangers, drug policy reformers, and harm reductionists). Industry norms were that you started getting a cut in conference costs on the basis of rooms sold, so you certainly wanted as many rooms booked you could. But you also got significant price breaks on the basis of how many meals/breaks you put in the schedule. If you're willing to serve a continental breakfast, a lunch, plus 5,000 cookies, 1,000 ice cream bars, and coffee/tea service for 2,000 folks at between session breaks, you can really drive your facility fee way down.
9
Wow what a bad business decision
11
Psh, a scifi con isn't even the weirdest of the weird-con set.
12
Get this: the hotel manager is right
13
@9: Without knowing the deets, it's possible that this was the better business decision. The allegations aren't great, but we don't know how well the Con was run either.
14
@12

Get this: the hotel manager is a soon-to-be unemployed idiot who booked a convention that he and his staff were obviously unwilling to serve then lost the hotel a huge amount of money and harmed the brand's reputation, which will require additional spending to remedy.

Anyone who thinks that colossal failure makes the manager "right" doesn't know a damn thing about running a successful, profitable hotel...or any other business.

As any intelligent hotel manager knows, you don't book a convention that your hotel and staff are not prepared to serve well and profitably. Period.
16
Well, to be fair, "intelligent" hotel managers are few and far between. And the idea that a chain hotel books all its own business locally is quaint at best. A lot of stuff comes through national sales offices.

But no one will lose their job over this. Except maybe the person who thought that a Sci-Fi convention was a good match for an "upscale" brand in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. They shouldn't be taking low hanging fruit. Leave it to the Sheraton or the Regency Hyatt (which is basically a Holiday Inn)
17
Oops, that should be the "Hyatt Regency", not the Regency Hyatt.
18
10, oh your witty stereotypes and gross generalizations are so humorous! Please regale us on how all feminists have hairy armpits and how people who like things you don't understand are weird.
20
Part of it is definitely just being crammed in extremely close proximity with others. I won't entirely rule out diet, there's nothing worse than waiting in line for PAX swag and having to deal with someone's foul guts, but most of it has to be channeling so many persons into hallways and a neverending series of lines. There's nowhere to step out for air!
21
I've been following this in other media. It seems that the hotel had a change of management after the contract had been signed. The new management tried to rewrite the contract, the convention organizers accommodated where they could, but could not go any further because their budget had already been set and there was no way they could raise the extra money the hotel was demanding. Management made a number of disparaging remarks about the convention and its membership, and both groups decided it would be best to cancel the whole thing rather than let it go on under a huge cloud of resentment and distrust.

At this point, it is difficult to say how blame should be apportioned, but apparently such renegotiation of set contracts is not unusual for that hotel chain.
22
I wonder what it would be like to life in a future world where some sort of communal mind/machine intelligence optimized hotel contracts for conventions of odd ducks.
23
They're broke and weird. I know, cause I'm one of them. I wouldn't want me there either.
24
@16

Chi-Fi should have gone with the Hyatt Regency Chicago. As the host hotel of IML and Chicon for several years they gladly welcome guests in leather and costumes. ...some members of staff even more than others...which reminds me, must confirm reservations for IML and Bear Pride this week...why do one fetish convention when you can do two in the same city on the same weekend... ;)
25
You lost me at "online maelstrom." I am so completely finished with the Internet Outrage Machine.
26
There are several annual SF conventions in the Chicago area. This was/is going to be a brand new con. It doesn't count as a major event yet. Other new cons have come to Chicago and failed to meet their financial obligations and closed after just a few years.
The hotel staff were jerks, and the group is well out of that venue. I wish them luck in running a good event.
27
@21

Stop making sense. And I mean right now.

There is no place for that kind of behavior on the SLOG.
28
http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/01/pus…

More information and a different story
29
http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/01/pus…

more information and a different story here

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.