Friends of Comic Cons

Comic-Con International => SDCC Housing, Parking, and Transportation => Topic started by: retired on March 03, 2015, 02:30:24 PM

Title: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 03, 2015, 02:30:24 PM
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2015 Guide to getting a Downtown
Hotel Room
Travel Planners Hotel Lottery
San Diego Comic Con
By Jopari from www.FriendsOfCCI.com (http://www.FriendsOfCCI.com)
Guide Creation in Progress. Please view in a Web Browser for best experience.

Disclaimer:
This guide is the personal work of an individual, and in no way represents any official views of Comic Con International,
Travel Planners, or the Friends of CCI Community. Remember that FriendsOfCCI is a community of Fans, with content
created or repeated for other Fans. We are not an official news or media outlet for CCI, TP, or Any other organization.
Please refer to those organizations official news outlets first, to ensure your news is as accurate as possible. Any
information and most images contained within this guide, are modified from old screenshots of the pricing and form
from past years, and is merely an educated guess at what the 2015 prices and form will look like. If and when official
2015 screenshots are released, this guide will be updated to include them. Thank you for your understanding.



    Getting a hotel room for Comic Con is actually fairly easy. It’s when you want a room that
is within walking distance of the convention, that things get a lot more difficult. Most of the
convention area hotels have a contract with a booking company called Travel Planners,
which reserves those rooms at a “low” rate, so that we attendees can get a good room
without spending a fortune. Though you can sometimes get lucky and find a direct booking
through the hotel, or through a 3rd party booking site like Hotwire.com, your best bet is to
go through Travel Planners.


To Start things off, here is a Map of the Downtown Hotels for 2015

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EARLY BIRD SALE

          If you are ok staying further away, Comic Con International has an “Early Bird” sale, where you can reserve a
room on the shuttle or trolley route (busses and trains that can take you right to the convention center). Here is the
link to 2015’s early bird sale http://www.comic-con.org/cci/comic-con-international-2015-early-bird-hotel-sale (http://www.comic-con.org/cci/comic-con-international-2015-early-bird-hotel-sale) . It will
be active until the Hotel Lottery starts on March 24th, 2015. Here is a Map of the Early Bird Hotels so you can get
An idea of where they are located. https://www.tphousing.com/Ph2/areamap.aspx?EICode=3167&AttCode=72&StMap= (https://www.tphousing.com/Ph2/areamap.aspx?EICode=3167&AttCode=72&StMap=)

          Remember that the Early Bird sale is only a small portion of the non-downtown hotels. Review the full list of
available hotels through travel planners (full list available via the screenshots later in this guide) to decide if you might
want to wait and go for the Hotel Lottery Form. There is a larger selection of non-downtown hotels available in the hotel
lottery, it is not just for downtown hotels. Also note that in past years, any hotel rooms left over from the Early Bird
and Hotel Lottery, will likely be available through Travel Planners Booking link (Will be added later).

HOTEL REQUEST FORM

          The rest of the hotels, and specifically the downtown hotels, can be booked by filling out a Request Form from
Travel Planners on March 24th. A link to the hotel request form will be emailed to everyone with a Comic Con member
ID a few days before the Form becomes accessible. Or you can find a link to the form on www.comic-con.org (http://www.comic-con.org), likely
the same day the links are emailed.

"A link to the Travel Planners website will be sent via email to badge holders 72 hours ahead of the hotel reservations
opening. This link will not be active until Mar 24 at 9:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (12:00 PM Eastern Time). Starting at 9:00
AM Pacific Time on Mar 24, 2015, you will be able to access the reservation request form via the link in your email or
at the top of this page or by calling 1-877-55-COMIC (1-877-552-6642) or 212-532-1660. PLEASE DO NOT CALL
BEFORE MAR 24 AT 9:00 AM PACIFIC TIME."


PURPOSE OF THE FORM AND THE PROCESS


          The purpose of the form is to prevent a bottleneck of 200,000 people all trying to book the same few hotels as
the same time. By making everyone fill out a form, Travel Planners is able to slowly book each room at their own
pace. The process is that you open the form at the designated date and time (Mar 24th, 2015 9AM PST most likely),
and fill out the form as fast as possible, enter your personal information, your top 6 hotel choices, and guest
information and then press the Submit button. A few days later you will receive an email with the hotel that has been
chosen for you. You then provide a credit card that will be charged two nights plus taxes. They process the forms in
the order received, so the faster you are, the more likely you are to get one of your top choices.




PREPARATION AND IMPROVING YOUR CHANCES

          The rest of this guide will concentrate on how to use the travel planners’ form, and increase your chances of
obtaining a (downtown) hotel booking. Before you read the rest of the guide, please skip to the end to view a
representation of the 2015 form, so you understand what I am talking about.

PREPARATION

          It is important that you understand what information is required in order to submit the form, and have all that
information memorized NOW. Having to spend time after the form goes live, calling your mom to ask her how to spell
your last name is not going to be a good idea. Nor will pausing to call up your friends to determine which hotels you
should pick. Get that information ready now, weeks before you need it.

Task #1. Determine which 6 hotels you want.

          Review the price list, and other info gleaned from pictures in this
document. Read reviews on the hotels. Also refer to last this year’s PDF of
the hotel list, which has even more information.
http://www.comic-con.org/sites/default/files/forms/cci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1.pdf (http://www.comic-con.org/sites/default/files/forms/cci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1.pdf)

The Form has as dropdown list of all of the hotels that you pick from.
The hotel names on that list can be slightly different than what is shown on the PDF file.
Here is a Spreadsheet that I'm updating periodically that shows the difference in 2014,
and my guesses at what they will be for 2015
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14vWKw8eZAfmtFaav7RzI3xdrzcext0tCsPP40J89n1Q/edit#gid=0 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14vWKw8eZAfmtFaav7RzI3xdrzcext0tCsPP40J89n1Q/edit#gid=0)

Write down the hotels, with the exact spelling Travel planners is using,
in the order of preference. You need to pick exactly 6, no more, no less.   
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Task #2. Synchronize your Clock

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2Fclock_zpskgbvv2oa.jpg&hash=893b6d9de489d91cfc46010e125546e41bd4ff0a)     If your computers clock is off by just a few seconds, that could spell
disaster and ruin your chances of getting a downtown hotel room.
Set your clock to http://time.gov/widget/widget.html (http://time.gov/widget/widget.html),
or some other military/government time
source.

Task #3. Personal and Guest Information


Make sure you have your personal information ready (notepad to copy/paste is great).
Have the following information ready (either in a notepad,or just be really fast at typing).


  • First Name
  • Last name,
  • Address,
  • City
  • State(for USA/CAN)       
  • Zip
  • Country
  • Phone Number and
  • Email Address
  • Room Type
  • Arrival Date
  • Departure Date
  • Occupant 1 First Name
  • Occupant 1 Last Name
  • Occupant 2 First Name
  • Occupant 2 Last Name
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Improving your chances

          Travel Planners will process the forms in the *cough* *Cough* order they are received. Thousands of forms
come through every second. Forms received within 3 seconds of each other are considered to have arrived at the
same time. At least that is how it is supposed to happen. So the faster you get your form submitted, the more likely
your chances will be. Also, if you pick larger hotels that are not as popular, there is a better chance that when your
Form is processed, your hotel choice(s) will be available. It all depends on popularity of the hotel. If you are quick,
then it won’t matter. You can pick the Hard Rock, or the Hilton Bayside and not have any problems getting your
reservation.

So..be FAST!! The closer to 9:00:00am you COMPLETE the form, the better your chances of getting a room you want
will be. Don't waste time reading or deciding on different options. Have everything planned out ahead of time.




How to fill out each section of the Form and Tips to be faster

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Reservation Information Section


          The is the first Section that requires typing. This is where you type
in your name, address, phone and email I mentioned earlier. Again, I
recommend copy/paste from a notepad document, unless you are crazy
fast at typing. Click the Image to the right for a larger view. -->

Methods to fill this section out faster:
  • Type really fast
  • Copy/Paste from a Notepad
  • Use WebBrowser Autocomplete (Completes words as you type)
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Hotel Preferences Section


          For the next section of the form, you will need to select 6 hotels (no more no
less). Select the dropdown Box (the hotels will be listed in alphabetical order). When you click on a hotel in the
dropdown box it will appear just below the dropdown box in a re-arrange able list. Each time you left-click a hotel from
the drop-down box, it will appear in the list below the dropdown box. Continue selecting the dropdown box
and clicking on the hotels you want until you have 6 total hotels.

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          You can re-arrange the Hotels if you accidentally selected them in the wrong order. Just left-click, Hold and drag
The hotel to the position you want it in. Keep in mind that you will be wasting precious seconds if you do this. Try
Not to make any mistakes in the first place, if at all possible.

Some tips about hotel selections:

          You can type the first letter to go hotels that start with that letter on the dropdown list. Makes selection go a
little faster. It seems to have trouble hopping down to a hotel that starts with the same letter of a hotel you have
already selected previously (hope that makes sense). So be prepared to use the scroll bar to get to the hotel you
want. The quicker and more accurate you are with the hotel selections, the better your chances will be to get one of
the hotels on your list.



Next you have to decide if you are willing to pay more per night for one of the hotels on your list. If you do, check the
box under:

Please check the box below if you would accept an upgrade/higher rated room:

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FCheckbox_zps8nizqgbe.jpg&hash=fee1145c561f12ed33a492c59cf25ea45b07e079)If the only room(s) available at my specified hotels are at an upgraded/higher
nightly rate, book my reservation into those room(s). NOTE: Nightly rates can
be substantially higher than the rates posted above. Checking this box DOES
NOT guarantee a room at your requested hotel(s).
I am not sure what the criteria is, on whether or not you get offered a Suite, or other more expensive room.
My guess is that if the hotels you chose are all out of normal rooms, yet they have some suites available,
they may offer one to you. Prices for a suite can range from $600 to several thousand per night. We are not
certain if this helps or hurts your changes of getting a standard rate room.



“If None of my specified Hotels are available”

Now for the "If I am too slow or just have bad luck, and don't get one of my 6 hotels" options. It will look like this:

If none of my specified hotels are available...
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FSelectedCircle_zpsoqgh0ujg.jpg&hash=52f4b90e44c56b5ca7f584407b56bd346d5f937c)Book me into any available downtown hotel. If NO downtown hotels are available, discard my request and
do not waitlist me.
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Book me into any hotel that is on the shuttle route. If NO hotels on the shuttle route are available,
discard my request. NOTE: if we are able to book you into a hotel on the shuttle route, you will also
automatically be waitlisted for your original, specified hotel choices above.
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Book me into any available hotel. NOTE: if we can book you into any available hotel, you will still
automatically be waitlisted for your original, specified hotel choices. If we CANNOT book your requests, you
will be automatically waitlisted.
You will have to pick one of the three choices. I will explain the pros and cons of each.

The first option is for those of you who are in the "Downtown or bust!" crowd. If travel planners cannot find you one of
your 6 picks, or a downtown hotel room, you will be removed from their system. You can then wait until Travel Planners
opens up the direct booking of leftover hotels, and try to get a room that way. They don't let you chose both
DOWNTOWN & WAITLIST because then everyone would just chose this option. They want people to have to make a
choice, and force as many people as possible to settle for non-downtown hotels.

The second option is for if you want to be put on the waitlist (if one of your six choices has availability later on, you will
be contacted and given a chance to book one of those rooms), and for the time being, settle for a hotel room that is
on the shuttle route (buses that pick you up and drop you off at the convention center). This is the safest option if you
do not have a vehicle.

The third option is for those of you with a vehicle. Like the second option, you will be put on the waitlist, and may be
offered one of your top six choices later.

Basically if you want any available downtown hotel, you don't get put on a waitlist. So you are taking a larger
risk than the other two options. If no available downtown hotel is available, you will not get a room OR be put on the
waitlist. So use caution when selecting this option.



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Accommodations needed:


         The first thing you need to do in this section is select the number of rooms you need (1 to 10). If you pick more
than 2-9 rooms, you will need to select the room type, arrival date, departure date, and occupant names for EACH
room separately
. If you pick "10 or more", you will be asked for ONE Arrival and Departure date, as well as how many
of EACH Room Type you need. It is a drop-down selection, and you pick 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10(or more). Next, quickly
pick the Type of room (Number of People and Beds), and Arrival and Departure Dates: Fill in the first and last names
of the people staying with you

If you need more than one Room, and your top pick does not have enough rooms to cover the number you need, They will
check the next hotel on your list. This will continue until they find a hotel that has enough availability to accommodate your request.
Hotel Requests will not be split up between different hotels
.

"Book all rooms on one form. We strongly recommend you do not submit multiple requests as it will delay
processing your reservations."

          This warning is referring to those who need more than one room. That is why they include a dropdown selection
box where you choose the number of rooms you need. It is unknown known that requests for more than one room are not
given a priority. The request forms are processed by the completed timestamp.


Number of Rooms*(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FNumberOfRooms_zpsyokakdeb.jpg&hash=93e420cc937c941de02790de23a9b1782ad13ef5)
          Type of Room*Arrival Date*Departure Date*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Room 1(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FSelectTypeofRoom_zpsmdpjjtby.jpg&hash=af4016f2de634b0ef6139977445321aeed42f801)(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FArrivalDate_zpshfspiok9.jpg&hash=27e714247e4348df79b579cbf2a4ee7f3e13a01a)(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FSelectDeparture_zpst33rmcys.jpg&hash=7c958a28ad2e9b0af0e8f50fcebd298a7c520766)
            First Name*Last Name*
Occupant 1(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FEmptyBox_zpsn0wg35fi.jpg&hash=348a93535609c22fa0c7e8994f8808b83d8d381e)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FEmptyBox_zpsn0wg35fi.jpg&hash=348a93535609c22fa0c7e8994f8808b83d8d381e)


When you select the Room Type, it will automatically add Occupants
for each person that you are required to fill in. You will need to enter
the first name and last name for each occupant
(Do NOT JUST USE INITIALS!!). So if you pick "Quad"
you will need to fill in a first and last name for all four occupants.
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FTypeOfRoomDropdown_zpsiygxqhkf.jpg&hash=c707f77cef312cd3c3ef73956398bf743865b4af)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FArrivalDateDropdown_zpsjlcqkcoi.jpg&hash=9a90bc5df472985ccb04db0c90f8cb2fb11752c7)  Arrival and Departure dates are critical. If you try to ADD dates later,
there may not be availability on the for the dates you need to add. It
is better to book more than you need, and then reduce the number
of days you need, than you find out later that you really needed to
come in on Wednesday instead of Friday, and not be able to stay at
the same hotel the whole time.



The last section:
Acknowledgement confirmations.


Check all three boxes to acknowledge before proceeding:
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FCheckbox_zps8nizqgbe.jpg&hash=fee1145c561f12ed33a492c59cf25ea45b07e079)I will provide a deposit equal to my first and last night's room rage and tax within 72 hours
of receiving my hotel reservation confirmation email or my reservations will be automatically canceled.
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FCheckbox_zps8nizqgbe.jpg&hash=fee1145c561f12ed33a492c59cf25ea45b07e079)I understand the number of beds in a room cannot be guaranteed.
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FCheckbox_zps8nizqgbe.jpg&hash=fee1145c561f12ed33a492c59cf25ea45b07e079)I am submitting one form for all of my rooms. (Submitting multiple requests will only delay
the processing of your reservations.)
You must Check all 3 check boxes
Press Submit.



I recommend getting the entire form complete within 60 seconds to have a good chance.
You should receive a confirmation email that your form was received.

Within 48 hours you will receive the hotel you have been selected (or the bad news that you did not get one, and that
you are/are not on a waitlist for your original 6 hotels).
You will then have 72 hours to pay two nights of the reservation or you will lose it.




PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

          Now that you have a good grasp on what the form looks like,
the information you need to memorize, and how to fill out the form...
It's time to make sure your time to complete the form is under a
minute. Practice entering all of your information (including selecting
6 hotels) over and over until you can get as close to 30 seconds as
possible. Start a competition with your friends and family to see who
is like.. the coolest form enter..er. yeah. Here is the link to a practice
form created in Google Forms. There are 6 hotel selection boxes
though. remember that the real form has only ONE dropdown hotel
selection boxes, and you just reuse it 6 times.     
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2Fwaxon_zpseymlodf4.jpg&hash=d864f610b2638538b10d91ee19f21ec49268d324)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LNlNmBP22kY-3_543M17zphH3M4bG5WWEHdjjumtpaM/viewform (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LNlNmBP22kY-3_543M17zphH3M4bG5WWEHdjjumtpaM/viewform)



Here is a GREAT Video HowTo made by ConShark. Watch it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fkmQ0IO9E&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fkmQ0IO9E&feature=youtu.be)



Hotel Exchange

Each year so far, some people end up with a reservation that they do not need for one reason or another.
Travel Planners has thus far allowed us to transfer reservations to other people by calling them within the
payment window (72 hours after the hotel confirmation emails are sent out). Rather than letting those
rooms go back to the general population, we Trade or Give Away the reservations to other members of our
Friends of Comic Con community.

If you have a Hotel reservation you would like to trade for a different hotel (use reason/common sense),
or would like to give one away, please visit our thread dedicated to Hotel Exchanges. Also if you find
yourself in need of a reservation after striking out in the Hotel Lottery, give the Hotel Exchange a shot
to see what we can help you out with.

Keep in mind that most people are after Downtown hotels, so try not to clutter the hotel exchange with
hotel reservations that nobody will likely want. Thank you.

http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?board=66.0



VIEWING, CHANGING, CANCELING A RESERVATION, PROVIDING
PAYMENT


To Reserve your room, you will need to provide payment equal to 2 nights stay plus tax. You will receive an email from
Travel Planners with your reservation number, and a link to the website where you can confirm your reservation
information, days, room type, and guests, and then submit your payment information

Once you have paid for your reservation, you will receive an email from Travel Planners that includes your reservation
number and hotel details.

They will also include a link to the page where you can review and make changes to your reservation. This is the same
page you used to enter your payment information.

You can freely make changes to Guests first and last names. But to change the billing address, Contact Name, or
Phone number you will need to call Travel Planners directly. Call Travel Planners at 800-221-3531 or 212-532-1660.


OFFICIAL PRICE LIST

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1051.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fs437%2Fadapaoferidu%2Fcci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1_3.jpg&hash=cb5727802e36433c7c578089fc9d5141b429fb7a) (http://s1051.photobucket.com/user/adapaoferidu/media/cci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1_3.jpg.html)

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1051.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fs437%2Fadapaoferidu%2Fcci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1_4.jpg&hash=4bb1ef2ab6603d80706fb8ff1c16b6647b3cce4d) (http://s1051.photobucket.com/user/adapaoferidu/media/cci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1_4.jpg.html)

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1051.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fs437%2Fadapaoferidu%2Fcci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1_5.jpg&hash=bd9487975dc5695263ac410bc1a424c002d2646e) (http://s1051.photobucket.com/user/adapaoferidu/media/cci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1_5.jpg.html)


Now for my interpretation of what the 2015 Hotel Request form will look like.


HERE IS MY REPRESENTATION OF THE FORM FOR 2015: REMEMBER THESE ARE NOT
PICTURES OF THE ACTUAL 2015 FORM, BUT JUST MY BEST GUESS. THE 2015 FORM
HAS NOT YET BEEN RELEASED. THIS SAMPLE IS OUR BEST GUESS, BASED ON THE
2014 FORM. SCREENSHOTS OF THE REAL FORM WILL BE ADDED ONCE THEY ARE RELEASED


It starts out with an introduction popup. Take note of everything on this page, especially the cancellation policy.
 (https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F1_welcome_zpsjhiznxvq.jpg&hash=fbcda0763ed2fb714c25cfbbf2fb40fab0096e0b)

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F2_formprices_zpscjqvrmas.jpg&hash=c13bf78432d6ee2351173bd1eabbea66ab203562)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F3_formprices_zpsj7strfmc.jpg&hash=db69b723c1413b9d2a61670f2e5f83be07baa48a)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F4_formprices_zps5rusplxr.jpg&hash=1bfba29aef660c0af8380388d6fc91474daec866)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F5_formprices_zpsg1pkzoxp.jpg&hash=ffd53a0e472072b03c38c8945f07c1f2836a3933)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F6_formprices_zpsysarhm4e.jpg&hash=56f5a64421495218ac84586be2b7836fb401f2a6)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F7_reservationinformation_zpsuyzczcpp.jpg&hash=2e8650369f48bb46a5e8739474cc7ba18cdbfaa0)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F8_hotelpreferences_zpsynvypwul.jpg&hash=a6613ae9e10121a2f94ed60731f66cfcd98933a3)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F9_hotelselection_zpsoi9ka86i.jpg&hash=1e033349770b44f4743b5691d73dc6a85673aa9f)
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2F10_accommodationsneeded_zpsgmk5klhu.jpg&hash=5df0ea63ae0612aaf9e3a148da976a71a155e609)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Emerald_Mom on March 03, 2015, 03:23:49 PM
Thanks Jopari.... this helps to give this 1st timer and idea of where the hotels are in relation to the CC.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 03, 2015, 03:25:13 PM
Guide now somewhat complete. Small Screenshots, more details and better formatting will be added throughout the week.

Thank you.
-Jopari
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mlgagne on March 03, 2015, 05:08:14 PM
Thank you so much for putting this together, jopari! This will be super helpful for me & my group  :)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 03, 2015, 05:10:26 PM
Great work Jopari! It is clear that you put tremendous effort into this, and it is much appreciated!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: ironmima on March 03, 2015, 05:19:09 PM
This is much, much appreciated, jopari!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: dolphina on March 03, 2015, 05:44:32 PM
Thanks Jopari  ;D
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Chris on March 03, 2015, 05:48:31 PM
Again with the grumpy face icon for the thread.   >:(
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 03, 2015, 06:31:42 PM
Wonderful job, jopari!  (As always!)

I have stickied this thread in the meantime.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nancy on March 03, 2015, 07:22:08 PM
You're wonderful, Jopari! Your thread last year helped us to get our first choice downtown and reading this has made me feel somewhat prepared for this time around.

Thank you so much for all the information provided and effort you've gone to  :)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 04, 2015, 07:01:30 AM
Thanks all.

Update: added some more info to the early bird section, and added a practice section with a link to the practice for.

Todo: more screenshots of each section on the form, more formatting, adding a couple more useful sections
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mightymoose on March 04, 2015, 07:17:30 AM
This is an amazing help for both newcomers and those who have done it before as a reminder! 
Thanks to you last year I was able to get a hotel right beside the center, fingers crossed your magic helps again this year!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: madfly on March 04, 2015, 10:33:06 AM
Wow! That's awesome! Thanks so much! :)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Sarahharas on March 04, 2015, 10:54:27 AM
Is it a good idea to check the "accept an upgrade/higher rated room"? Also, with "if none of my specfied hotels are available" option what is the best answer? I was thinking the second option but then it says to discard the request is none are available so then you could end up with nothing?
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 04, 2015, 11:13:13 AM


Quote from: Sarahharas on Today at 10:54:27 AM (http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?topic=4355.msg104398#msg104398)
Is it a good idea to check the "accept an upgrade/higher rated room"? Also, with "if none of my specfied hotels are available" option what is the best answer? I was thinking the second option but then it says to discard the request is none are available so then you could end up with nothing?


Ive personally never done it, but it refers to special rooms like suites. You could end up paying $600+ per night. But if room availability is running low, they may offer you a suite in lieu of not getting a room at all.

I will do some research to see if there are any documented cases from people who checked that option, and what they ended up with. Ill update the guide with those details if/when i find them.

Thanks.

That 2nd option, they did that to encourage everyone to pick "any" hotel (mission valley, airport, etc). You check the 2nd option knowing that there is risk involved in doing so. I will add more details to the guide in regards to this soon.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 04, 2015, 11:14:13 AM
I always check that option for the upgraded room. I have never once received an upgrade offer.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 04, 2015, 11:14:46 AM


Quote from: Transmute Jun on Today at 11:14:13 AM (http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?topic=4355.msg104405#msg104405)
I always check that option for the upgraded room. I have never once received an upgrade offer.


thats cause your too fast!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: TardisMom on March 04, 2015, 11:27:37 AM
Last year we submitted 4 forms and one didn't get processed.  All had the upgrade option checked.  For the second submitted, but we didn't hear anything from TP while the other three got our first choice, the MGH.  I called and they found the form and sent the reply email, also for the MGH but with an upgraded room for $900ish/night (as I recall).  So it was an upgrade at a REALLY upgraded price. 
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 04, 2015, 11:34:10 AM
Yeah, I'm afraid to check the upgrade option for fear they book me into a $700 suite at the Hilton or something, and then I can't get a waitlist hotel b/c I turned down the one I got. TP prices for the downtown hotels are already basically as much as I can justify spending.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Violet on March 04, 2015, 12:08:36 PM
I was browsing through the 2014 Hotel thread, and I noticed that some people's reservations were getting cancelled as duplicates because other people had listed them as an occupant. There's 4 of us, so should I only list myself as an occupant and leave the other fields blank if those people will also be submitting a request? And then have each of them only list themselves as an occupant in their requests? What do you Hotelpocalypse veterans usually do?
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Az_Rael on March 04, 2015, 12:36:01 PM
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I was browsing through the 2014 Hotel thread, and I noticed that some people's reservations were getting cancelled as duplicates because other people had listed them as an occupant. There's 4 of us, so should I only list myself as an occupant and leave the other fields blank if those people will also be submitting a request? And then have each of them only list themselves as an occupant in their requests? What do you Hotelpocalypse veterans usually do?

Don't leave them blank - use fake names.   Just try and keep the names resonable, so no joke names that they might flag as being fake. (I did short generic names like Sue or Ed so they would be quicker to type).    Once you get an actual reservation, you can log into travel planners website and change the other occupant names to the real ones.   
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: frostywontons on March 04, 2015, 12:40:42 PM
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I was browsing through the 2014 Hotel thread, and I noticed that some people's reservations were getting cancelled as duplicates because other people had listed them as an occupant. There's 4 of us, so should I only list myself as an occupant and leave the other fields blank if those people will also be submitting a request? And then have each of them only list themselves as an occupant in their requests? What do you Hotelpocalypse veterans usually do?

I vaguely remember this being answered elsewhere on this forum. I believe the gist is that you only need to put your name since you can amend the reservation at a later date.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 04, 2015, 12:55:40 PM
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Don't leave them blank - use fake names.   Just try and keep the names resonable, so no joke names that they might flag as being fake. (I did short generic names like Sue or Ed so they would be quicker to type).    Once you get an actual reservation, you can log into travel planners website and change the other occupant names to the real ones.

I always put a fake name, just b/c I'm paranoid about the room occupancy being correct. But my husband and I don't share a last name, so on mine I put Mr. and Mrs. Semigeekgirl, and on his I put Mr. and Mrs. Semigeekboy. I did have duplicate names rejected once (in a year I was booking multiple rooms for a  masquerade group), so if you decide to put something, don't use the same name twice.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 04, 2015, 01:23:20 PM
First off, thank you so much for this! Even having been through it before, this is a great refresher, and will be awesome for the two newbies in our group!

Quote
Don't leave them blank - use fake names

In our group, we've always just put one name on our room requests and added occupant names later. Usually at the hotel.  This year, we're requesting two rooms, so if duplicate names get rejected, I guess we need to come up with a new plan so no one is putting the same two names in. Ie, I don't want to put my SO's name on the second room and have both our requests cancelled out for duplicate names.  How have people in groups handled multiple room requests before? I've never had to request more than one room before.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: angoradebs on March 04, 2015, 05:24:14 PM
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I was browsing through the 2014 Hotel thread, and I noticed that some people's reservations were getting cancelled as duplicates because other people had listed them as an occupant. There's 4 of us, so should I only list myself as an occupant and leave the other fields blank if those people will also be submitting a request? And then have each of them only list themselves as an occupant in their requests? What do you Hotelpocalypse veterans usually do?

How is this even possible? How does TP know that it's a duplicate and not just someone with the same name?
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 04, 2015, 05:42:30 PM
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How is this even possible? How does TP know that it's a duplicate and not just someone with the same name?

Honestly, those of us who experienced the hotel lottery aren't even sure why they would simply purge (or delete) duplicate names without checking the addresses or contact information first.  As far as I'm aware, Travel Planners based their criteria on seeing accounts with the same name for last year's situation.  It isn't clear on whether or not Travel Planners has found a way internally to address this, and unfortunately, we won't know for sure until after the hotel lottery date and the rooms are assigned to people.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: angoradebs on March 04, 2015, 06:07:04 PM
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Honestly, those of us who experienced the hotel lottery aren't even sure why they would simply purge (or delete) duplicate names without checking the addresses or contact information first.  As far as I'm aware, Travel Planners based their criteria on seeing accounts with the same name for last year's situation.  It isn't clear on whether or not Travel Planners has found a way internally to address this, and unfortunately, we won't know for sure until after the hotel lottery date and the rooms are assigned to people.

I had no idea this was even a possibility. I'm glad I read this thread. I'll let my roommates know to just put their names and leave the rest blank (we all share the same first name so our submissions might have been suspicious anyway). I mean, you could use fake names that happen to be someone's real names and then those real people could get their submissions rejected? I also guess I just don't get why TP would delete duplicates anyway. If a group of 4 people are all trying for one room, and they each get a room, they will only use one and will release the rest (or give them to other people). It's not like the rooms go to waste.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 04, 2015, 06:21:43 PM
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I had no idea this was even a possibility. I'm glad I read this thread. I'll let my roommates know to just put their names and leave the rest blank (we all share the same first name so our submissions might have been suspicious anyway). I mean, you could use fake names that happen to be someone's real names and then those real people could get their submissions rejected? I also guess I just don't get why TP would delete duplicates anyway. If a group of 4 people are all trying for one room, and they each get a room, they will only use one and will release the rest (or give them to other people). It's not like the rooms go to waste.

It might even be an automatic setting for the Travel Planners hotel reservation system to purge (or delete) the duplicate names, so it may not be the actual customer service representatives doing it either.  All in all, we won't know for sure until after the fact.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Devorah on March 04, 2015, 06:25:52 PM
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I had no idea this was even a possibility. I'm glad I read this thread. I'll let my roommates know to just put their names and leave the rest blank (we all share the same first name so our submissions might have been suspicious anyway).

Pretty sure you *have* to fill in all the names.  If you pick a double you must enter two names, triple three names etc.  Anyone remember for sure?
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 04, 2015, 06:40:52 PM
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Pretty sure you *have* to fill in all the names.  If you pick a double you must enter two names, triple three names etc.  Anyone remember for sure?

Actually, yes... I feel like that was one of the requirements on the hotel lottery form.  Let me do a little research on it from last year's threads on the forums. ^__^;
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 04, 2015, 08:09:52 PM
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Pretty sure you *have* to fill in all the names.  If you pick a double you must enter two names, triple three names etc.  Anyone remember for sure?

This is correct. If you pick "Quad" you will need to enter all four first and last names. you will get an error if you try to continue and leave any of the boxes blank.
Added this to the guide.

Thanks.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 04, 2015, 08:27:15 PM
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This is correct. If you pick "Quad" you will need to enter all four first and last names. you will get an error if you try to continue and leave any of the boxes blank.
Added this to the guide.

Thanks.

Thanks again for the hard work you put into this, jopari! ^__^d
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Ghost6 on March 04, 2015, 11:52:55 PM
I'm not 100% convinced that Travel Planners purges duplicate names...doesn't it stand to reason there are multiple "Smiths", "Jones", etc???  I can't wrap my mind around how they would even have the capacity to purge repeat names.

I will say that I landed a Hard Rock Suite in 2011 by checking the "upgrade" box...I has previously stayed in standard Hard Rock rooms and submitted for that, but when they are booked, I got bumped to a suite.  Side note:  Once you stay in a suite, it's hard to go back to standard rooms.   O0
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 05, 2015, 12:12:25 AM
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I'm not 100% convinced that Travel Planners purges duplicate names...doesn't it stand to reason there are multiple "Smiths", "Jones", etc???  I can't wrap my mind around how they would even have the capacity to purge repeat names.

That's why I'm personally under the impression that it may be an automatic search in their reservation system.  It many even be something accidentally or unintentionally done to try to prevent people from mass booking more than one or two rooms (not that you could with the way the hotel lottery is done, since it's very difficult to even get one room in Downtown!), but it's my guess that they have some sort of measure in place.

Whether it's true or not, for Comic-Con 2014, the reason Travel Planners provided to people with the same names but with different room reservations was that the reservations were "deleted" from the system.  Could it be a cover-up for human error?  Maybe, maybe not.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 05, 2015, 05:30:37 AM
The data from the forms are saved to a database. They could have a report ran that compares occupant names in separate reservation requests (where reservationrequestNumber = * find occupant firstname = occupant firstname & occupant lastname = occupant lastname, value = PossibleDuplicate)

Then a human compares the two reservation requests to determine if they might be from the same group of friends or family. If it's obvious they might just cancel one, otherwise you might get an email.

That database query is wrong, but I think it's got the basic premise, "search all reservation requests for any occupants that have both a matching first and last name with other reservation requests, and flag them for review"
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sideproject on March 05, 2015, 07:51:59 AM
Thanks Jopari for putting this together. I feel much more prepared now.

I never thought we'd get badges in the first place, so I'm a little unprepared for the hotel rush. Of course I don't know if I would have even known about the Hotel Lottery if I hadn't found this forum. We were just trying to stomach paying a huge amount for a hotel that was pretty far away. At this point I'll take anything that's cheaper than what we already have.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 05, 2015, 09:25:34 AM
Thanks for the guide it's very helpful. I just want to make sure i understand one thing with putting in the names of the other occupants in the room. I am requesting two rooms. One room for me and one room for 2 friends to share. All three of us are putting in a request form. Should we not be putting in each others names in the occupant section to avoid any problems with the forms getting rejected. Should we just put in random names? If we use random names is it easy to change the names to the actual names of the occupants or is that going to be a problem. I'm just confused because the past 2 years we put in the actual names of the occupants of the rooms on the form and didn't have any problems. But now I am hearing about people who did have problems with using the real names on multiple forms and wonder if maybe we were just lucky the last few years and i don't want any problems this year.
Basically i just want to be sure if we use random names in the occupant section we wont have a problem changing the names to the real occupant names.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 05, 2015, 09:31:47 AM
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Thanks for the guide it's very helpful. I just want to make sure i understand one thing with putting in the names of the other occupants in the room. I am requesting two rooms. One room for me and one room for 2 friends to share. All three of us are putting in a request form. Should we not be putting in each others names in the occupant section to avoid any problems with the forms getting rejected. Should we just put in random names? If we use random names is it easy to change the names to the actual names of the occupants or is that going to be a problem. I'm just confused because the past 2 years we put in the actual names of the occupants of the rooms on the form and didn't have any problems. But now I am hearing about people who did have problems with using the real names on multiple forms and wonder if maybe we were just lucky the last few years and i don't want any problems this year.
Basically i just want to be sure if we use random names in the occupant section we wont have a problem changing the names to the real occupant names.

My personal suggestion is to use your real name for the hotel lottery form (maybe use your middle name if it helps to differentiate it from other people with the same name).  However, it is possible to change the names listed under the reservation (particularly if you want to exchange or giveaway your room--before payment is due, which usually 48 to 72 hours after the rooms have been assigned--to someone else on the forums).
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 05, 2015, 09:34:24 AM
I would definitely put in random names. You can change them with the hotel later, but Travel Planners DOES delete duplicate requests (at least some of the time, I have had it happen to me personally), so it's better to be safe than sorry.

I would just keep it simple and have everyone use their own last name for every one, like: request #1 is John, Jane, and Joe Smith. Request #2 is Jane, Joe, and John Jones. Request #3 is Joe, John, and Jane Moore. And so forth.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: newbie12 on March 05, 2015, 01:06:53 PM
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I would just keep it simple and have everyone use their own last name for every one, like: request #1 is John, Jane, and Joe Smith. Request #2 is Jane, Joe, and John Jones. Request #3 is Joe, John, and Jane Moore. And so forth.

I do want to say though that putting in common names may bring trouble as the system may flag it as a duplicate. I have a common name, as my real name, and I was contacted repeatedly by travel planners that they were going to remove my reservation as a duplicate so I had to contact them each time just to be sure that they didn't. In the occupant names, I used names of friends that I know aren't going and I can enter quickly.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 05, 2015, 01:13:16 PM
Oh, yes, I didn't actually mean use "common" names (they're just easy to type for an example). I meant, use the *actual* first name of the occupant/your friend, and then use the surname of the request-submitter for everyone. I.e., person 1 matches the credit card, and each subsequent person looks like a family member. And you don't forget who's who b/c you used everyone's correct first name.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: hipchick on March 05, 2015, 01:50:36 PM
One year we got flagged for having a dupe entry.  My husband and I did two separate forms, on mine I put my name down first and on his form he put his name first.  I used my parents address where I still get some mail and he used our apartment address.  We both got offered MMM but they contacted us saying that they noticed we had a dupe reso and had to cancel one.  So I think they look for the same names in multiple forms regardless of the address (since we used diff addresses)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 05, 2015, 01:59:32 PM
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So I think they look for the same names in multiple forms regardless of the address (since we used diff addresses)

That makes sense. My husband and I use different names but the same address (since I'm paranoid and want the requester's address to match the cc billing address), and we've never been flagged. The year I DID get flagged I was requesting 3 rooms and didn't have the mental energy to make up 8 names (each person used their own name as person #1, but after that there were duplicate names).
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 06, 2015, 09:46:54 AM
If I have gathered this correctly they don't delete the duplicate entry without contacting you? 
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 06, 2015, 09:54:47 AM
As far as I remember, they contact you to tell you it has already been deleted. But this was 2010, so the details are hazy...
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 06, 2015, 10:24:57 AM
I know one year we had two reservations and they contacted me to determine which one we are keeping and which one we were releasing.  They gave us advance warning though. I think using middle names and first names is a good idea.  That way nothing matches completely from one form to another.   
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: newbie12 on March 06, 2015, 11:43:21 AM
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If I have gathered this correctly they don't delete the duplicate entry without contacting you?
Yes, they do contact you but if you can avoid the heart attack and stress, I recommend it. 
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 06, 2015, 01:46:15 PM
UPDATE: Added a fairly accurate Price List. Until the prices show up on Comic-Con.org though, consider these prices unconfirmed.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Violet on March 06, 2015, 02:17:25 PM
Just looked at the updated price list and noticed that Horton Grand has NA under Quad... How come there is an option for Triple, but not Quad? Just wondering, since there are 4 of us and I was going to put Horton in my 6! I don't want to waste it if there's no Quad available.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 06, 2015, 02:21:11 PM
My source simply didn't have a price for quad. I'm sure the official price list will clarify that. Or maybe they just have single bed rooms + a pullout sofa or rollaway bed (2 on the bed, one on the rollaway) = 3 people? But triple specifically says two beds, so that wouldn't make sense either.  Let wait and see


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Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Iris on March 07, 2015, 07:28:09 AM
Thank you so much for all this work, Jopari!

As for duplicate names. We had 8-10 people submitting forms last year and most people put each others' names. We ended up getting a few reservation options. Of course, a few days after we put deposits on two rooms we got the e-mails about duplicate names on reservations. Of course, it happened to be the two people the reservations were under. My last name isn't very common so I'm not surprised I was dinged. I think my friend's name probably is the same way. Unfortunately we'd downgraded both rooms to triples from quads but it wouldn't let us remove the 4th name from each reservation (which was where both names in question were.) We both had to call to get it sorted out so they wouldn't cancel our reservations.

They will send you an e-mail though if there is a duplicate issue. I believe we had 2 days to sort out the issue before they'd be automatically canceled.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: saban on March 07, 2015, 12:25:32 PM
Thank you for all the hard work jopari.  I'm hoping for hotel success this year.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Pyramid on March 08, 2015, 03:32:16 PM
Thank you for all your hard work, Jopari!  I'll spring for a frappucino at comic con.  ;)


I just made placeholder reservations at the BW Island Palms and it's an extra $100/night.  Hope I can get in with TP at either Hilton Bayfront, Marriott or Hyatt Manchester.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Six2midnight on March 08, 2015, 06:43:44 PM
Thank you so much Jopari for putting this together! Helps us newbies  :)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: chiekom on March 09, 2015, 12:06:03 AM
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They will send you an e-mail though if there is a duplicate issue. I believe we had 2 days to sort out the issue before they'd be automatically canceled.

I don't need to put in fake friend name, then! Thanks for your useful info!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darthmaul1309 on March 10, 2015, 05:31:59 PM
Thanks for the hard work!  This will help my out tremendously.  I'm a veteran of the Con, but I have not stayed downtown since 1996 and would like to be in walking distance for a change.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 11, 2015, 09:28:59 AM
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I would definitely put in random names. You can change them with the hotel later, but Travel Planners DOES delete duplicate requests (at least some of the time, I have had it happen to me personally), so it's better to be safe than sorry.

I would just keep it simple and have everyone use their own last name for every one, like: request #1 is John, Jane, and Joe Smith. Request #2 is Jane, Joe, and John Jones. Request #3 is Joe, John, and Jane Moore. And so forth.

I've been trying the form and I can barley get it done in 62 seconds.  I have 4 people in my room.  Is it possible to just use a single letter for their first names possibly even their last?  Im hoping that will make me a little faster and get it closer to the under a minute mark.  I have no idea people get it in around 30 seconds even with an autofill program....
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 11, 2015, 10:47:25 AM
Are you typing out everything or copy/pasting from a notepad? Than can save time.

Also, remember that the real form had one drowpdown selection box for the hotels and not six separate boxes, having one box does shave off a few seconds. That threw people off last year cause they were expecting the real for. To have six selection boxes.  Unfortunately there is no way to simulate the selection box of e real form within Google forms.

This is all of course, hoping they even use the same form for 2015...   /risinganxiety!!


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Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 11, 2015, 10:57:53 AM
I'm using an auto fill program but I'm entering the names for the other 3 people and apparently I'm a slow typer plus I get really nervous  :(
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 11, 2015, 11:00:04 AM
Practice with someone shaking your arms to help simulate how it will really be the day of lol.

Anyways, remember that names guest names can be fixed later if you "make a mistake" and "misspell" them.




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Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mlgagne on March 11, 2015, 11:06:44 AM
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I'm using an auto fill program but I'm entering the names for the other 3 people and apparently I'm a slow typer plus I get really nervous  :(

You can also set up and use autofill for the other 3 people (in Chrome, anyway) if you aren't currently! That might help cut down on time  :)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 11, 2015, 11:10:24 AM
Lol, I need someone standing behind me blowing a whistle and shaking my chair
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 11, 2015, 11:22:44 AM
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You can also set up and use autofill for the other 3 people (in Chrome, anyway) if you aren't currently! That might help cut down on time  :)
Thank you so much for that information   I'll look into that now
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Iris on March 11, 2015, 11:58:22 AM
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I don't need to put in fake friend name, then! Thanks for your useful info!

Decided to go back and check my e-mails just to be safe. I thought it gave us a time-frame but it actually did not which is slightly worrying. As such, I would definitely recommend using an e-mail address that you check quite frequently. I know I have a couple that I use occasionally but don't always check daily and some that I obsessively check throughout the day.

For reference, here is the e-mail I received from TP regarding a duplicate name on reservations:

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.


Hopefully that information will help a bit ^. However, I believe it still took us a couple of days to get it sorted out because my friend with the second reservation was out of town the first day or two.

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I'm using an auto fill program but I'm entering the names for the other 3 people and apparently I'm a slow typer plus I get really nervous  :(

Also, you can edit information after the fact if you get a reservation. Such as the room type (triple vs. quad etc.) so you could consider not entering all four names and just doing two-three to cut down on time if that's slowing you down. But as mlgagne said, you can set up autofill to enter the names for you as well.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 11, 2015, 01:10:02 PM
I'll volunteer :)

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Lol, I need someone standing behind me blowing a whistle and shaking my chair
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 11, 2015, 01:14:01 PM
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I'll volunteer :)

Lol,  thanks for being a team player  :D
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darthmaul1309 on March 11, 2015, 02:27:54 PM
Are we sure that the form will take auto fill?  Ive set up chrome to auto fill but am concerned if the real form will take the auto filled names and address??  Can anyone confirm? Thanks in advance...
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 11, 2015, 04:22:33 PM
Google form =/= TP hotel form. I would assume it won't work, and just be pleasantly surprised if it does


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Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 12, 2015, 09:43:20 AM
Thank you for this awesome walk-through. You are the true king of Westeros and I would support your bid for the Iron Throne. 
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mlgagne on March 12, 2015, 10:11:36 AM
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Google form =/= TP hotel form. I would assume it won't work, and just be pleasantly surprised if it does


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Ahh, thanks for the warning ahead of time! I have always just assumed that any forms with standard information will take autofill, but it seems that one can never assume anything with SDCC, haha!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 12, 2015, 01:27:09 PM
Is there an autofill program that works better than the others?  Because if my autofill program doesn't work, I'm screwed  :(
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Violet on March 13, 2015, 01:16:58 PM
Had a dream that I was crying because I wanted to stay at MMM so badly... And that's not even my first choice, Hilton Bayfront is! Weird... Guess my brain is just stressing out over this hotel sale, which is only 11 days away now!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Iris on March 13, 2015, 02:40:46 PM
I had a dream that they made everyone who was local go TO the convention center and do the form from there. Everyone was on the same internet connection and not everyone was getting through to the form. It was awful and so anxiety inducing. Had to calm myself down once I woke up.

I really hope we get the hotel list soon and then I'll finish prep with my group and start practicing properly.
Title: The Rules for Travel Planners Hotel Lottery
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 14, 2015, 02:05:39 PM
While I have read threads about how the lottery works, I could not find out these things:

1.) Do you have a better chance of getting your 1st choice if you book a full week Sun b4 till Sun or Monday after con, opposed to say just Wed thru Sun?

2.) Do you have a better chance of getting your first choice if you only ask for 1 room. If you ask for 3 and only 1 or 2 are available at your first choice what happens? Do you get 1 room at your first choice, then the other 2 at your second,etc, or are you automatically pushed to your 2nd choice or shot down altogether?

3.) When choosing, say 3 rooms, twin, 2 beds, do you only have to put one name for each of the 3 or are you required to put other names in cause you may want 2 beds as opposed to 1 beds? I am a single and always get 2 twins to use one bed for clothes or in case someone needs to crash unexpectedly.

I called TP and they seemed confused and did not have a direct answer for me.

Thanks, for any input anyone can provide :).
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 14, 2015, 02:07:32 PM
Posted as its' own topic and here since I was not sure how to do it:

While I have read threads about how the lottery works, I could not find out these things:

1.) Do you have a better chance of getting your 1st choice if you book a full week Sun b4 till Sun or Monday after con, opposed to say just Wed thru Sun?

2.) Do you have a better chance of getting your first choice if you only ask for 1 room. If you ask for 3 and only 1 or 2 are available at your first choice what happens? Do you get 1 room at your first choice, then the other 2 at your second,etc, or are you automatically pushed to your 2nd choice or shot down altogether?

3.) When choosing, say 3 rooms, twin, 2 beds, do you only have to put one name for each of the 3 or are you required to put other names in cause you may want 2 beds as opposed to 1 beds? I am a single and always get 2 twins to use one bed for clothes or in case someone needs to crash unexpectedly.

I called TP and they seemed confused and did not have a direct answer for me.

Thanks, for any input anyone can provide :).
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 14, 2015, 02:24:51 PM
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Posted as its' own topic and here since I was not sure how to do it:

While I have read threads about how the lottery works, I could not find out these things:

1.) Do you have a better chance of getting your 1st choice if you book a full week Sun b4 till Sun or Monday after con, opposed to say just Wed thru Sun?

2.) Do you have a better chance of getting your first choice if you only ask for 1 room. If you ask for 3 and only 1 or 2 are available at your first choice what happens? Do you get 1 room at your first choice, then the other 2 at your second,etc, or are you automatically pushed to your 2nd choice or shot down altogether?

3.) When choosing, say 3 rooms, twin, 2 beds, do you only have to put one name for each of the 3 or are you required to put other names in cause you may want 2 beds as opposed to 1 beds? I am a single and always get 2 twins to use one bed for clothes or in case someone needs to crash unexpectedly.

I called TP and they seemed confused and did not have a direct answer for me.

Thanks, for any input anyone can provide :).

This would be the best thread for these questions, as it brings to our attention that more detail could be added to the guide. you can delete your other post.

Unfortunately I don't have all the answers and can only tell you what I know.

Going to paraphrase your questions:

Q:  Do you have a better chance of getting your 1st choice if you book more days?
A: According to the instructions direct from Travel Planners in past years, No. It will make no difference whether you pick just Saturday night or a whole week. They pick people based solely on the time stamp that the form was submitted. They then check current hotel availability for your first choice. If that room is available, you get it, if not, down your preferences list they go, until they find a room in your list of 6 hotels. I can find the various references if you need them. But without any official statement of the contrary, we cannot assume they give preferential treatment based off anything other than submission time.

Q: If you need more than one room, what is TP's process when there is not enough availability at the hotels you picked to cover all rooms?
A: As far as I know this has never been asked or officially answered by TP. Maybe others can chime in with their experiences so we can form a guess? Personally I never pick more than one room even though I need 2+ each year. The instructions state to just submit one form and list the number rooms you need "to delay processing". The downside is that you have to enter ALL guest names when you do that, which will slow down your form filling, and then you might not get anything. It IS possible that TP processes multi room requests before single rooms, to help keep things "fair". they will never admit to that though. again, we need feedback from others who have submitted a request form for more than one room.

Q: When you pick multiple rooms, or multiple Guest room types, do you have to Type EVERY guest name for EVERY room?
A: Absolutely YES. as soon as you select Twin, Quad etc, more guest name boxes will appear and you HAVE to put something in them. Same for if you pick more than one room. you ALSO need to pick arrival and departure dates for each room. its a real PITA

Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: dolphina on March 14, 2015, 05:39:33 PM
If you put that you wanted 3 rooms and say you put 3 ppl in each room does that mean you would need to come up with 9 names? I said 3 ppl cause I know most ppl want 2 beds in the room.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 15, 2015, 09:29:50 AM


Quote from: dolphinax2 on March 14, 2015, 05:39:33 PM (http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?topic=4355.msg105988#msg105988)
If you put that you wanted 3 rooms and say you put 3 ppl in each room does that mean you would need to come up with 9 names? I said 3 ppl cause I know most ppl want 2 beds in the room.


There is no trick to avoid this (unless you need "10 or more" rooms). For every room you need, you have to fill in guest names. i will revise the guide to make this perfectly clear.

Here is an example.

Number of Rooms = 3
x3 Rooms will appear on the form. Each one waiting for you to select the Room Type, Arrival and Departure Date, and Guest name.

On room one, you select "Twin" for Room type (3 guests). Under Room 1, x2 extra guest lines will appear. Bringing the total guests for room 1 to 3. you have to fill them all in.

On room two you select "Quad" for Room type (4 guests). Under room 2, x3 extra guest lines will appear. Bringing the total guests for room 2 to 4. you have to fill them all in.

On room three, you select "Single" for Room type (1 guest). under room 3, no extra lines will appear because you can never have less than one guest. You still must fill in that one guest name.


Needless to say, this will take you much longer than everyone else to fill out your form. So if they DO process multiple room requests first, i guess you have a good shot. if Not, good luck. TP Will likely never reveal their proccessing order.

Sparkly Crystal clear?
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: dolphina on March 15, 2015, 09:47:11 AM
Might be an interesting experiment to try to see if it makes a difference, if TP processes multiple room request first before single requests. Did anyone last year put in for multiple rooms and did you get one of your 6 choices? Also, how long did it take for you to fill out the form?
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 15, 2015, 11:12:34 AM
I'm glad I asked the above questions. They are good ones ;) .

TP should clarify things on all 3 of those questions for fairness and to assist us and them to avoid issues.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 15, 2015, 11:29:27 AM
I put in for 2 rooms last year with 2 people in each room and i got my first choice downtown hotel. My friend also put in for 2 rooms 2 people in each room and got her 3rd choice downtown hotel. I think a bunch of things go into which if any downtown hotel you end up with. How fast you get the form in is probably the biggest factor but which hotels are on your list is also a big part. Plus how many rooms and the type of rooms requested i'm sure play a part.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 15, 2015, 11:35:00 AM
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Might be an interesting experiment to try to see if it makes a difference, if TP processes multiple room request first before single requests. Did anyone last year put in for multiple rooms and did you get one of your 6 choices? Also, how long did it take for you to fill out the form?

It would be next to impossible for us to tell on our own if it makes a difference or not. Too many other factors involved. To be able to tell you would need to compare 2 or more request that have the exact same hotel list in the same order that is submitted at the exact same time with the only difference being number of rooms requested. Even 2 requests submitted a few seconds apart would be enough to throw off any comparison.
The only way to tell if it makes any difference is if TP lets us know which i don't think they will.
 


 
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 15, 2015, 11:37:19 AM
Except we love useless speculation and number crunching around here :D . We'll make guesses off radically different samples just to pass the time


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Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 15, 2015, 02:07:23 PM
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I put in for 2 rooms last year with 2 people in each room and i got my first choice downtown hotel. My friend also put in for 2 rooms 2 people in each room and got her 3rd choice downtown hotel. I think a bunch of things go into which if any downtown hotel you end up with. How fast you get the form in is probably the biggest factor but which hotels are on your list is also a big part. Plus how many rooms and the type of rooms requested i'm sure play a part.

What was your time stamp and hotel versus your friends time stamp and hotel?
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 15, 2015, 02:15:50 PM
I wanted to add it is very important for Travel Planners to clarify the above questions so we know things in advance and know the rules.

As an example, Is there a dfference in what room choice I will get if I choose 1 room for myself and get a time stamp at 9:am for The Hilton, as my first choice, then Marriott, Hard Rock, Grant, Omni, Hyatt as the rest, or if I choose say 3 rooms with the same order and time stamp.

What if they can give me 1 room at the Hilton( if that is the one I really want as first choice)? Will the remaining 2 rooms be in the Marriott, and so on?

They need to be clear on this as well if I choose a room with only 1 bed for 1 person or a room with 2 double beds for 2 people, etc.

Totally fair and legit questions above (along with what I originally asked) that should be answered by TP.

Edited for typo.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: conventiongeek on March 15, 2015, 11:10:16 PM
You are making a lot of requests to people who just speculate. It sounds like you should call TP yourself and find the answers, then you can post them for the group.

I can tell you that if you request 3 rooms on the same form they will all be at the same hotel. So if your first choice is the Hard Rock and there is only 1 room left, you will not get that 1 room and then 2 others at another hotel(s). That's not something i know for a fact, but common sense tells me that's a no brainer. Common sense tells me that they will book you in the first hotel that has 3 rooms available.

Why do they need to be clear on how many people you have in each room? That is already on the form and you will be submitting that information for each room requested.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 16, 2015, 09:31:56 AM
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You are making a lot of requests to people who just speculate. It sounds like you should call TP yourself and find the answers, then you can post them for the group.

I can tell you that if you request 3 rooms on the same form they will all be at the same hotel. So if your first choice is the Hard Rock and there is only 1 room left, you will not get that 1 room and then 2 others at another hotel(s). That's not something i know for a fact, but common sense tells me that's a no brainer. Common sense tells me that they will book you in the first hotel that has 3 rooms available.

Why do they need to be clear on how many people you have in each room? That is already on the form and you will be submitting that information for each room requested.

I am not sure what you are reading but I did not make "requests" for anyone to "speculate" anything. I asked for input on what people may or may not know concerning the questions I presented.

Perhaps you missed my initial post #73 within this thread:

Quote
Reply #73 on: March 14, 2015, 02:05:39 PM »

While I have read threads about how the lottery works, I could not find out these things:

1.) Do you have a better chance of getting your 1st choice if you book a full week Sun b4 till Sun or Monday after con, opposed to say just Wed thru Sun?

2.) Do you have a better chance of getting your first choice if you only ask for 1 room. If you ask for 3 and only 1 or 2 are available at your first choice what happens? Do you get 1 room at your first choice, then the other 2 at your second,etc, or are you automatically pushed to your 2nd choice or shot down altogether?

3.) When choosing, say 3 rooms, twin, 2 beds, do you only have to put one name for each of the 3 or are you required to put other names in cause you may want 2 beds as opposed to 1 beds? I am a single and always get 2 twins to use one bed for clothes or in case someone needs to crash unexpectedly.

I called TP and they seemed confused and did not have a direct answer for me.

Thanks, for any input anyone can provide :).

Your assumptions I was making "requests for speculation" and whether or not I called Travel Planners are incorrect.

I am here to hopefully learn and help others when I can. Not make incorrect assumptions about others or snide, inaccurate remarks  ;).

*Edited for formatting.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 16, 2015, 09:42:39 AM
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I wanted to add it is very important for Travel Planners to clarify the above questions so we know things in advance and know the rules.

As an example, Is there a dfference in what room choice I will get if I choose 1 room for myself and get a time stamp at 9:am for The Hilton, as my first choice, then Marriott, Hard Rock, Grant, Omni, Hyatt as the rest, or if I choose say 3 rooms with the same order and time stamp.

What if they can give me 1 room at the Hilton( if that is the one I really want as first choice)? Will the remaining 2 rooms be in the Marriott, and so on?

They need to be clear on this as well if I choose a room with only 1 bed for 1 person or a room with 2 double beds for 2 people, etc.

Totally fair and legit questions above (along with what I originally asked) that should be answered by TP.

Edited for typo.

Whether or not TP "should" answer these questions will probably be a moot point, I think. IMHO, it's very very unlikely that TP will provide any further clarification on the exact order/priorities they use to process requests. They've been very resistant to that in the past, and even the "we will process all requests in the order they come in, and requests within a three-second window will all be considered to have arrived at the same time" was not something they admitted until after one year went so badly that we could almost prove they weren't going in order. And even the "time stamp" we all refer to is not an official thing - we're getting it from our own clocks. TP does not put an official time of request stamp on your "request-received" email, though it would not be difficult for them to do. But they REALLY don't want us to be able to compare precise data and audit their work.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 16, 2015, 09:48:29 AM
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I put in for 2 rooms last year with 2 people in each room and i got my first choice downtown hotel. My friend also put in for 2 rooms 2 people in each room and got her 3rd choice downtown hotel. I think a bunch of things go into which if any downtown hotel you end up with. How fast you get the form in is probably the biggest factor but which hotels are on your list is also a big part. Plus how many rooms and the type of rooms requested i'm sure play a part.

Might I ask which hotels you and your friend received and what was the time stamp on both of your requests?

Thank you :)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: IfIWereMagneto on March 16, 2015, 10:03:04 AM
Thank you once again for your efforts, Jopari! Your post helped a lot last year (especially the practice test) and it's great to see you brought it back for 2015. :D

[admin removed] Just be prepared to type it all out or copy/paste and be pleasantly surprised if you don't have to do so.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 16, 2015, 10:40:55 AM
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Might I ask which hotels you and your friend received and what was the time stamp on both of your requests?

Thank you :)
I got the Horton Grand. I think my friend got the W. No idea about the time stamp but i know we both got in in under a minute. But since we both had completely different hotels on our list so even knowing the time stamp i don't think would tell us much.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 16, 2015, 11:24:34 AM
Great thank you for the information.  I appreciate it. :)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: AlaskaRainbow on March 16, 2015, 01:50:47 PM
I just called Travel Planners so I could get some clarification on the multiple rooms details.

I was told that we have to have full names for all occupants meaning if you request a quad you need four names. If you request more than one room you have to have names for every room, all occupants. He did say you can always change the names later.  Also, that a full name is needed, no initials can be used for the first or last name.

In regard to multiple room requests and hotel availability he said they will not split up multiple room requests - if the hotel on your list does not have as many rooms as you've asked for then they will move on to the next hotel that does have that many rooms available.   So they aren't going to look at your three room request and give you multiple hotels, they'll make sure all three rooms are in the same hotel.

They do not process multiple room requests ahead of single room requests, he said they process all the requests according to the time stamp no matter what that request is.

I need to practice my typing speed!!!  :)
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 16, 2015, 01:53:34 PM
Awesome sleuthing AlaskaRainbow! 


Guide updated with relevant information.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 16, 2015, 02:04:59 PM
Thank you for putting in the investigative work and reporting back, AlaskaRainbow!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 16, 2015, 02:40:48 PM
Glad you got an answer Rainbow, thanks for sharing :) . I wish I knew why the two different TP people told me 2 different things however.

One said they didn't know the answer(s) and the other, the second them I called said to apply for one room and have others in my group do theirs, one room each, which suggests to NOT put in for more than 1 room. If that's the case, then why have a dropdpwn for multiple rooms and then why even SAY that on their page to do all of them at ONCE in the first place?

Confusing and scary, cause it suggests that those putting in for more than 1 room won't get them at their first hotel...

Either way, I agree with others here that TP won't ever be totally upfront about how things work, which is unfortunate. Good thing is we can try to help each other there :) .
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 16, 2015, 02:44:44 PM
I forgot to ask if any members here in 2014 got an early timestamp for multiple rooms and if they got the rooms at their first choice of say a Hilton or Marriott.

Thanks for any info on this :).
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: HoobieDaju on March 16, 2015, 09:12:51 PM
Jopari, amazing work on that practice form!  I noticed at the top you have two radio buttons to click:

Click Here to Start Your Request *
  Check this to "click" the link
Skip Down to the Form *
  Check this to "click" the link

I don't recall seeing that on the form last year...  What exactly do they do and should we plan to click those when we register next week?

Also, do any of you remember if the form allowed for auto-fill with Chrome or another browser last year?  I figure we need to prepare for either way, but it would be nice to know if it's a possibility.


Thanks,
Scott
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sefton42 on March 17, 2015, 02:27:03 AM
Auto-fill worked with Chrome last year.
Title: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 17, 2015, 03:51:25 AM
Look at the screenshots I included at the end of the guide. You will see that the first thing that pops up is a disclaimer window with cancelation dates. You click the link on that window to close it.

Then you are taken to the form. Most of the form is taken up by the list of hotels. They include a link at the top of the form that will allow you to skip the hotel list without having to use the scroll bar. Saves a few seconds.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 17, 2015, 08:25:59 PM
Reminder that last year, notifications with the hotel link were sent out the Friday before (4 days ahead) at 2PM in the afternoon PDT.

The year before was the exact same day, exact same time! Friday 2PM. If the form has changed drastically, I will revise the guide right away.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 18, 2015, 05:53:38 AM
Glad you put this guide together, jopari. I have been trying it out whenever I can find some time. Here's hope I can score a downtown hotel. Last year I did early bird so this year I want to at least try for something within walking distance. Is it bad that I feel completely nervous right now? lol.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 18, 2015, 07:58:07 AM
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Glad you put this guide together, jopari. I have been trying it out whenever I can find some time. Here's hope I can score a downtown hotel. Last year I did early bird so this year I want to at least try for something within walking distance. Is it bad that I feel completely nervous right now? lol.
not being a downtown hotel type i'm not feeling it except from all the Hotel types. they are vibrating at a nervious twitch similar to what i'm feeling abt parking.... LOL

iow, we're with you on the nerves!

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Reminder that last year, notifications with the hotel link were sent out the Friday before (4 days ahead) at 2PM in the afternoon PDT.

The year before was the exact same day, exact same time! Friday 2PM. If the form has changed drastically, I will revise the guide right away.

Thank you!
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: koop1974 on March 18, 2015, 01:34:22 PM
Thank you jopari for your hard work.  When the day comes, I will be less of a wreck because of your thoughtfulness.
Title: Re: 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darkron9 on March 18, 2015, 03:09:21 PM
Late to the party, but let me say "Thank you" to Jopari for all the information you have gathered and posted here.  I sure hope I can meet you at one of the get togethers this year!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nancy on March 18, 2015, 09:43:05 PM
This might seem like a silly thing to add, but I became so fixated on no auto-fill that it threw me for a loop when it actually worked last year.

I lost a few precious seconds trying to regain my bearings and scrolling straight down to hotel selection (instead of using the tab key and manually filling in the fields, as I'd become so accustomed to). Yep, I actually freaked out over Chrome doing the work for me.

I still made it in under a minute and got my first selection, but the panic of not needing that muscle memory was a little unsettling.

So, if possible, try to practice with and without auto-fill so you're not quite as deer-in-the-headlights as I was...and am sure will be again.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 19, 2015, 06:37:46 AM
Quote
try to practice with and without auto-fill

Seconded! I practiced with auto-fill yesterday and it sort of threw me off the first few times. But, then I got the hang of it and was in under a minute, faster than last year, even though I had extra names to fill in!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 19, 2015, 06:44:01 AM
Remember not to rely on non manual input. What if they change "first name" to "Thoust Givinith Name" lol. Anyways, wax on fellow FoCCi'ers


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bettiebloodshed on March 19, 2015, 06:56:26 AM
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Remember not to rely on non manual input. What if they change "first name" to "Thoust Givinith Name" lol. Anyways, wax on fellow FoCCi'ers


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I wish I had the luxury of autofill. I tend to have to do the housing thing at work, where autofill is turned off by our administrator. And I'm on IE.

Which makes the entire thing a lot more stressful, haha.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Godolphin on March 19, 2015, 09:16:48 AM
My mac autofills my name in every box as other guests sharing the room.
I don't see a way around it other than wasting a few seconds to delete the names on the day.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 19, 2015, 09:23:01 AM
Just reading this thread brings butterflies to my stomach.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SteamPink on March 19, 2015, 01:16:42 PM
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Just reading this thread brings butterflies to my stomach.

Same here.

Adding thanks to Jopari! It's a fantastic comprehensive resource.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: 28savagedays on March 20, 2015, 12:00:20 PM
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My mac autofills my name in every box as other guests sharing the room.
I don't see a way around it other than wasting a few seconds to delete the names on the day.

I notice that happens when using Safari, but doesnt with Chrome. Im on a MBP OS X Yosemite.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Devorah on March 20, 2015, 12:07:31 PM
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My mac autofills my name in every box as other guests sharing the room.
I don't see a way around it other than wasting a few seconds to delete the names on the day.

Normally when you tab into a field, whatever text is in that field is all highlighted, so if you just start typing it will overwrite it.  Hope that helps.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 20, 2015, 03:47:40 PM
Has anyone ever tried to secure a hotel while calling TP on the day hotel >:D starts or is it just better to go through the link that they will provide?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Roshawn on March 20, 2015, 04:49:24 PM
The link unless you like busy signals and being on hold.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: HoobieDaju on March 20, 2015, 05:14:06 PM
Is this the hotel list link we've been waiting for?

http://sdccblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/cci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1.pdf
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 20, 2015, 05:53:09 PM
Unfortunately no. that is just a copy of the PDF file that gives us a peak at the available hotels with pricing. that PDF is from the official hotels area on the comic-con.org website. It was posted there earlier this afternoon.

the link to the Request form will be emailed to us very soon. it will also be added to the hotels page on comic-con.org.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 20, 2015, 05:56:28 PM
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Is this the hotel list link we've been waiting for?

http://sdccblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/cci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1.pdf

Yes, but it's been available all day already.  (Ha ha.)

Like jopari has mentioned, just in case there are changes to the hotel information, or if CCI posts an updated version of the hotel list, I would recommend to always go directly to the official source and CCI website instead: https://secure.comic-con.org/cci/hotels

^__~
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: HoobieDaju on March 20, 2015, 06:05:26 PM
Jopari, will you be updating the practice page with the info in the link I provided?  You will still have last year's dates on the practice form, for instance.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 20, 2015, 06:23:59 PM
I could have sworn I fixed the dates months ago. I'll check it later tonight
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sideproject on March 20, 2015, 06:27:20 PM
I'm super nervous, but feeling ready. Auto-fill is locked and loaded. ::)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Emerald_Mom on March 20, 2015, 07:14:26 PM
If auto-fill works I should be good.... getting 30-35 seconds with it.  But with the real thing who knows.... breathe, breathe. :o
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: debster on March 20, 2015, 07:15:34 PM
I always get so scared about the hotel lottery! Thanks Jopari for putting your guide together!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Sandrene on March 21, 2015, 12:31:46 AM
Thanks, jopari! Last year was my first year doing the lottery and I got my first choice, thanks to your guide. I'm now regretting leaving my job with the super fast Internet, though, but only for this moment :)

As for multiple rooms, even if they prioritized multiple rooms, they would never say they do. Then everyone would submit for 2-3 rooms so their request went to the front and just find people to fill those others. The TP agent probably said to have everyone fill out an individual request because if you're all quick you're more likely to all get your first pick.

And last year, my roommate got a notification about a duplicate room, but I don't think I did. We were able to change it pretty seamlessly. And we didn't have an official 4th roommate until a week or so before the con and were still able to change names that late in the game.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xDumpweed182x on March 21, 2015, 07:00:57 AM
Quick question. I'm using Chrome but I can't figure out how to get autofill to work. Any tips?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Mike on March 21, 2015, 07:11:21 AM
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Quick question. I'm using Chrome but I can't figure out how to get autofill to work. Any tips?
Have you tried the steps to toggle it on already?

-Click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.
-Select Settings.
-Click Show advanced settings and find the "Passwords and forms" section.
-Select the "Enable Autofill to fill out web forms in a single click" checkbox.

If its already enabled, are you having trouble getting it to work on ALL sites or just the practice form?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xDumpweed182x on March 21, 2015, 07:32:52 AM
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Have you tried the steps to toggle it on already?

-Click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.
-Select Settings.
-Click Show advanced settings and find the "Passwords and forms" section.
-Select the "Enable Autofill to fill out web forms in a single click" checkbox.

If its already enabled, are you having trouble getting it to work on ALL sites or just the practice form?
I've gone through the steps. And just on the practice form.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Mike on March 21, 2015, 08:44:29 AM
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I've gone through the steps. And just on the practice form.

Okay I'm comparing between LastPass and Chrome Autofill to see which works best for me. I'll mess around with the form myself some today. So far Chrome Autofill seems to work fine, just not so well for the additional persons I need to add. I think with LastPass I can set up some custom fields that *might* work for those but of course it's a total gamble.

I'm assuming you already have a street address profile completed for Chrome Autofill. Could there be some Chrome extensions that might be interfering with it? Some who have similar issues say autofill starts working for them when they log out of their Google account. If that works for you then maybe the issue is tied to your account and not specifically the Chrome browser.

There's a Yahoo Answer on this too that has enabling cookies as the top answer.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. I'm kind of playing catch-up on this thread so hopefully someone else can provide a better answer.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120218091710AAQByQ5

I know from personal experience that Yahoo Answers tend to be hit or miss but maybe this one will work!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xDumpweed182x on March 21, 2015, 09:22:55 AM
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Okay I'm comparing between LastPass and Chrome Autofill to see which works best for me. I'll mess around with the form myself some today. So far Chrome Autofill seems to work fine, just not so well for the additional persons I need to add. I think with LastPass I can set up some custom fields that *might* work for those but of course it's a total gamble.

I'm assuming you already have a street address profile completed for Chrome Autofill. Could there be some Chrome extensions that might be interfering with it? Some who have similar issues say autofill starts working for them when they log out of their Google account. If that works for you then maybe the issue is tied to your account and not specifically the Chrome browser.

There's a Yahoo Answer on this too that has enabling cookies as the top answer.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. I'm kind of playing catch-up on this thread so hopefully someone else can provide a better answer.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120218091710AAQByQ5

I know from personal experience that Yahoo Answers tend to be hit or miss but maybe this one will work!
Got it working! Thank you!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Mike on March 21, 2015, 09:35:53 AM

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Got it working! Thank you!

Good to hear!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: spoox on March 21, 2015, 11:54:47 AM
is there any way to do the drop down hotel selection in the Firefox auto fill form? I got the 6 separate boxes working but I wonder if there is a way to do the single box version..
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 21, 2015, 12:01:16 PM
Another reminder that the practice form was made by me just to help people get faster at MANUAL entry. It doesn't match the real form, so any efforts put forth to fill out parts of the PRACTICE form NON-MANUALLY, will likely fail on the real form come Tuesday morning.  Just don't come back here blaming me when everything goes horribly wrong because everyone wasn't prepared to fill out the entire form manually.

That said, I suppose it's possible that some non-manual entry will work on the real form. I'll leave it to others to chime in to elaborate.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 21, 2015, 12:05:59 PM
BTW, im comparing last years PDF to screenshots of last years hotel selection box to see if the hotel names were different in any way.
I will then look at this years PDF and give an educated guess at what the hotel names will be in the dropdown list.

I know that was an issue for some people last year. when they used the dropdown list, they had trouble finding the hotel they wanted because it had a "the" in front, or maybe a "-Large King" at the end or whatever.

maybe this will help some people be better prepared.

Not sure ill have time to update the practice google form though. ill try. lots going on this weekend.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: spoox on March 21, 2015, 12:08:22 PM
Thanks Jopari! You're a rockstar!!  O0
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Mike on March 21, 2015, 01:35:13 PM
You know it used to be you didn't need disclaimers and people would just use this little old thing called common sense.  Suppose I'm living in a dream world to expect people to do that sorta thing today. <grumble grumble>
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 21, 2015, 01:57:56 PM
Here is a Google Spreadsheet that shows the comparison between 2014s PDF and 2014s Form Hotel List.
I then added 2015s PDF and my GUESS at 2015s Form hotel List.  You would think they would use the exact same list they have shown is in the PDF. but unfortunately last year it was slightly different, and we can expect the same this year.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14vWKw8eZAfmtFaav7RzI3xdrzcext0tCsPP40J89n1Q/edit?usp=sharing
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darkron9 on March 21, 2015, 02:21:56 PM
Eye opening those differences.  Thanks for creating this spreadsheet jopari.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 21, 2015, 02:56:01 PM
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Here is a Google Spreadsheet that shows the comparison between 2014s PDF and 2014s Form Hotel List.
I then added 2015s PDF and my GUESS at 2015s Form hotel List.  You would think they would use the exact same list they have shown is in the PDF. but unfortunately last year it was slightly different, and we can expect the same this year.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14vWKw8eZAfmtFaav7RzI3xdrzcext0tCsPP40J89n1Q/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks for taking the time to do this, jopari!


It's also important to note that the current hotel list that was released yesterday is marked as "version 1" and as a "preliminary" list by CCI, so it's possible that there will be a "version 2" or "version 3" at some point.  (Last year, they were up to version 3 of the hotel list.)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 21, 2015, 06:36:23 PM
Very sneaky of TP doing that.

Just give us honest, accurate information....
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 21, 2015, 07:31:33 PM
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Very sneaky of TP doing that.

Just give us honest, accurate information....

I don't believe that Travel Planners or CCI intentionally means to deceive in regards to the hotel list and pricing.  It's just that sometimes, when you run a convention, contractual negotiated things may change or get updated, so when the time comes, they release a newer version of that list (or whatever it is they're working on).  Perhaps CCI and Travel Planners aren't quite done with negotiating with the hotels just yet, and if you look at jopari's spreadsheet, it does mention that a few hotels are still missing.  I'm more inclined to think that they're still working on it and trying to finalize it before the hotel lottery date next Tuesday.

Even so, if you look at the URL address of the hotel list, you can see that the title of the .pdf file is "cci2015_prelim_hotellist_v1.pdf," so it is mentioned that it is a "preliminary" list in the meantime.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SamTurtledove on March 21, 2015, 08:31:47 PM
Last year's list had 55 hotels, this prelim list for 2015 has 54 hotels listed.  The Comfort Inn and Suites Hotel Circle South SeaWorld isn't on the current list.
Title: Not Received Travel Planners Email for SDCC Hotel Selection
Post by: jeffreyk on March 21, 2015, 09:34:28 PM
My wife and I finally got into SDCC but, as hotel selection is on Monday 3/24/15, we have not received our Travel Planners email with the link for the Hotel Selection Lottery. We were wondering if anyone else didn't get their email link yet. Or, should I be expecting that email sometime tomorrow (Sunday 3/23/15)? Thank you for your help.

Cheers,
Jeffrey
Title: Re: Not Received Travel Planners Email for SDCC Hotel Selection
Post by: Zero on March 21, 2015, 09:44:00 PM
The hotel lottery date is Tuesday, March 24th, but as of right now, the hotel link hasn't been sent out yet.

I'm going to merge this into jopari's "Travel Planners lottery" thread, since it falls along with a similar topic: http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?topic=4355.0


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My wife and I finally got into SDCC but, as hotel selection is on Monday 3/24/15, we have not received our Travel Planners email with the link for the Hotel Selection Lottery. We were wondering if anyone else didn't get their email link yet. Or, should I be expecting that email sometime tomorrow (Sunday 3/23/15)? Thank you for your help.

Cheers,
Jeffrey
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: jeffreyk on March 21, 2015, 10:08:40 PM
Dear Zero,

Thanks! No worries about merging my question to this thread. We were just wondering about the TP email as we wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything seeing the hotel selection is on Tuesday. I originally thought it was Monday (as you pointed out..sorry about that) so that prompted my question thinking hotel selection was a day earlier. Oops. This will be our first trip back to SDCC since 2004 and we are extremely thrilled (quite the understatement) to be going. We looked at our program guide for 2004 and the expected attendance then was about 15,000. What a difference a decade makes! Have a great night and thank you very much for answering my question; I appreciate it!

Take care,
Jeffrey
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: HoobieDaju on March 21, 2015, 10:29:14 PM
I just went to the first page of this thread to check out the practice page and it says I can't view any of the links and that I need to register or login...  Problem is I'm logged in.. I even logged out and back in but I still can't seem to open any of the links as I see the same message.. Any thoughts?  Thanks!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 21, 2015, 10:43:12 PM
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Dear Zero,

Thanks! No worries about merging my question to this thread. We were just wondering about the TP email as we wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything seeing the hotel selection is on Tuesday. I originally thought it was Monday (as you pointed out..sorry about that) so that prompted my question thinking hotel selection was a day earlier. Oops. This will be our first trip back to SDCC since 2004 and we are extremely thrilled (quite the understatement) to be going. We looked at our program guide for 2004 and the expected attendance then was about 15,000. What a difference a decade makes! Have a great night and thank you very much for answering my question; I appreciate it!

Take care,
Jeffrey

Tuesday, March 24th (unless you're in a different time zone), but make sure your calendar is marked for Tuesday.  ^__~
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 21, 2015, 10:46:56 PM
(Sorry for the double post!)

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I just went to the first page of this thread to check out the practice page and it says I can't view any of the links and that I need to register or login...  Problem is I'm logged in.. I even logged out and back in but I still can't seem to open any of the links as I see the same message.. Any thoughts?  Thanks!

If you're logged in and the website URL says "http://friendsofcci.com/forum" (and *NOT* "http://www.friendsofcci.com/forum"), you should be able to access the links in the thread.  Let me know if that works for you.

Otherwise, do you have a screenshot of what you're seeing?  If so, upload the image to Photobucket, tinypic, imageshack, etc. and then PM the image to me to see if there's something we can do to assist you.  ^__^d

Thanks!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 22, 2015, 03:52:46 AM
added the new PDF and a link to the Hotel Name comparison spreadsheet to the main guide.

I have been able to confirm(ish) a few more of the hotels (or hotel room types) WILL be available this year. ill continue adding info to the spreadsheet as I find it.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 22, 2015, 05:26:59 AM
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I just went to the first page of this thread to check out the practice page and it says I can't view any of the links and that I need to register or login...  Problem is I'm logged in.. I even logged out and back in but I still can't seem to open any of the links as I see the same message.. Any thoughts?  Thanks!
I double checked all your permissions & everything seems normal. 
In addition to zero's suggestions, try clearing your cache.  Before clearing your cookies, try logging into the forum with another browser, if you are using chrome try firefox etc.
if clearing you cache doesn't work & you are able to see the attachments in your secondary browser, clear the cookies in your primary browser.
either post or PM me if you are still unable to see the links
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 22, 2015, 06:37:03 AM
A great how to vid by conshark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fkmQ0IO9E&feature=youtu.be
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darkron9 on March 22, 2015, 07:44:17 AM
Thanks for posting this Alyssa. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 22, 2015, 08:04:07 AM
Hey Jopari,
Any chance you still have the old copy of the TP form from last year?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nancy on March 22, 2015, 08:40:33 AM
Just got my email with the hotel sale link. Nerves have officially set in. Especially as it's almost 3am here and I just can't get to sleep.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: jeffreyk on March 22, 2015, 09:07:06 AM
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Tuesday, March 24th (unless you're in a different time zone), but make sure your calendar is marked for Tuesday.  ^__~

Yep, got mine at 8am this morning. It'll be an interesting morning on Tuesday.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Robbiealpz on March 22, 2015, 09:18:54 AM
Got so excited when I got the email this morning. My first con, so happy I found this forum. Lots of help to prepare me for this.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 22, 2015, 09:21:16 AM
welcome to the forum

i've found most folks very helpful towards new folk, if you get turned around ask someone ;)  & don't be afraid of starting up a convo with folks in line !
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: nvj29 on March 22, 2015, 09:53:37 AM
Email received & saved. 2nd time attending SDCC, 1st time attempting hotel sale. Turing my badge perp into hotel prep. "Je suis prêt" - I am ready.

Sent from my LG3G
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: HoobieDaju on March 22, 2015, 10:06:28 AM
I'm good to go now.. Thanks!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: GallifreyGal on March 22, 2015, 11:04:55 AM
Thanks again to Jopari for putting this guide together. All the tips and particularly the practice form were extremely helpful last year for me. It was my first time for Hotelpocalypse and I got my number one choice! So happy for any sort of edge on the competition.

One tip I have is for people who aren't too adept at scrolling or won't have access to a scroll wheel mouse (i.e. me). Once you click on the drop down hotel menu, you can use your keyboard to select the hotel by hitting the first letter of the hotel name and then hitting the Tab key to confirm it. Assuming that all the hotels are listed in alphabetical order, this should work.

For example, say that I wanted to choose the Hilton Bayfront. According to the practice dropdown menu, it's the sixth hotel that starts with the letter H. I click on the drop down menu, hit the H key 6 times, then hit Tab to select the Bayfront. This works like a charm on the practice form. I've already memorized which keys I have to press and how many times I need to press them.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 22, 2015, 01:33:40 PM
My customary yet casual reminder for the time zone differences:

Remember that we're in PDT (Pacific Daylight Savings Time) now, so don't confuse it for PST (which is Pacific Standard Time).

Make sure you set alarm for 9:00 AM PDT on Tuesday, March 24th.  PDT is UTC -7:00.


Here's a time converter, just in case anyone needs this: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

There's also a clock on the index (main) page of the forum to show you the time in San Diego as well.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 22, 2015, 07:06:25 PM
Quick question for people with multiple room experience: Our group might need 2 rooms this year so we're all requesting 2. But, there's a good chance we'll end up just needing 1. If we have 2 rooms can we change the reservation back to 1 after the deposit and everything? I know you can make changes to names and try to change dates. Wasn't sure if you could drop a second room if you didn't need/want it anymore.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 22, 2015, 07:12:40 PM
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Quick question for people with multiple room experience: Our group might need 2 rooms this year so we're all requesting 2. But, there's a good chance we'll end up just needing 1. If we have 2 rooms can we change the reservation back to 1 after the deposit and everything? I know you can make changes to names and try to change dates. Wasn't sure if you could drop a second room if you didn't need/want it anymore.

If you end up with two rooms and you only need one reservation, you can either: [1] not pay for two nights stay plus tax (Travel Planners gives you about 72 hours to submit payment, and if payment isn't submitted during that time frame, then the reservation is automatically cancelled in their system and most likely given to someone else on a waitlist), or [2] transfer the second room to someone else (provided that Travel Planners allow people to transfer room reservations like last year).

Hope that helps.  ^__^d

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 22, 2015, 07:25:48 PM
Quote
If you end up with two rooms and you only need one reservation, you can either: [1] not pay for two nights stay plus tax (Travel Planners gives you about 72 hours to submit payment, and if payment isn't submitted during that time

Not quite. the releasing 1 room on 1 reservation part we know. I mean if we have 2 rooms under 1 reservation, do I later, after paying the deposit, if our other people drop out, have the option to change the reservation to 1 room.

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 22, 2015, 07:29:37 PM
i dont see why not. but i dont have personal experience trying this. you would likely have to call Travel Planners and get it taken care of over the phone.

Downside is that once you have put the deposit, its only a few weeks later before you can get rid of the 2nd room without a penalty i think.

/NONANSWER
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 22, 2015, 07:33:13 PM
Quote
Downside is that once you have put the deposit, its only a few weeks later before you can get rid of the 2nd room without a penalty i think.

True, I was thinking about that too. As of just a minute ago, we might have a few more people in our hotel group and will absolutely need the second room. So, possibly problem solved! Maybe? haha
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 22, 2015, 07:33:33 PM
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Not quite. the releasing 1 room on 1 reservation part we know. I mean if we have 2 rooms under 1 reservation, do I later, after paying the deposit, if our other people drop out, have the option to change the reservation to 1 room.

Ah, I misunderstood.  Sorry about that.  ^__^;

Yes, you can cancel your reservation after paying the deposit if the other people in your group drop out, but make sure you're aware of the refund dates for the hotels:


This deposit is fully refundable if your reservation is canceled by April 15th, 2015.
Reservations canceled between April 16th to May 15th, 2015 will incur a cancellation fee equal to one night's room and tax.
Reservations canceled on or after May 16th, 2015: DEPOSITS BECOME NON-REFUNDABLE.


I also wrote a quick FAQ about hotel reservations with Travel Planners: http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?topic=1387.0


Hope that helps! ^__^d
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 22, 2015, 07:54:26 PM
I think what has made the hotel apocalypse fun every year is that I swear our situation is different every year and then something comes up, so every year a day or so before the lotto some odd question has come up!

Last year we had the greatest miracle of miracles happen when we got a waitlisted downtown room...that was in the same hotel I was booked at for Mon-Wed before the con. Not sure I will hit that level of luck again.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 22, 2015, 08:01:03 PM
As a reference, I usually request 2 rooms. When I receive them, I have a *separate* reservation number for each room. So it is treated as two entirely separate reservations and it is easy to cancel one if that's what you need to do.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 22, 2015, 08:07:20 PM
Quote
As a reference, I usually request 2 rooms. When I receive them, I have a *separate* reservation number for each room. So it is treated as two entirely separate reservations and it is easy to cancel one if that's what you need to do.

Yes! Thank you so much!!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Mike on March 22, 2015, 11:18:30 PM
Finally got a chance to run through the form a few times and wanted to echo all the others saying a big thanks to you jopari for the practice form and the awesome guide. I have a lot of practicing yet to do but I feel I'm much more prepared than I was last year thanks in large part to this thread. So again, thank you!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: deige22 on March 23, 2015, 03:30:57 AM
If I'm taking my one year old do I need to list them as a occupant of the room or do just go after a 2 person room and list my husband and I? We only need one bed and a pull out, or crib (wich most of the hotels on our list have). Anyone have any experience with this?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: FrankCastle on March 23, 2015, 05:05:42 AM
You shouldn't need to list your one year old as an occupant.

Am I the only one who thinks these prices are outrageous this year? I booked the wyndham bayside last year direct thru the hotel and had a better rate than the TP rate for this year. Disappointed this will be the first year in a while that I won't be staying downtown due to cost.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 23, 2015, 05:17:51 AM
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If I'm taking my one year old do I need to list them as a occupant of the room or do just go after a 2 person room and list my husband and I? We only need one bed and a pull out, or crib (wich most of the hotels on our list have). Anyone have any experience with this?
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You shouldn't need to list your one year old as an occupant.
Like frank, i wouldn't list the kiddo but once you've got a room/hotel i'd call TB, say in a month and tell them you're gonna need a crib.  I imagine they'll have encountered this situation before & have a process.  <--hopefully
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: debster on March 23, 2015, 08:48:09 AM
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As a reference, I usually request 2 rooms. When I receive them, I have a *separate* reservation number for each room. So it is treated as two entirely separate reservations and it is easy to cancel one if that's what you need to do.

That is exactly what I ended up doing in 2013 without any issues - canceled one room because people dropped out and then kept the reservation for the other one. I didn't run into any problems, so it should hopefully still work the same this year.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MickeyJack on March 23, 2015, 08:58:43 AM
My nephew and I are both participating separately in Hotelpocalypse. If we both put down each other's names as occupants in our twin room request, will we both be bounced out for being duplicate or just the slowest of the two of us?


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: lowgun on March 23, 2015, 09:47:31 AM
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My nephew and I are both participating separately in Hotelpocalypse. If we both put down each other's names as occupants in our twin room request, will we both be bounced out for being duplicate or just the slowest of the two of us?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When i did this a few years ago, they sent us an email about the duplicates and then we just responded and had them cancel one of the reservation
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: kiddo235 on March 23, 2015, 09:48:20 AM
Does anyone know if you can use an iPad instead of a PC?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Jekecy on March 23, 2015, 09:57:59 AM
Going to be a stupid question, but just want to make sure all bases are covered. I'm likely going to be making the trip with a few other friends (who won't be attending CC, just Cali) and I don't exactly have a set number of people this far out yet.

I'm assuming when it comes to reserving the rooms, only ONE name is needed per room? Even if a reservation is placed for twin beds or whatever? I'm just trying to gauge how strict they are, and whether I need the exact number of occupants and names at the time I place reservation.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Devorah on March 23, 2015, 09:59:57 AM
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Going to be a stupid question, but just want to make sure all bases are covered. I'm likely going to be making the trip with a few other friends (who won't be attending CC, just Cali) and I don't exactly have a set number of people this far out yet.

I'm assuming when it comes to reserving the rooms, only ONE name is needed per room? Even if a reservation is placed for twin beds or whatever? I'm just trying to gauge how strict they are, and whether I need the exact number of occupants and names at the time I place reservation.

If you ask for a triple you need to put three names, quad four names etc etc.  They are required fields.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 23, 2015, 10:03:48 AM
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Does anyone know if you can use an iPad instead of a PC?

I think you *can*, but the form really isn't designed for hat, so you may encounter some difficulties with the dropdown form that slow you down. IMHO it isn't worth it. Find a desktop/laptop to use for 5 minutes at 9 am.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Jekecy on March 23, 2015, 10:07:46 AM
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If you ask for a triple you need to put three names, quad four names etc etc.  They are required fields.
How strict are those fields when it comes to actually checking in?

If I add one person, or if I sub in someone else, does it matter?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Devorah on March 23, 2015, 10:10:46 AM
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How strict are those fields when it comes to actually checking in?

If I add one person, or if I sub in someone else, does it matter?

I'm not sure about when checking in, but I do know you can change the guest names on the TP web site later on.   
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Iris on March 23, 2015, 10:33:37 AM
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How strict are those fields when it comes to actually checking in?

If I add one person, or if I sub in someone else, does it matter?

It's quite easy to change the names on the reservation through TP either online or on the phone. So long as your name is on the reservation, your other guests should be able to check-in.

We had to discuss at the front desk adding someone to both of our reservations to make exchanging the credit card on the account and check-out easier. We had to put down a card at check-in and the girl whose card the reservations were paid under was not there to do so. So we needed to switch it over to her partway through. She was also the one leaving last and picking up the itemized receipts. We were told they could absolutely add her to the account, but when they looked up my personal reservation they said as she was already listed it wasn't necessary. So she was able to go up without me to change things around for us.

If you want a guest to check-in earlier when you won't be there, they should be able to just present their ID, put a card on file, and there shouldn't be an issue. However, you can call a week or two in advance, once they have the reservations in their system, to double-check that the names on the res. are correct and confirm anything else.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MickeyJack on March 23, 2015, 10:34:34 AM

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When i did this a few years ago, they sent us an email about the duplicates and then we just responded and had them cancel one of the reservation

Will that put us to the back of the line?



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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 23, 2015, 10:38:12 AM
No, you already have your spot when this occurs.

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Will that put us to the back of the line?



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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Jekecy on March 23, 2015, 10:57:43 AM
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It's quite easy to change the names on the reservation through TP either online or on the phone. So long as your name is on the reservation, your other guests should be able to check-in.

We had to discuss at the front desk adding someone to both of our reservations to make exchanging the credit card on the account and check-out easier. We had to put down a card at check-in and the girl whose card the reservations were paid under was not there to do so. So we needed to switch it over to her partway through. She was also the one leaving last and picking up the itemized receipts. We were told they could absolutely add her to the account, but when they looked up my personal reservation they said as she was already listed it wasn't necessary. So she was able to go up without me to change things around for us.

If you want a guest to check-in earlier when you won't be there, they should be able to just present their ID, put a card on file, and there shouldn't be an issue. However, you can call a week or two in advance, once they have the reservations in their system, to double-check that the names on the res. are correct and confirm anything else.
Sounds peachy, but I am curious what's the need for listing the other occupants then when requesting a reservation? It sounds like they don't really care who comes with, so long as the person's name matches the reservation and billing info.

Wouldn't it be better for people who are only bringing one or two other people (in one room) to simply fill out their own info and then add it later on once they're confirmed?

I'm a bit nervous as I don't want to be jipped when the time comes to pay. I could very well be going by myself, or I could be going with as many as 4 others. So right now I'm betting on one room with the hopes others can be added in to my reservation later.

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Pyramid on March 23, 2015, 12:02:45 PM
Does speed matter for Hotelpocalypse?  At home I barely get 1 MG per sec but on campus I can get 13 MGs per sec.  I'm thinking on campus is the way to go, any thoughts?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 23, 2015, 12:06:39 PM
Speed matters, a lot. But the main limitation is likely your typing speed and not the speed of your connection.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Pyramid on March 23, 2015, 12:09:09 PM
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Speed matters, a lot. But the main limitation is likely your typing speed and not the speed of your connection.

Better prep then.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SoCalNerdGal on March 23, 2015, 03:05:05 PM
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Speed matters, a lot. But the main limitation is likely your typing speed and not the speed of your connection.

Thanks for responding to the above post.  I just asked a question about this on Reddit.  We arrived back in town to a significantly slower internet connection than we would have had for last year's sale and it has sort of made me reconsider my hotel choices.  I don't want to go downtown or bust if my internet speeds guarantee I wouldn't get my request submitted in time.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: chaosdreamer on March 23, 2015, 04:07:57 PM
Bah.  I just found out I have to attend a meeting at 8am tomorrow so I'm going to have to use my computer at work instead of my regular setup at home...  >:(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 23, 2015, 04:43:56 PM
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Thanks for responding to the above post.  I just asked a question about this on Reddit.  We arrived back in town to a significantly slower internet connection than we would have had for last year's sale and it has sort of made me reconsider my hotel choices.  I don't want to go downtown or bust if my internet speeds guarantee I wouldn't get my request submitted in time.

there were a bunch of non-standard downtown hotels, here's a map of other perhaps less popular options

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1370.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag253%2Fjeremycondoin%2F2015TPFORMGUIDE%2FDownTownHotelMap2015_zpsntcddazb.jpg&hash=a1b68ce63ecd25ce5d4d2f31c6021ae53b37f973)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nancy on March 23, 2015, 04:47:06 PM
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My nephew and I are both participating separately in Hotelpocalypse. If we both put down each other's names as occupants in our twin room request, will we both be bounced out for being duplicate or just the slowest of the two of us?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know this has already been answered, but we usually use our real first name, then a dummy second name - which can be changed through the TravelPlanners website once everything's booked and confirmed.

I'm too paranoid about getting flagged as a duplicate (though it doesn't sound like it's that big a deal, I try to alleviate any risk).
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 23, 2015, 04:57:57 PM
30 seconds with Jopari's form.

Took me three goes and I had it down.

Booyah!

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 23, 2015, 05:12:05 PM
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30 seconds with Jopari's form.

Took me three goes and I had it down.

Booyah!

So jealous.... I can't get below 42 seconds even with the chrome autofill.  It's having to add the other people that's killing my time even though I only have to double click to add their name


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 23, 2015, 05:19:07 PM
Using the drop down menus to get the hotels listed is what takes me the longest. Ugh.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 23, 2015, 05:23:48 PM

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Using the drop down menus to get the hotels listed is what takes me the longest. Ugh.

Lol...me too.  I always scroll to far or not enough.  I tried typing the 1st letter of the hotel but I feel it takes me longer.  Oh well, if I get one of my 6 I would be so happy


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Jekecy on March 23, 2015, 05:29:40 PM
Anyone know if it's more cost effective to book a separate room for multiple people in the same hotel? If say there are 4 people in a group, would it cost the same to book 2 beds in one room, versus 1 bed for each room? This'll probably lower the chances of booking your choice hotel, but if it's cheaper...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 23, 2015, 05:34:07 PM
This is my list - any opinions?


1 - Best Western Bayside
2 - Bristol
3 - Doubletree Downtown
4 - Four Points SHeraton
5 - The Sofia
6 - Declan Suites
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nancy on March 23, 2015, 05:40:52 PM
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This is my list - any opinions?


1 - Best Western Bayside
2 - Bristol
3 - Doubletree Downtown
4 - Four Points SHeraton
5 - The Sofia
6 - Declan Suites

If you get it submitted early enough (your 30-second PB would be ideal!), I honestly think you'll be fine. But I know that Bristol and Sofia especially are close-ish cheap-ish hotels and I imagine they'll go fairly quickly.

I always like throwing in one choice with a LOT of rooms to give me a better chance of at least one thing on my list.

Good luck!! :-)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 23, 2015, 05:57:00 PM
I know in the wiki guide, it states that you can hit the first letter and go that section.  Can you type multiple letters, ie "H-A-R" and get to Hard Rock or are you limited to "H" and then scrolling from there?

Thanks!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nancy on March 23, 2015, 06:05:02 PM
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I know in the wiki guide, it states that you can hit the first letter and go that section.  Can you type multiple letters, ie "H-A-R" and get to Hard Rock or are you limited to "H" and then scrolling from there?

Thanks!

Multiple letters work just fine, as long as they're tapped in close enough sequence  :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 23, 2015, 06:08:17 PM
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Lol...me too.  I always scroll to far or not enough.  I tried typing the 1st letter of the hotel but I feel it takes me longer. 

tab'ing and typing the first letter or two is the fastest way **but** my opinion may be colored because i touch type.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 23, 2015, 06:16:59 PM
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tab'ing and typing the first letter or two is the fastest way **but** my opinion may be colored because i touch type.

Im going to practice on this tonight and see which way works best for me.  Thanks for the info  :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Mike on March 23, 2015, 06:21:07 PM
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I know in the wiki guide, it states that you can hit the first letter and go that section.  Can you type multiple letters, ie "H-A-R" and get to Hard Rock or are you limited to "H" and then scrolling from there?

Thanks!
I think it works up until the point where you have to hit the space bar. For example if the hotel name starts with "San Diego" and you try to type that in you'll find yourself starting at something like Declan instead of San Diego Marriott etc. etc. This is how it was working for me last night anyway using chrome.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 23, 2015, 06:21:55 PM
one thing that may help is the auto fill feature in chrome.  I'm talking abt filling in your name, last name, address & email address.  to get to the autofill feature in chrome go to the menu on the far upper right side of chrome, select settings, scroll down to 'show advanced settings', scroll down to passwords & forms, make sure Enable autofill is toggled on, click on 'manage autofill settings', under the field of 'address' highlite your address, click edit on the right, make sure all your info is in the correct location.

then go to the practice form, type in the first name, highlite the dropdown box & click.  a good majority of the fields in the form might be filled
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 23, 2015, 06:22:48 PM
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This is my list - any opinions?


1 - Best Western Bayside
2 - Bristol
3 - Doubletree Downtown
4 - Four Points SHeraton
5 - The Sofia
6 - Declan Suites

Looks like a good list, Xax!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 23, 2015, 06:24:36 PM
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I think it works up until the point where you have to hit the space bar. For example if the hotel name starts with "San Diego" and you try to type that in you'll find yourself starting at something like Declan instead of San Diego Marriott etc. etc. This is how it was working for me last night anyway using chrome.

once you get type in 'H-A-R', I'd down/up arrow to the desired hotel
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xDumpweed182x on March 23, 2015, 07:32:50 PM
Question: Did autofill work on last years form?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 23, 2015, 07:43:45 PM
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Question: Did autofill work on last years form?

It did for me on Chrome for the past 2 years. Name, address, etc.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 23, 2015, 08:25:55 PM
auto fill works for most forums as long as it's the generic info like TJ said, name, address etc
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MarvelGurl on March 23, 2015, 08:37:58 PM
Didn't someone have a tip that you are better off doing a single (2 pp/1 bed) than twin (2 pp/2 beds)?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MarvelGurl on March 23, 2015, 08:40:56 PM
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This is my list - any opinions?


1 - Best Western Bayside
2 - Bristol
3 - Doubletree Downtown
4 - Four Points SHeraton
5 - The Sofia
6 - Declan Suites

Pretty much looks like my list except not in that order. I've stayed at both The Bristol and The Declan back when it was Sheraton Suites and they're both great hotels. If you get your form in under a min I agree that you shouldn't have any problem getting your #1 pick.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Mike on March 23, 2015, 08:57:31 PM
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one thing that may help is the auto fill feature in chrome.  I'm talking abt filling in your name, last name, address & email address.  to get to the autofill feature in chrome go to the menu on the far upper right side of chrome, select settings, scroll down to 'show advanced settings', scroll down to passwords & forms, make sure Enable autofill is toggled on, click on 'manage autofill settings', under the field of 'address' highlite your address, click edit on the right, make sure all your info is in the correct location.

then go to the practice form, type in the first name, highlite the dropdown box & click.  a good majority of the fields in the form might be filled

I agree, any autofill feature that might work with the real form will be a real advantage. I shaved about 40 seconds off my submit time by using Chrome autofill, and that was without a mouse. Couldn't get under a minute prior to that - now I'm at around 45-50 seconds.

A few other things I'm considering as part of my overall strategy...thoughts?

1. I think I'll use a hybrid of Chrome Autofill and a LastPass Form Fill Profile. I like the LastPass option because it lets you set up custom fields such as Occupant 1, Occupant 2, Hotel Selection 1, Hotel Selection 2, etc. I know for the dropdowns it's kind of pointless, but you never know when that extra bit of preparation might pay off.

2. I found it useful to add the name of each additional occupant in Chrome's Autofill so their names would pop up when I arrow down or start typing in a name field. My goal is to give myself multiple ways to input the same information. I'm just not sure whether it's better to have all 4 names under one profile/address, or to have 4 separate profiles/addresses instead. I'm leaning towards having all names under one profile to reduce the risk of somehow blanking out any required info from my primary profile (e.g. street address).

3. To keep from shooting myself in the foot I'm going to use a simple no-frills mouse to navigate the form. None of those fancy Back-Forward buttons I usually love are allowed anywhere near my system tomorrow morning! Nothing worse than filling out a form and accidentally hitting that back button, instantly losing all your data. Even worse in a situation like this to have something like that happen!

4. I'm predicting Murphy to cause an outage of some sort, so using a system that's backed by battery or UPS is vital. Laptops are my preferred platform for this reason, with a smartphone at the ready in case it's a network outage instead of an electrical one.

Any glaringly obvious holes in my logic here?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nicodimas on March 23, 2015, 10:59:41 PM
Dang can't get faster then 45 secs...good luck all!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: saban on March 24, 2015, 03:01:47 AM
So I've been practicing with and without autofill and if the hotel name order is the same as in the practice form I should be good to go.  Fingers crossed I don't freak out or oversleep.  I think what gets me most during these things is waiting for the page to load.  I'll be so happy if I can land one of my top 6 choices.

Good luck everyone!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 03:07:03 AM
OK. Updated list (due to location/price)

1 - Bristol (188)
2 - Best Western Bayside (181)
3 - Sofia (212)
4 - Doubletree Downtown (199)
5 - Declan Suites (214)
6 - Four points by Sheraton (207)


Thoughts? For eight dollars more per night for a better location...although #2 does offer free breakfast...I'm conflicted over 1 and 2, thoughts?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: saban on March 24, 2015, 03:18:53 AM
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OK. Updated list (due to location/price)

1 - Bristol (188)
2 - Best Western Bayside (181)
3 - Sofia (212)
4 - Doubletree Downtown (199)
5 - Declan Suites (214)
6 - Four points by Sheraton (207)


Thoughts? For eight dollars more per night for a better location...although #2 does offer free breakfast...I'm conflicted over 1 and 2, thoughts?

That really depends on you.  I personally would always go for a place that has free food since that can add up over the course of the week.  Last year I stayed at Comfort Inn and while the room was ridiculously tiny and expensive, parking was cheap, they had an in room fridge and they had free breakfast and offered free drinks and dinner during the convention so that off set some of the cost.

If money is an issue then I would go for the cheaper one that offers food and just schedule your time so that you take into account traveling to and from the convention center.  A mile isn't too bad of a walk going there but when you're loaded with convention items it might be a long trek back.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 03:45:30 AM
OK. Updated list AGAIN! (turn 3) (due to location/price)

1 - Best Western Bayside (181)
2 - Bristol (188)
3 - Sofia (212)
4 - Doubletree Downtown (199)
5 - Declan Suites (214)
6 - Four points by Sheraton (207)

BWB - Brekky, 17 minutes, free wifi, cheapest of the lot. (middle of shuttle route, but was based in this area last year and didn't have a problem)

Bristol - 21 min middle of route, no brekky, free wifi, a little more $. A bit nicer

Sofia -21min, middle of route, no brekky, free wifi? (unsure) - 21 min, 32 more than BWB, a bit nicer

Doubletree 17min (end of route) Free wifi, cheaper than Sofia, location not as good, 18 more then BWB

Declan - 9mins, beginning of route, free wifi, no brekky, more exp than sofia, beginning of shuttle route .

Four points - 17 min, free wifi, no brekky,price OK, poor location

OK done! Final!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 24, 2015, 04:15:09 AM
Less then 5 hours to go!! Anyone nervous? What if the form has changed?! What if everything goes wrong?!?! START FREAKING OUT PEOPLE... AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 24, 2015, 04:15:45 AM
Just kidding!!! Good morning all


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 04:17:44 AM
attacks Jopari with a spoon
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 24, 2015, 04:19:18 AM
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Less then 5 hours to go!! Anyone nervous? What if the form has changed?! What if everything goes wrong?!?! START FREAKING OUT PEOPLE... AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You are not helping my nervous shakes Jopari!

But seriously though, do you think it's likely CCI/TP will change the form?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 24, 2015, 04:22:55 AM
The last time they made changes, they were announced correct?. I haven't seen any announcements from TP/CCI this years dictating anything has changed. So probably not.  (Or am I lying to calm you down.... MUHAHAHAHHAHA)

Sorry, got only 4 hours of sleep...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 04:24:04 AM
Jopari it's 4am, why are you awake?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 24, 2015, 04:25:25 AM
Workout time! Got 40lbs of nerd fat to shed before the big day. (Aka preview night lol)


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 24, 2015, 04:29:09 AM
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Jopari it's 4am, why are you awake?

Some of the global moderators and administrators are awake too...  Silently guarding the forums.  ;p
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 04:32:38 AM
Argh, I thought all the Mods were based in Cali - it's 10.30pm here - Melb, Aus
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 24, 2015, 04:35:59 AM
it's 7:30a here-- kiddo left an hr ago for school
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 04:36:50 AM
Alyssa - so you're somewhere between NY and FL?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 24, 2015, 04:47:46 AM
Good Morning Everyone. Just wanted to say hi. It's 4:47 am here. Excited for today!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 24, 2015, 04:58:19 AM
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Alyssa - so you're somewhere between NY and FL?
actually north of there....
my son went spring camping with his boyscout troop last weekend. it was sub-zero with 35 mile per hr wind gusts <over winter>
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 05:01:22 AM
Massachusetts? Maine? New Hampshire? Vermont? Connecticut?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 24, 2015, 05:16:50 AM
aren't they all really the same place, our states are so small

 >:D
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 24, 2015, 05:27:57 AM
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Argh, I thought all the Mods were based in Cali - it's 10.30pm here - Melb, Aus

Tee-hee.  Not all of us.  ^__^;

(I just keep irregular sleeping hours, so sometimes, I'm up at random times which makes people think I live outside of California, ha ha.)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 24, 2015, 05:32:56 AM
I'm going to open the hotel doc area shortly.  It'll give folks something to look at while they're waiting.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 05:34:24 AM
Wait there was a group for hotels????
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 24, 2015, 05:43:03 AM
it's not a group, just an area we open up during the hotel sale. 
it primarily hold the google doc used for hotel exchanges after folks get their notice from TP 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 05:45:57 AM
Ah!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 24, 2015, 05:52:42 AM
This may be a silly question but I'll ask it anyway!

Once the site goes live (4pm GMT) would it be wise to refresh the page to load up the form or will the page auto-refresh?

I ask because during General Reg it auto-refreshed from the main page into the waiting room once it went live
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 24, 2015, 05:55:15 AM
i'm going to be f5'ing the page with the link loaded
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 24, 2015, 06:56:10 AM
Thanks to Jopari, I'm freaking out!!!!!

Actually, it's thanks to Jopari that I feel relatively calm. He has been such a tremendous help to all of us in helping us prepare for this sale.

Thank you, Jopari!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mightymoose on March 24, 2015, 06:58:45 AM
freaking out just a touch...
got all relevant data required on a sticky note in front of me (names, etc)

gonna make sure i do all essential things beforehand like use the bathroom (last thing one needs is a sudden rush to go just before it goes live)
thank goodness no meetings today!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 24, 2015, 07:08:15 AM
Good luck everyone! And thanks to Jopari for this prep guide and to everyone who helped answer questions I had! Much appreciated! This is the calmest I have ever felt before the hotel sale!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: gaeilstar on March 24, 2015, 07:13:30 AM
Can we all just say that Jopari is the best?? THANK YOU!!!  8)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: thawk on March 24, 2015, 07:15:55 AM
Already did my first morning warm up through the practice form.  I'm nervously excited (though I still can't fathom these people who say they're getting through it in the 20-30 second range).
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sideproject on March 24, 2015, 07:22:02 AM
Thank you all for all of this information. It's made leading up to today less stressful... and now that the hotel lottery is here I'm getting nervous.

Good luck to everyone! May the force be with you and the odds ever in your favor. ;D
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: janray on March 24, 2015, 08:00:19 AM
Doing my practice exercises this morning is actual helping me to stay calm.
Thanks Jopari for all the help you've given to all of us. Also, many thanks to everyone who contributed their tips and tricks.
Because of you I am much better prepared this year and it is very much appreciated.
Good luck everyone!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mlgagne on March 24, 2015, 08:19:39 AM
Good luck today to everyone participating in the hotel lottery! And special thanks to Jopari and everyone who offered their advice and tips - I feel so much calmer and more prepared than I would have without all of this information!  :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Miterin on March 24, 2015, 08:20:00 AM
So I just thought of something this morning. If when selecting hotels from list and you hit H so many times to get the hotel your wanting after its chosen and it Greys out will that mess up my next hotel. So say my first choice is H x6 and my next is H x7 will the first hotel choice be greyed out and making my second choice Hx 6 again?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: AlaskaRainbow on March 24, 2015, 08:24:35 AM
I've been up for an hour already, I don't usually get up that early for a regular work day!  But this is no regular day, is it?
Jopari, your help has been invaluable, super appreciate all the guidance. 

I've been practicing but I know when it goes live in less than an hour (gulp) I'll be shaking so bad I'll screw something up.  I just hope it's not something major like forgetting what hotels I want! Or my name, or what fake occupant names I'm using or which waitlist option, AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

Love this forum and everyone on it - thanks again to our moderators, administrators and fellow nerds!!  May your fingers be nimble, sure and true! (Oh, that sounded weird)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SchoolboyQ on March 24, 2015, 08:28:57 AM
Best of luck to everyone. Been getting 30-40 seconds on the practice form with Autofill on Chrome. Hoping to get MMM or Bayfront
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 24, 2015, 08:30:23 AM
Jopari has been a huge player in this and I know if I get a downtown hotel it'll be because of them. I should go give you reddit gold since it's all I have to give!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DaveG on March 24, 2015, 08:37:53 AM
Have to keep telling myself to not push for more speed.  A tick slower with accuracy is better than making a mistake.  I've been around 42-45 seconds with Chrome fill, but if I push myself to go faster and have to edit something it throws me off and I'm anywhere from 1 minute 10 sec to 1 minute 30 sec. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MommyDearest on March 24, 2015, 08:39:35 AM
I practiced too but once it goes live my fingers will be all thumbs!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xandsfaith on March 24, 2015, 08:41:22 AM
I wish there was a way to hardline your fingers with caffeine!

Good luck everyone.

Remember to breath. Passing out is not good :P
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: spoox on March 24, 2015, 08:43:53 AM
I am around 40 seconds as well with the firefox autofill. It's the drop down that scares me the most lol. The practice form sure has been an amazing help tool!! Thanks FoCC!!  ;D
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Emerald_Mom on March 24, 2015, 08:47:10 AM
A huge thank you to Jopari!!! This was such an awesome thing to do for us! ;D
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 24, 2015, 08:47:28 AM
The practice form has been awesome! Yes the drop down box drives me nuts since it's so important. Good luck to all today!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: koop1974 on March 24, 2015, 08:49:42 AM
Good Luck to everyone!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 24, 2015, 08:58:30 AM
Wishing everyone the best of luck this morning
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: justboogie on March 24, 2015, 09:03:07 AM
It took me about a minute and some change. Heres hoping for the best!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 24, 2015, 09:03:35 AM
Wow it seemed to take forever for that link to load up for me! At least I'm done…good luck to all..
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bball2026 on March 24, 2015, 09:03:41 AM
It did not load right at 12:00, went about 12:30ish and this at my work... anybody else have that issue?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 24, 2015, 09:03:45 AM
The page took forever and I wasn't submitted until 1 minute and 17 seconds after 9 :-/
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 24, 2015, 09:03:54 AM
Took forever to load, then had a couple small hiccups. Submitted at 2:37 mark. Not feeling good.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 24, 2015, 09:04:17 AM
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It did not load right at 12:00, went about 12:30ish and this at my work... anybody else have that issue?

YES! Wow I was stressing for those 30 seconds.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 24, 2015, 09:04:34 AM
It took me about 30 seconds to get in to the form...hope that didn't ruin my chance.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mightymoose on March 24, 2015, 09:04:47 AM
my fingers froze up...gah!! I think I did under a minute...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Dubb on March 24, 2015, 09:04:53 AM
Took a few seconds to load and when I hit the first "H", it selected 3 hotels for me. Got it in under a minute with 3 of my actual choices on the list, and 3 it selected for me.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: brand4d2 on March 24, 2015, 09:05:01 AM
The link took its time loading and my pulse skyrocketed during that time.   

I think I did the form even faster than my practice times but my hands are still trembling! 

Anyhow, good luck to everyone! 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darkron9 on March 24, 2015, 09:05:27 AM
My experience was the same as LesJ. Sure hope I get the overflow hotel.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: angoradebs on March 24, 2015, 09:05:35 AM
Mine took more than one minute to load. It was not a drop down, and as I selected hotels, it didn't show them to me... there was no where to see which I had selected already! Didn't get done til after 12:02. I have my fingers crossed, but I'm pretty devastated right now. I think I was at 2:30 or so.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Godolphin on March 24, 2015, 09:05:54 AM
Terrible, took over 1 minute before I could load the link.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SchoolboyQ on March 24, 2015, 09:06:38 AM
The site not loading up really screwed up things for me. I still managed to complete the form in under a minute after it finally loaded. Hoping for the best...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 24, 2015, 09:06:50 AM
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Mine took more than one minute to load. It was not a drop down, and as I selected hotels, it didn't show them to me... there was no where to see which I had selected already! Didn't get done til after 12:02. I have my fingers crossed, but I'm pretty devastated right now. I think I was at 2:30 or so.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you angoradebs.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyxkat on March 24, 2015, 09:07:05 AM
the page didn't even load for over a minute!!  GAH!  i failed  =(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: nelbel76 on March 24, 2015, 09:07:21 AM
Form did not load right away. Drop down was screwed up. Not feeling good.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Warren on March 24, 2015, 09:07:26 AM
Similar - took a while to load.  Made me all crazy nervous which slowed my response time  :(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: lunate on March 24, 2015, 09:07:34 AM
I selected Double, but there was only an option to type in the name of occupant 1! I hope I didn't go too fast. :(

I think I forgot to select "book me into any hotel on shuttle route." Gah!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MommyDearest on March 24, 2015, 09:07:40 AM
Yes, my page took a while to load as well. Filling out the form went quick but I hope that lag wasn't a huge detriment
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: saban on March 24, 2015, 09:07:50 AM
I went through the form pretty quickly but it took forever to load, I didn't even get in until maybe 9:02.  Had everything submitted by 9:04 on my clock. Sigh.... fingers crossed.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 09:08:10 AM
I didn't get the selections appearing???? I had to use CTRL to select! Took me three goes, three submissions, because the first time it submitted randomly on it;s own!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 24, 2015, 09:08:49 AM
Because it didn't load, I tried getting in on another browser and another Chrome tab, then furiously checked among the three selections until one opened up. Wasn't sure what to do.

The one saving grace is that my first selection is a downtown hotel, but not one of the more popular choices, according to the poll I saw yesterday. (Embassy Suites)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 24, 2015, 09:09:04 AM
Join the club.

I am in NY and the site appeared to hang up before opening.

I am screwed.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: KatDancer on March 24, 2015, 09:09:14 AM
I had the same trouble with the link not loading quickly.  My autofill also did not work and I had to type everything in manually.  I was done at about 2 minutes and 45 seconds.  My husband had a trouble with the pull down menu not showing the selected hotels; he kept trying to get it to work and it indicated he had submitted "73 out of 6" hotels.  :-(

Perhaps booking a fully-cancellable room as a backup would be a good plan.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SchoolboyQ on March 24, 2015, 09:09:27 AM
Chrome Autofill worked for everything except for the Occupant names
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 24, 2015, 09:09:36 AM
So upset. It finally loaded the form and let me choose one hotel and nothing happened. It just stayed highlighted. All I could do was highlight more selections in the drop down. Then it just automatically submitted before I even entered room info or check in/out dates. I had to back all the way out and start over. Over three minutes. I wonder if I have any recourse since the first submision clearly has my name and email on it.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: thawk on March 24, 2015, 09:09:49 AM
Mine took a minute to load and the form didn't have the dropdown - I accidentally submitted half a form first, then submitted another one by ctrl+selecting all 6.

I don't think that went well. - After all that practice.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 09:10:31 AM
Bothany spy - same happened to me! I got it the way I wanted after three goes, and four minutes
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: ttttt2007 on March 24, 2015, 09:10:44 AM
I have been practicing with the online form found here, thought there will be 6 drop down windows, one hotel at a time. My practice time was 55 secs.

Took 34 secs to load the page. Another 1 min 45 secs to fill out the form. Didn't know I have to select them all from within a tiny scrolling window. Totally throw off by the selecting process.

sign. Chance are not good.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Jekecy on March 24, 2015, 09:11:17 AM
So did ANYONE not have the initial loading issues? If it occurred universally then we should be fine.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: saban on March 24, 2015, 09:11:33 AM
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Because it didn't load, I tried getting in on another browser and another Chrome tab, then furiously checked among the three selections until one opened up. Wasn't sure what to do.

The one saving grace is that my first selection is a downtown hotel, but not one of the more popular choices, according to the poll I saw yesterday. (Embassy Suites)

That was my first choice too since I'll be going with 3 others and I'm the only one going to CC.  Let's hope we both get in.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Evilregal30 on March 24, 2015, 09:12:09 AM
Hi all, first time posting. Did anyone else have 5 other hotels just pop up after their first choice? The site didn't load right away so I just panicked and submitted whatever choices were randomly loaded after my first choice. This could suck :(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nancy on March 24, 2015, 09:13:12 AM
Yep, same issues as everyone else on here. The form took SO long to load, then I had to use Ctrl for selections - I couldn't even make sure all my choices were there.

I'll feel sick until I get a confirmation email, then sicker until I actually get a reservation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: chirigami on March 24, 2015, 09:13:44 AM
Yeah, the page went super weird for me too.  The hotels weren't loading right and then it submitted itself by itself at one point.  Active was also being super weird for Avengers registration.  Urg, stress with loading on both fronts xD
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: The Camping Out Op on March 24, 2015, 09:14:00 AM
Frak Me! It took almost a minute... maybe more for the page to even load for me as well. Was done in maybe under 2 but after a minute of the page not loading.... Feeling screwed.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mlgagne on March 24, 2015, 09:14:05 AM
My form didn't load until 9:01:50-9:02:00 either. I believe I still had mine in by 9:02:30. So hopefully the loading problem occurred for everyone because so many of us were trying to access the link at once, thus equalizing our time!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: d_p on March 24, 2015, 09:14:17 AM
Same here, no pulldown option! I had to reload the page, lost about 30 seconds of time, and it also submitted my request before I was done so I had to do it twice.
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs18.postimg.org%2Fu5b33p521%2FScreen_Shot_2015_03_24_at_9_04_58_AM_copy.png&hash=210f9c091f2817258cbf684a9536017e344f861b)

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Jekecy on March 24, 2015, 09:14:24 AM
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I have been practicing with the online form found here, thought there will be 6 drop down windows, one hotel at a time. My practice time was 55 secs.

Did you watch the practice video in the first post? It was practically identical to the one now, and was used last year. I studied the layout very closely so I wasn't caught off guard when there weren't 6 separate drop-downs. It actually made me go a lot faster because my pointer was already on it, so I just kept left-clicking after every selection.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: pacino408 on March 24, 2015, 09:14:31 AM
It took the site about a minute to load up and then a minute to fill out the form. My form process was good with no glitches. I hope I can stay downtown this year, best of luck to all.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 24, 2015, 09:14:54 AM
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Yep, same issues as everyone else on here. The form took SO long to load, then I had to use Ctrl for selections - I couldn't even make sure all my choices were there.

I'll feel sick until I get a confirmation email, then sicker until I actually get a reservation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
When you hit ctrl, did it select them and put the below the box so you could drag and reorder them?  Curious if it truly selected them
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: 656782 on March 24, 2015, 09:15:47 AM
Form took a while to load...

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Chrome Autofill worked for everything except for the Occupant names

I concur!

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That was my first choice too since I'll be going with 3 others and I'm the only one going to CC.  Let's hope we both get in.

Yeah, I went for Embassy Suites as my #1 and #2 picks. Fingers crossed!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: newbie12 on March 24, 2015, 09:16:18 AM
I also had random hotels show up in my list but I removed them and added my real choices.
At this point, if I get a cardboard box in the back of Hard Rock, I may have to take it. ;D
Really though, if I'm lucky enough to get anything, and for some reason it doesn't work for me, I know someone here will most likely want it so the effort wasn't a total waste.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 24, 2015, 09:18:27 AM
I freaked out when the form wasn't loading! Good thing I wasn't the only one having the problem.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: nelbel76 on March 24, 2015, 09:18:35 AM
Hopefully I will have some luck with our hotel trade
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: lalv_99 on March 24, 2015, 09:19:22 AM
Hey everyone, I'm new here.  Just wanted to say thanks to everyone (esp. jopari) for all the help.  Being a SDCC first timer this forum has really helped me plan for everything.

Unfortunately my page took over 1:30 to load.  Was done by 2:23, but I'm not liking my chances.  I'm just praying I get something downtown.

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So upset. It finally loaded the form and let me choose one hotel and nothing happened. It just stayed highlighted. All I could do was highlight more selections in the drop down. Then it just automatically submitted before I even entered room info or check in/out dates. I had to back all the way out and start over. Over three minutes. I wonder if I have any recourse since the first submision clearly has my name and email on it.

My friend had the exact same problem.  I'm interested what they do about this since my friend's was auto-submitted before I got my form in.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 24, 2015, 09:19:35 AM
Took over 2 minutes for the site to load. Got the form submitted in under 3 minutes. Once it actually loaded the page worked fine but not feeling so great about the time.
I wonder if they had that much more traffic compared to lsat year or if it was a random problem with the site this year. I don't remember having problems or hearing about problems like i am hearing this year.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 24, 2015, 09:19:47 AM
I just reloaded the form (9:19) and it says that downtown hotels are no longer available.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 24, 2015, 09:20:25 AM
I went back to the form and noticed some of the hotels have been removed...that was fast lol
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Evilregal30 on March 24, 2015, 09:20:39 AM
Yeah, I basically gambled that I was getting the form in fast enough to get my first choice. I have no idea what other hotels showed up randomly. Hopefully they aren't in the middle of nowhere...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 24, 2015, 09:22:35 AM
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I went back to the form and noticed some of the hotels have been removed...that was fast lol

Yeah downtown hotels are gone but that's to be expected. Just hope our forms are good
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 24, 2015, 09:23:43 AM
It's sounding to me like everyone had problems, so I'm betting that a later submission time this year is the norm.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: ttttt2007 on March 24, 2015, 09:23:50 AM
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Did you watch the practice video in the first post? It was practically identical to the one now, and was used last year. I studied the layout very closely so I wasn't caught off guard when there weren't 6 separate drop-downs. It actually made me go a lot faster because my pointer was already on it, so I just kept left-clicking after every selection.

didn't know there is a video.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 24, 2015, 09:24:26 AM
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I freaked out when the form wasn't loading! Good thing I wasn't the only one having the problem.

if everyone had this problem then the time frame we talked about prior to the sale is wrong
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Angie on March 24, 2015, 09:25:58 AM
I tried using firefox and chrome to see if the selection choices would show and nope they didn't. I had no idea what to do, so I just submitted with my first choice. Then I went back at about 9:09 and tried using ctrl which seemed to work. This just sucks. There was nothing (that I saw at least) about not dragging and putting them in order/using ctrl in any CCI email. How do we even know if they are in order of preference? Man, this is going to be a long two days.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 24, 2015, 09:28:04 AM
A lot of people got screwed I think. Check out this tweet that's picking up steam.

https://t.co/Q1WZmEi4FP
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 24, 2015, 09:30:58 AM
I think I entered everything correctly and didn't seem to have a problem with the dropdown menu. It all seems like a blur now, I wish I could go back and check everything I entered was right without waiting for travel planners!!

I had the issue with the form loading but if everyone had this issue then it'll level the playing field!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: nelbel76 on March 24, 2015, 09:31:02 AM
Twitter is going crazy. A lot of people had problems.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 24, 2015, 09:31:21 AM
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A lot of people got screwed I think. Check out this tweet that's picking up steam.

https://t.co/Q1WZmEi4FP

Yes, that's the hotel selection box I got! No wonder selection choice didn't work!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 24, 2015, 09:32:14 AM
i got this after i clicked submit

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1051.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fs437%2Fadapaoferidu%2Fsucess%2520tp%25202015.jpg&hash=7f9f041f90097fbc7e0d71747e651da7a446f460) (http://s1051.photobucket.com/user/adapaoferidu/media/sucess%20tp%202015.jpg.html)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 24, 2015, 09:32:26 AM
anyone think there is any chance they may re-do this whole thing. I adhering a lot of people had trouble with the site not only not loading but it not working correctly once it did load and also submitting on it's own without al the information filled out.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 24, 2015, 09:33:27 AM
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anyone think there is any chance they may re-do this whole thing. I adhering a lot of people had trouble with the site not only not loading but it not working correctly once it did load and also submitting on it's own without al the information filled out.

Actually I seriously doubt they will redo it. But we'll see!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: thawk on March 24, 2015, 09:34:20 AM
That tweet is what I saw too.  I ended up submitting 3 forms (first one submitted by itself when half done, second with ctrl clicks, third normally at like 7 minutes)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 24, 2015, 09:34:50 AM
My form still hadn't loaded and it was over a minute so I switched to safari, that didn't load. I went back to chrome and the firm was up.  My chrome autofill worked on the but not on the guest names so by the time I typed out everyone's name, I was close to 3 minutes.  I feel like crying because after practicing all last night and then again this morning I had it down to 35 seconds


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 24, 2015, 09:35:01 AM
I'm wondering with all the issues people had with load times/hotel choices if the times will also be longer. I've not seen anyone saying they submitted the form before 9:01.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 24, 2015, 09:38:28 AM
I think with all the problems this year the normal times that we use as a reference for if we will get our choice hotels is throwout the window. Usually i hear people say they got the form in in under a minute. This year a ton of people are saying they page didn't even load in under a minute. So it's going to be very difficult to tell. I guess we wildest have to wait till Thursday and see what happens.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: jristen on March 24, 2015, 09:39:07 AM
so the confirmation page loaded at 9:01:33 for me - but there was a lag of about 5-10 seconds between hitting "submit" and the confirmation page loading. On top of the initial roughly a minute lag to load the page at all. Fingers crossed for my top choices.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MarvelGurl on March 24, 2015, 09:39:13 AM
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anyone think there is any chance they may re-do this whole thing. I adhering a lot of people had trouble with the site not only not loading but it not working correctly once it did load and also submitting on it's own without al the information filled out.

I doubt they will do a re-do. Just no way. Not everyone had a form problem just what looks like a long load time. What they may do is see your incomplete form, see that it was messed up, and either give you a chance to finish out your 6 choices, clarify any booking info, or still give you your top choice if you were only able to put in less than 6 choices. All dependent on the order it was received of course.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: flipology on March 24, 2015, 09:40:00 AM
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I'm wondering with all the issues people had with load times/hotel choices if the times will also be longer. I've not seen anyone saying they submitted the form before 9:01.

i submitted my form before 9:01. didnt have any issues that others were having.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 24, 2015, 09:40:14 AM
Incase you don't follow SDCC Unofficial Blog (SD_Comic_Con) on twitter... They have said that they spoke to travel planners and anyone that had a bad form should call 877-552-6642 and Travel Planners will take your info
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 24, 2015, 09:40:51 AM
They're not going to do a redo. That just invites the same mess all over again. What they will have to do is come up with a policy for 'incomplete submissions'.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: gaeilstar on March 24, 2015, 09:46:28 AM
I was one that did not have the drop-down load. Per the SDCC unofficial blog, I called TP and explained what happened. They took my name and number, and said that they would look at my form and call me back to have them ranked. Will let you know!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: lalv_99 on March 24, 2015, 09:48:19 AM
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They're not going to do a redo. That just invites the same mess all over again. What they will have to do is come up with a policy for 'incomplete submissions'.

I think that's what they're doing.  My friend called and they said they have your form submission time, just not your hotel info, so they took his info down.  His form auto-submitted without any hotel choices or # of rooms etc.

If your form didn't auto-submit I'm not sure if they know what they're doing for that yet, but it's worth giving them a call.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Angie on March 24, 2015, 09:49:39 AM
I'm on hold with TP. First rep said if you could only submit one hotel the form is incomplete and did not go through. I asked to speak with Richard and waiting on hold now to see. I asked if she could look up my form to see if it submitted and she said no.

** I could only leave a message for him.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Devorah on March 24, 2015, 09:51:40 AM
I'm glad people will be taken care of, but if someone submitted a partially blank form, wouldn't that improve their time stamp?  So will they get put ahead of those who submitted a fully completed form with a slightly later time stamp? 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: gaeilstar on March 24, 2015, 09:53:02 AM
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I'm glad people will be taken care of, but if someone submitted a partially blank form, wouldn't that improve their time stamp?  So will they get put ahead of those who submitted a fully completed form with a slightly later time stamp?

Well, mine successfully went through, but I wasn't able to rank. Hopefully they have some good news when they call me back. I will prob call in about 2 hours if I have not heard back from them.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 24, 2015, 09:53:06 AM
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Incase you don't follow SDCC Unofficial Blog (SD_Comic_Con) on twitter... They have said that they spoke to travel planners and anyone that had a bad form should call 877-552-6642 and Travel Planners will take your info

thank you for posting this. I know someone who was trying to get rooms and sounded like she had a bad form (the hotel part would not work at all). She and her group are traveling from New Zealand. Just shared this info with her.

Oh and after seeing other posts I just realized I was unable to rank the hotels either. I was ok with the ranking it was showing (I had to add a few) so I left it at that. Wow I don't envy working at Travel Planners today or then next few days!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 24, 2015, 09:54:11 AM
OK - spoke to TP (boy I'm glad I have international minutes) Lady (I forgot the name!) took all my details, my hotels, and my phone number (international) and she said someone will get back to me. I'm not hopeful of getting anything, but at least my case was lodged.

THANK YOU TPG FOR 100 FREE INTERNATIONAL MINUTES PER MONTH!


Edit - TP answered the phone within ten seconds
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 24, 2015, 09:54:18 AM
I called TP and was told to send an email to management explaining the situation. I may call back just in case. I bet their phones are ringing off the hook which is why they want to try that option
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 24, 2015, 09:54:26 AM
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Form took a while to load...

I concur!

Yeah, I went for Embassy Suites as my #1 and #2 picks. Fingers crossed!

We requested King suites, first Cityview, then Bayview, as our first two choices. You folks?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Evilregal30 on March 24, 2015, 09:55:24 AM
I just called TP to ask about the hotels auto populating on my form. They took down my actual choices so we will see. I think I had 6 hotels on my form so I'm not sure whether they will do anything or not since technically my form was completely filled out. Oh well, its always something with Comic-Con :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Angie on March 24, 2015, 09:59:22 AM
I'm inpatient so I called TP back and the guy I got recorded my top 6. He said that once they get to my request they will manually put in my choices. Hopefully that will work.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Pyramid on March 24, 2015, 10:01:47 AM
Ummm ... I hope I did this right.  My form only allowed me to select/highlight the hotels I wanted.  I didn't get a first, second, etc choice.  This happened for everyone else, right?

Also, I saw that people who used Chrome filled out their forms using autofill.  Did those who did this have to still manually click on the hotels they wanted?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: evanarose on March 24, 2015, 10:02:20 AM
I had the drop down hotel problem too. Is there a email to contact them on? Since Im overseas think it would cost alot to call and guessing theres callwaiting
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: myfavoriteholiday on March 24, 2015, 10:04:38 AM
I clicked the link from my email at 9:00:00. Page did not load until 9:01:15. Refreshed at 9:00:40. Page Loaded. Started to fill form... first hotel selected... pressed enter... watch as form is prematurly submitted. Go back. Continue filling form... approx 9:03:00... cannot select multiple hotels... cannot make multiple selections using command + click. fill out rest of information with one selection only as it is all I can do. Time at this point 9:05pm. I start calling travel planners. I continue to attempt to reload the form hopeing a drop down menu for hotel selection will appear... nothing. I get through on the phone at 9:09. My travel planner apologizes for my troubles. I finish with them at 9:12. I still can't load the drop down at 9:15.


Then I checked back around 9:30...

It magically appeared.

What happened?
I practiced. Got it down to a min 10 sec. It was for nothing.

If anyone had a similar experience or has an idea what went wrong, please.

I was using Safari 8.0.4 (10600.4.10.7) on a MacBook running OS X Yosemite 10.10.2





[update] this answered my question. posting what happened to me for the sake of others. You are not alone.
https://twitter.com/sdccindigo/status/580403864412807168
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 24, 2015, 10:06:13 AM
I just called TP back and got the same answer. The lady said they could't take down my six choices but when they send the email confirming that the form was submitted to respond to that with the six choices and then management would look into it.

I will definitely be following up with them about this.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: kiddo235 on March 24, 2015, 10:06:57 AM
My page took a full minute to load and I also had problems with the drop down.  But how are they clocking all of these calls in to Travel Planners?  If I call in will that change the time I submitted and what process do they use now to give everyone their reservations anyway?  Is it a lottery?  I've never really understood.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MommyDearest on March 24, 2015, 10:11:25 AM
I just picked 6. I don't have any particular order; I'll be happy to get any of them.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 24, 2015, 10:12:05 AM
Yes, we still had to manually fill out the hotels.

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Ummm ... I hope I did this right.  My form only allowed me to select/highlight the hotels I wanted.  I didn't get a first, second, etc choice.  This happened for everyone else, right?

Also, I saw that people who used Chrome filled out their forms using autofill.  Did those who did this have to still manually click on the hotels they wanted?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: The Camping Out Op on March 24, 2015, 10:18:59 AM
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I'm glad people will be taken care of, but if someone submitted a partially blank form, wouldn't that improve their time stamp?  So will they get put ahead of those who submitted a fully completed form with a slightly later time stamp?

I have to agree with Devorah on this. While I feel for those folks that had issues with partially blank forms going through... How is that in anyway fair to the people that suffered through the glitches and managed to submit a fully completed hotel request form? If those with partially blank forms have the time of those faulty submissions count, then that makes their stamp earlier than if they had actually finished filling it out properly.

Again, no disrespect to those of you who had faulty/incomplete submissions go through, but I sure hope the plan for this call Travel Planners and having them fill out people's faulty hotel requests is done in a way that doesn't screw the rest of us who battled to get it done properly.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Pyramid on March 24, 2015, 10:19:49 AM
I just called TP and my call was answered immediately!  Very polite and fast.  :)  They corrected my form.  I am not sure what would have happened but there were no selections on my form!  So here's my list:

1.  Marriott Marquis
2.  Hilton Bayfront
3.  Manchester Hyatt
4.  The Embassy Suites Bay View
5.  The Embassy Suites City View
6.  The Pearl.

I have a backup at BW Island Palms which is out in the boons on Shelter Island.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 24, 2015, 10:19:55 AM
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I'm glad people will be taken care of, but if someone submitted a partially blank form, wouldn't that improve their time stamp?  So will they get put ahead of those who submitted a fully completed form with a slightly later time stamp?

I was wondering the same thing. It's really not fair either way. They need to fix the forms of the people who had problems but why should those people get an advantage if they were able to submit the form faster because they didn't have to pick the hotels. I know someone who go the form in in like 10 seconds because the form auto filled out all the information and then submitted on it's own without the hotels. I could of done the same time if i didn't have to deal with the hotel drop down box.
I know they won't do it but this is why they should re-do this whole thing. How on earth are they going to decide on the order to process those incomplete forms.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Angie on March 24, 2015, 10:23:38 AM
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I have to agree with Devorah on this. While I feel for those folks that had issues with partially blank forms going through... How is that in anyway fair to the people that suffered through the glitches and managed to submit a fully completed hotel request form? If those with partially blank forms have the time of those faulty submissions count, then that makes their stamp earlier than if they had actually finished filling it out properly.

Again, no disrespect to those of you who had faulty/incomplete submissions go through, but I sure hope the plan for this call Travel Planners and having them fill out people's faulty hotel requests is done in a way that doesn't screw the rest of us who battled to get it done properly.

I feel like those who got good forms submitted are going to be taken first over everyone else. Then they'll probably start slogging through the rest. I'm not sure how they are going to figure out this giant mess and know who can get what hotel. The fact that the first TP rep told me my form I submitted at 9:03 with one hotel was probably discarded (which I still don't know is true since I got the confirmation screen) doesn't really give me hope that my timestamp is good. I know this sucks, but at this point any of us are going to be lucky to get ANY hotel downtown. That's the way I'm looking at it.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: kikidoodle on March 24, 2015, 10:24:01 AM
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I have to agree with Devorah on this. While I feel for those folks that had issues with partially blank forms going through... How is that in anyway fair to the people that suffered through the glitches and managed to submit a fully completed hotel request form? If those with partially blank forms have the time of those faulty submissions count, then that makes their stamp earlier than if they had actually finished filling it out properly.

Again, no disrespect to those of you who had faulty/incomplete submissions go through, but I sure hope the plan for this call Travel Planners and having them fill out people's faulty hotel requests is done in a way that doesn't screw the rest of us who battled to get it done properly.

100% how I feel... at the very LEAST I hope TP adds on extra time to those who submitted early.  I see a ton of people who say they submitted a blank form before they filled out the regular one.  I trudged through my regular form with no accidental submission despite glitches and that feels unfair.

I wonder if we should all call TP up?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: The Camping Out Op on March 24, 2015, 10:27:03 AM
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100% how I feel... at the very LEAST I hope TP adds on extra time to those who submitted early.  I see a ton of people who say they submitted a blank form before they filled out the regular one.  I trudged through my regular form with no accidental submission despite glitches and that feels unfair.

I wonder if we should all call TP up?

May not be a bad idea. I know that they are being bombarded with calls but I'd sure like to know that there's some acknowledgement of how this is unfair to people who properly put in their submissions, problems and all.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 24, 2015, 10:28:27 AM
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I was wondering the same thing. It's really not fair either way. They need to fix the forms of the people who had problems but why should those people get an advantage if they were able to submit the form faster because they didn't have to pick the hotels. I know someone who go the form in in like 10 seconds because the form auto filled out all the information and then submitted on it's own without the hotels. I could of done the same time if i didn't have to deal with the hotel drop down box.
I know they won't do it but this is why they should re-do this whole thing. How on earth are they going to decide on the order to process those incomplete forms.

They've definitely created a mess for themselves. It's not fair either way, you're right. Unfortunately they're probably just going to do their usual hand-waving explanation about how they're "fixing" it and never tell us exactly how this fix makes it fair, or affects where you are in the timestamps. I really really hate TP and their total lack of accountability. It makes me wish I was an event planner so I could refuse to use them and go with their competition, whoever that is.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: juliafrood on March 24, 2015, 10:36:08 AM
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I have to agree with Devorah on this. While I feel for those folks that had issues with partially blank forms going through... How is that in anyway fair to the people that suffered through the glitches and managed to submit a fully completed hotel request form? If those with partially blank forms have the time of those faulty submissions count, then that makes their stamp earlier than if they had actually finished filling it out properly.

Again, no disrespect to those of you who had faulty/incomplete submissions go through, but I sure hope the plan for this call Travel Planners and having them fill out people's faulty hotel requests is done in a way that doesn't screw the rest of us who battled to get it done properly.

Some of us did it properly and had 6 filled out.  It just wouldn't let us rank them, and it would have taken several seconds, maybe to order them, but the confusion caused by having to search for how to rank cost us even more.  I really think it's going to be a draw here, unless we want to start begging for those seconds we lost trying to figure out why we couldn't rank.  It's probably not possible to know what is "fair" in each situation.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 24, 2015, 10:39:25 AM
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Some of us did it properly and had 6 filled out.  It just wouldn't let us rank them, and it would have taken several seconds, maybe to order them, but the confusion caused by having to search for how to rank cost us even more.  I really think it's going to be a draw here, unless we want to start begging for those seconds we lost trying to figure out why we couldn't rank.  It's probably not possible to know what is "fair" in each situation.

I also believe that no matter what Travel Planners does in this situation--to try to alleviate or solve these issues--not everyone will be happy.  On their end of things, it's a "lose-lose" type of scenario.  Whatever they decide to do, some people will be elated, while others will be upset.  There really isn't a "right" answer for this.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SamTurtledove on March 24, 2015, 10:40:38 AM
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I had the drop down hotel problem too. Is there a email to contact them on? Since Im overseas think it would cost alot to call and guessing theres callwaiting

Evanrose, I'd call if you can.  The CCI hotel page have two numbers 1-877-55-COMIC (1-877-552-6642) or 212-532-1660
The WCA hotel page has an email contact us link  https://www.tphousing.com/Ph2/contact_frm.aspx and a 1-800# Phone: 800-221-3531 (from the US, Canada & Caribbean) or +1-212-532-1660 but the email may not be answered right away.
 try the 1-800 if overseas??
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Devorah on March 24, 2015, 10:40:57 AM
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Some of us did it properly and had 6 filled out.  It just wouldn't let us rank them, and it would have taken several seconds, maybe to order them, but the confusion caused by having to search for how to rank cost us even more.  I really think it's going to be a draw here, unless we want to start begging for those seconds we lost trying to figure out why we couldn't rank.  It's probably not possible to know what is "fair" in each situation.

All I know is, I don't envy Travel Planners today.  I hope they can come up with something that works for all, but I won't hold my breath.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 24, 2015, 10:42:03 AM
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I also believe that no matter what Travel Planners does in this situation--to try to alleviate or solve these issues--not everyone will be happy.  On their end of things, it's a "lose-lose" type of scenario.  Whatever they decide to do, some people will be elated, while others will be upset.  There really isn't a "right" answer for this.

Exactly. It's only fair if it works correctly. Since they failed at that, there's really no fair way to fix it.  :(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: The Camping Out Op on March 24, 2015, 10:48:25 AM
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Some of us did it properly and had 6 filled out.  It just wouldn't let us rank them, and it would have taken several seconds, maybe to order them, but the confusion caused by having to search for how to rank cost us even more.  I really think it's going to be a draw here, unless we want to start begging for those seconds we lost trying to figure out why we couldn't rank.  It's probably not possible to know what is "fair" in each situation.

As Devorah said in response to this... I won't hold my breath for a fair solution. That said in the case of the ranking issue, that's a little more palatable to deal with but in the cases of faulty/and incomplete submissions lacking necessary fields... If those folks get an advantage, I'm plotting to destroy Travel Planners. (Kidding... but not.)
Title: Re: Lucky D's hostel has 2 beds for $66 each July 6th thru 12, cancellable
Post by: LuthienDragon on March 24, 2015, 10:48:46 AM
I don't know what is more emotionally exhausting: having to fill the form in less than two minutes or wait 48hrs to confirm you actually get a room...yikes.
Title: Re: Re: Lucky D's hostel has 2 beds for $66 each July 6th thru 12, cancellable
Post by: Nicodimas on March 24, 2015, 10:50:26 AM
Quote
wait 48hrs to confirm you actually get a room.

I would just like a auto-generated mail...that I did in fact fill out...stuff and prefernences. I think my hotel selection was seriously miffed.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: The Camping Out Op on March 24, 2015, 10:51:10 AM
Question... Already posed this in the CI 2015 Hotel Discussion Thread but after this latest hotel lottery debacle, does anyone else here think they should get rid of the Hotel drop down menu and create a page similar to the pdf list (or a an alphabetical list like it is in the drop down) that you click on (i.e. check boxes) in order to make your six hotel picks? Or is that just more of a headache?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: kikidoodle on March 24, 2015, 10:53:23 AM
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Some of us did it properly and had 6 filled out.  It just wouldn't let us rank them, and it would have taken several seconds, maybe to order them, but the confusion caused by having to search for how to rank cost us even more.  I really think it's going to be a draw here, unless we want to start begging for those seconds we lost trying to figure out why we couldn't rank.  It's probably not possible to know what is "fair" in each situation.

It seems fair to let people re-rank their hotels at the VERY least, but I think the main issue is for those people who submitted blank forms EARLY who are told they get to keep their time stamp.

I'm calling TP to ask about it, and she's speaking with her manager to see if that's the case.  I mentioned it's highly unfair to let someone who submitted a blank form with just their info auto filled to be placed ahead of those of us who worked to enter everything... especially because my form WORKED and I could have submitted a blank form no problem.

I'll report on what's said.  It's a mess, and honestly probably should just be re-done.

Edit:  Got ahold of her and the manager VERIFIED that if you auto submitted your form, even with nothing on it, you are placed AHEAD of people who entered their info properly, which is completely ridiculous.  They verified even if you submitted in 10-20 seconds, with only your info and no hotels, Comiccon will give you first pick.

I've been transferred between multiple associates and that's it... we're screwed if we did the form correctly.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: juliafrood on March 24, 2015, 10:53:51 AM
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As Devorah said in response to this... I won't hold my breath for a fair solution. That said in the case of the ranking issue, that's a little more palatable to deal with but in the cases of faulty/and incomplete submissions lacking necessary fields... If those folks get an advantage, I'm plotting to destroy Travel Planners. (Kidding... but not.)

Yeah, I would pretty much be happy as long as I really did get to keep my time-stamp.  If I still end up shut-out, I'll definitely think about the "what-ifs", but I won't be bitter about it.  If I get nothing and everyone who used Firefox with my time-stamp gets downtown hotels though, I'll be miffed.
Title: Re: Re: Lucky D's hostel has 2 beds for $66 each July 6th thru 12, cancellable
Post by: LuthienDragon on March 24, 2015, 10:54:10 AM
Mine too....took around 1 minute to the page to download. Took me 30 seconds to fill the form. However, it was 9:02 when I finished, changing to 9:03 in seconds.
Did we have to rearrange the hotels? Or the first one chosen is is our first option and so on...?

I also made the mistake of choosing:

" If the only room(s) available at my specified hotels are at an upgraded/higher nightly rate, book my reservation into those room(s). NOTE: Nightly rates can be substantially higher than the rates posted above. Checking this box DOES NOT guarantee a room at your requested hotel(s)"

Does it mean they will try CHEAP (list price) all of my six hotels first before returning to the expensive room? Of if for example, my first option has a room available at double the price they will stop trying immediately? I kinda regret choosing that, lol.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SoCalNerdGal on March 24, 2015, 10:54:36 AM
I really do see where everyone is coming from on this issue.  My form was faulty and so I took the time to open a new window and start again.  If I would have just submitted, it would have taken me half as much time.  I think I'm coping with it by knowing that none of us anticipated this problems so it isn't like anyone gamed the system for this advantage.  It just, sort of, happened in the moment. 

I think I would feel a lot worse about things if people were intentionally skipping adding their hotels/info to get the first time stamp with a plan to go in later and add those with TP.  In fact, I would hope that next year, as someone else mentioned, TP has rules specifically outlining consequences for incomplete submission I would hope that would discourage anyone from using this as an advantage in future sales.

Good luck to everyone.  I hope you get your first choice or at least something comparable to that choice.  I went downtown or bust which means, sadly, I might have busted. Ha. :)  Hope you have better luck!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Sandrene on March 24, 2015, 10:55:23 AM
Everyone I know that had an auto-submit went back and submitted again. I can't imagine anyone who knows about the system wouldn't have. So they'll see that that person has two submissions. No one could fill out that form in 10 seconds, if there are incomplete forms they will probably add a specific amount of time to each. At least that's what I'd do. It might still give an advantage to someone who isn't necessarily fast, but it's the fairest way I can think of without having a redo.

It also seems like people are getting different info from TP, but the general consensus is they'll sort it out when they get to the point of the confirmation emails. For people who had hotels selected automatically or couldn't put them in order, you'll see when you get your email whether or not it's correct.

At any rate, this whole ordeal is going to make the waiting even more difficult than usual!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 24, 2015, 10:57:42 AM
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In fact, I would hope that next year, as someone else mentioned, TP has rules specifically outlining consequences for incomplete submission I would hope that would discourage anyone from using this as an advantage in future sales.



Ugh, which is the frustrating part, of course. The form is *supposed* to bounce back and not submit if you haven't picked 6 hotels. Which it did, last year, I think. But this year they managed to un-fix it somehow.

Travel Planners: doing our own job worse than the year before since 2011!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: juliafrood on March 24, 2015, 10:59:25 AM
What I want to know, is whether my form with six non-ranked selections, came through blank on the back end.  That would mean that you can't tell who just submitted after auto-fill, and who actually tried to do it right and just didn't get to rank.  I only submitted once, so I am NOT ok with being pushed to the back of the line just because they didn't properly test their system on all browsers.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 24, 2015, 11:00:52 AM
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Ugh, which is the frustrating part, of course. The form is *supposed* to bounce back and not submit if you haven't picked 6 hotels. Which it did, last year, I think. But this year they managed to un-fix it somehow.

Travel Planners: doing our own job worse than the year before since 2011!

I sense a new internet meme catching on.  Ha ha.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: kikidoodle on March 24, 2015, 11:01:32 AM
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Everyone I know that had an auto-submit went back and submitted again. I can't imagine anyone who knows about the system wouldn't have. So they'll see that that person has two submissions. No one could fill out that form in 10 seconds, if there are incomplete forms they will probably add a specific amount of time to each. At least that's what I'd do. It might still give an advantage to someone who isn't necessarily fast, but it's the fairest way I can think of without having a redo.

It also seems like people are getting different info from TP, but the general consensus is they'll sort it out when they get to the point of the confirmation emails. For people who had hotels selected automatically or couldn't put them in order, you'll see when you get your email whether or not it's correct.

At any rate, this whole ordeal is going to make the waiting even more difficult than usual!

According to the two people I spoke with, including the woman who spoke with her manager, it doesn't matter... if you submitted in 10 seconds, it counts as a submit, because "How do we know they didn't just have a glitch?"
And they told me it's Comiccon rules and they REFUSE to budge on them.

I hope I'm overreacting, because this is making me feel really sick.  SO many people accidentally submitted early.  It sounds like you might even get an email if that was the case, giving you time at your leisure to re-fill the form out.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 24, 2015, 11:04:16 AM
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I sense a new internet meme catching on.  Ha ha.

Yeah, I was kind of imagining it as a bumper sticker, lol.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: The Camping Out Op on March 24, 2015, 11:04:46 AM
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According to the two people I spoke with, including the woman who spoke with her manager, it doesn't matter... if you submitted in 10 seconds, it counts as a submit, because "How do we know they didn't just have a glitch?"
And they told me it's Comiccon rules and they REFUSE to budge on them.

I hope I'm overreacting, because this is making me feel really sick.  SO many people accidentally submitted early.  It sounds like you might even get an email if that was the case, giving you time at your leisure to re-fill the form out.

WTF!?!?!?!?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 24, 2015, 11:05:09 AM
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According to the two people I spoke with, including the woman who spoke with her manager, it doesn't matter... if you submitted in 10 seconds, it counts as a submit, because "How do we know they didn't just have a glitch?"
And they told me it's Comiccon rules and they REFUSE to budge on them.

I hope I'm overreacting, because this is making me feel really sick.  SO many people accidentally submitted early.  It sounds like you might even get an email if that was the case, giving you time at your leisure to re-fill the form out.

That does sound like a nightmarish scenario.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mightymoose on March 24, 2015, 11:07:39 AM
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Ugh, which is the frustrating part, of course. The form is *supposed* to bounce back and not submit if you haven't picked 6 hotels. Which it did, last year, I think. But this year they managed to un-fix it somehow.

Travel Planners: doing our own job worse than the year before since 2011!

my form bounced back when I had a mistake in my email (put a comma instead of a period) and forgot to select my arrival and departure dates.  Based off of what I am reading from other posts theoretically it should have submitted anyways no? with people submitting half blank forms and everything. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: jristen on March 24, 2015, 11:08:33 AM
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I hope I'm overreacting, because this is making me feel really sick.  SO many people accidentally submitted early.  It sounds like you might even get an email if that was the case, giving you time at your leisure to re-fill the form out.

If it helps, I think that very few/if any people submitted in 10 seconds with the lagged loading times, bad form or no. And it seems that the amount of people who had the accidental auto submit is very very small - mostly, people who got the bad forms seemed to take a little bit longer as they were trying to deal with the lack of a dropdown.

Honestly, I can't imagine there being enough people who 1) had the page load quickly and 2) had the form accidentally auto submit with their info but not the hotels to make a noticeable difference. It may have given a handful of people an advantage of 10 seconds or so, but that's not enough to differ the majority of outcomes.

Plus, this forum is excellent at helping each other out - I'm sure people will put any extra hotels they have in the google doc sheet so others can have them.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: nelbel76 on March 24, 2015, 11:09:02 AM
This is such a colossal screw up
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: madfly on March 24, 2015, 11:09:36 AM
After reading everyone's comments, I am now freaking out. It took a while for the page to load(Chrome). I tried filling it out as quickly as I could so I don't even remember if I entered 6 hotel choices, or what boxes I checked. I just assumed the form wouldn't be processed if 6 hotels weren't chosen(so I must have chosen 6?).
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 24, 2015, 11:10:33 AM
Lets be honest, the only way to make this fair for EVERYBODY is if Comic Con and Travel Planners scrapped this entire debacle, fix the issues and repeat the process this weekend.

But that won't happen.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: The Camping Out Op on March 24, 2015, 11:15:47 AM
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It seems fair to let people re-rank their hotels at the VERY least, but I think the main issue is for those people who submitted blank forms EARLY who are told they get to keep their time stamp.

I'm calling TP to ask about it, and she's speaking with her manager to see if that's the case.  I mentioned it's highly unfair to let someone who submitted a blank form with just their info auto filled to be placed ahead of those of us who worked to enter everything... especially because my form WORKED and I could have submitted a blank form no problem.

I'll report on what's said.  It's a mess, and honestly probably should just be re-done.

Edit:  Got ahold of her and the manager VERIFIED that if you auto submitted your form, even with nothing on it, you are placed AHEAD of people who entered their info properly, which is completely ridiculous.  They verified even if you submitted in 10-20 seconds, with only your info and no hotels, Comiccon will give you first pick.

I've been transferred between multiple associates and that's it... we're screwed if we did the form correctly.


And there it is... Travel Planners and the supposed Comic-Con rules which basically proves THEY DON'T GIVE A F**K about doing the job right.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sylent_asassin on March 24, 2015, 11:17:41 AM
Unfortunately, there is no one right answer that will solve this issue; someone is going to be upset no matter what happens, just like during online registration. If they re-did the Hotel submissions on another day, those that didn't have errors and issues will be upset. If they keep things as-is, the folks with errors will be upset.

Did anyone's page load immediately? I had to click the link 4 different times before I got a page that worked.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: juliafrood on March 24, 2015, 11:19:59 AM
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Did anyone's page load immediately? I had to click the link 4 different times before I got a page that worked.

It took three tabs for one to work.  My time stamp was actually 9:03 but I was only timing how long it took me to fill out the form.  Whomp whomp  :-\
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: jristen on March 24, 2015, 11:21:17 AM
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Did anyone's page load immediately? I had to click the link 4 different times before I got a page that worked.

I think I saw one person saying the form loaded within 5 seconds - most people are saying it took at least 45 seconds, with many ranging up to almost 2 minutes.

I think mine loaded just after the 1 minute mark.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 24, 2015, 11:22:41 AM
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Unfortunately, there is no one right answer that will solve this issue; someone is going to be upset no matter what happens, just like during online registration.

True, but in this case there were actually major errors. Online registration WORKED. People who didn't get what they wanted were mad, but they had the same chance as everyone else. That did not happen today.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LuthienDragon on March 24, 2015, 11:31:36 AM
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I think I saw one person saying the form loaded within 5 seconds - most people are saying it took at least 45 seconds, with many ranging up to almost 2 minutes.

I think mine loaded just after the 1 minute mark.

Mine downloaded at the minute mark too. Took me around 30-60 seconds to fill the form, 6 hotels included. What I find offensive is that people who didn't fill it completely get to keep their time stamp, seriously? :(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: myfavoriteholiday on March 24, 2015, 11:45:10 AM
Engineer friend on the incomplete form debacle after studying the captured page code...

 "They could have used something to fit the user base. They could have made the form simple and quick, but they used extra javascript. You would think they did not understand their user base - if they were designing this form to be filled out at a leisurely pace, it'd be great. However they used 'elastic beanstalk', so they obviously knew what they were dealing with... but they didn't make it simple"

Why wasn't this form more extensively tested? Why didn't they have user optimization in mind?  :-[
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darkron9 on March 24, 2015, 11:47:14 AM
Hi semigeekgirl, it might just  be that between last year and now, TP entered into an outsourcing cloud server agreement for all or much of their storage needs. 

Not giving them a pass on what happened, if this is what happened, the "new" service company learned firsthand how intense we are when it comes to this event.  Some guy doing due diligence probably assured TP that they could handle the load.  I am hoping that if this is scenario, they will be better equipted next year.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Az_Rael on March 24, 2015, 11:48:04 AM
My form loaded in about 15 seconds I think.   I didn't have the drop down issues, so I got my form submitted before 9:01.   I didn't look at the rankings, just entered each hotel and assumed they were going in the right spot, so mine might have had the ranking issue in Chrome.   

I don't understand why they changed it this year?  Didn't it work fine last year?   It's not like the form itself was different, so the fact that they put it up on a new page was just asking for trouble.   


I predict much gnashing of teeth when the hotel assignments come out.    This is like the year you were supposed to pick 20 hotels, but you didn't have to, so if you only picked 1 hotel you got your form in ages before everyone else and got your choice.   


At least we have a good trading system here on the forum.   Hopefully we will be able to help each other out once the results come back. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darkron9 on March 24, 2015, 11:50:31 AM
Ahhhh...  Don't remind me of the year of the 20 hotel picks.  I did just than and didn't discovered until later that I didn't have to enter in 20 hotel names.   (>.<)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: epicaz on March 24, 2015, 11:59:24 AM
Am I alone in thinking that this could all be fixed with a submission system like in badge sales? One way to prevent traffic and random people getting in while others lag is to implement the hour submission period before randomization. I know its great being able to at least try and get an upper edge by being quick, but when the servers and random lag come into play, it could turn into a game of luck just like the old badge buying system. I'd rather have a fair system to at least lay a little peace of mind that you wont be screwed over by a system break.  :-\
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 24, 2015, 12:02:56 PM
The link in the email also seemed to have a tracking id. When I hovered over the link it showed where it was forwarded. Checked it against the link my son received and it was different. Not sure if the issue was just not that it was a cloud thing but also maybe the tracking stuff in the link. I remember one year they did that in the badge sales and lots had issues. I'm glad it's over for now. Now the anguish waiting to see what we got.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 24, 2015, 12:09:52 PM
For those that had the wrong form and had the phanton submitt with incomplete forms, were you able to select all 6 hotels and did you fill out another correct form?
I hesitate to wait until thursday just because I am afraid I am going to get one confirmation email for the form I submitted 6 minutes later.  Calling has yielded that I need to wait for an email and they cannot confirm I have two submissions.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: catvonawesome on March 24, 2015, 12:31:54 PM
Quote
Am I alone in thinking that this could all be fixed with a submission system like in badge sales?

I would not be opposed to a system similar to the badge sale. Even if it was just a waiting room to calm the "everyone click on this link at the same time" lag.

Now that I'm checking in with everyone in my group, multiple people got the bad form page. Will be interesting to see what the email tonight says about fixing the issue.

My form took well over a minute to load up. I'm not sure on the exact time because at that point panic was starting to set in. I think I submitted at 9:03, my slowest time ever.) I had to run out the door to get to work so I took a screenshot and will check it when I get home for exact time.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 24, 2015, 12:40:34 PM
Here are my results

Firefox 9am, pressed enter to load the URL (had pasted it into the address bar)
Loading...

Had chrome on an auto refresh every 1 second on the same URL also.
Chrome alerted the page had changed about 45 seconds after 9am.

Refreshed Firefox, loading for another 30ish seconds before it got to the form

were now at about 9:01:15am
Hotel dropdown wasn't a dropdown!! same issue others had.
Refreshed again. about 15 seconds later, form came up again, this time with the dropdown list.

Picked my hotels, filled out other info, and hit submit. took me a minute at least.
Delay loading the confirmation page, maybe 15 seconds.

Estimated finish time? 9:03:15am . 3 minutes 15 seconds or so.

My take on what went wrong

What went wrong? obviously they hosted the site on an amazon cluster. but somebody didn't get the memo that they needed to set up load balancing, and to make sure the ENTIRE form (website, and associated scripts and such) were copied to all hosts in the cluster. (i don't know how clustering works to be honest).

Load Balancing: The loading Delay

It should have been simple! session1, gets Webserver1, session2 gets Webserver2, session3 gets Webserver3, etc etc. Then when the last host has a session, the next session goes back to Webserver1. this way the load is distributed. I don't think that worked, or was even enabled.

Some able to submit with missing info: Broken Validation Checks

When the page loads for each user session, a bunch of scripts run that creates validations. Like "First name, must have at least one letter" "FirstName:1:text" (or however the logic works). Then the Rules: If Validation(FirstNameEntered)=false, SubmitForm=Disabled & ValidationFailedAlertBox=OPEN() 

If the Web Server was under so great a load that the Validations could not be created, then the submit button would fail to be disabled!!

Hotel Selection Box: JavaScript? Unable to Load

The selection box, has a list of the hotels. But the selections (on click, add selected to PreferenceList) <-- just my guess at how it works
But that special piece, that converts a box of hotel names, into a clickable box with more logic behind it, failed to load.

Again, i think this was a load balancing issue. we probably had 20k+ people all trying to load the page a the same time, and it got overloaded and couldn't make the special clickable box.



All said, i think the old server (www.tphousing.com) may have somehow had load balancing enabled, which is why it worked so well last year.
I think someone forgot to click the "enable" button somewhere.... and someone is getting fired....
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darthmaul1309 on March 24, 2015, 12:41:02 PM
The only problem I had was it took about 30-40 secs for me to get the form to load, but it seems like everyone had this issue.  Once the form loaded I was able to input my information and choices fairly quickly. I would estimate that I submitted it within 90 seconds, and thats including the time it took for the form to load so I actually like my chances. Sorry to hear that a lot of peeps had problem with the form, hotels disappearing, etc ect...unfortunatley i dont think there is any way to make everyone happy in this situation. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: myfavoriteholiday on March 24, 2015, 01:01:26 PM
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For those that had the wrong form and had the phanton submitt with incomplete forms, were you able to select all 6 hotels and did you fill out another correct form?
I hesitate to wait until thursday just because I am afraid I am going to get one confirmation email for the form I submitted 6 minutes later.  Calling has yielded that I need to wait for an email and they cannot confirm I have two submissions.

I just called TP again... for the 3rd time today. The new update is we'll all find out via email (tonight?) & they have "no information other than that at this time". Sounds like someone's boss had a meeting...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 24, 2015, 01:02:05 PM
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The only problem I had was it took about 30-40 secs for me to get the form to load, but it seems like everyone had this issue.  Once the form loaded I was able to input my information and choices fairly quickly. I would estimate that I submitted it within 90 seconds, and thats including the time it took for the form to load so I actually like my chances. Sorry to hear that a lot of peeps had problem with the form, hotels disappearing, etc ect...unfortunatley i dont think there is any way to make everyone happy in this situation.

Same here! I used Firefox and it took about 30 seconds to get the form. I freaked out 15 seconds in and refreshed the page again, that's when the form was able to pop up. After that it took my about 25 seconds to select the hotels and some filling in here and there.
Overall I managed to submit the form about a minute after 9AM.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 24, 2015, 01:03:29 PM
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I just called TP again... for the 3rd time today. The new update is we'll all find out via email (tonight?) & they have "no information other than that at this time". Sounds like someone's boss had a meeting...

Or maybe in an hour? I remember getting an email confirmation last year around 2PM to 3PM. But with all the issues that had happened maybe it'll be later tonight?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 24, 2015, 01:07:47 PM
If they're still sending simple confirmations, we *might* get them this afternoon as usual. But if they're drafting an "oops, we f-ed up but we're not actually going to admit we f-ed up, but rest assured we've got it all under control now b/c we're totally awesome except for this one totally unforeseeable f-ed-up-ness"... well, in that case I doubt they'll have it before this evening.

All predicted times Pacific.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: myfavoriteholiday on March 24, 2015, 01:11:36 PM
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If they're still sending simple confirmations, we *might* get them this afternoon as usual. But if they're drafting an "oops, we f-ed up but we're not actually going to admit we f-ed up, but rest assured we've got it all under control now b/c we're totally awesome except for this one totally unforeseeable f-ed-up-ness"... well, in that case I doubt they'll have it before this evening.

All predicted times Pacific.

haha, yeah and if they send that one I doubt we'll see it until after they close the phone lines for the night.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 24, 2015, 01:13:23 PM
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haha, yeah and if they send that one I doubt we'll see it until after they close the phone lines for the night.

Exactly.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 24, 2015, 01:19:21 PM
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Sounds like someone's boss had a meeting...

Or they're still in a meeting trying to figure out what the heck to do...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Kevin Rutan on March 24, 2015, 01:25:16 PM
Well if accepting all of the incomplete forms and filling in the other data manually before assigning hotels is their answer the process is going to take forever. ???
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: chirigami on March 24, 2015, 01:43:00 PM
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For those that had the wrong form and had the phanton submitt with incomplete forms, were you able to select all 6 hotels and did you fill out another correct form?
I hesitate to wait until thursday just because I am afraid I am going to get one confirmation email for the form I submitted 6 minutes later.  Calling has yielded that I need to wait for an email and they cannot confirm I have two submissions.
With my phantom submission and the one I did right after I didn't have the drop down menu working properly. Both forms were "completed" within 9:01. The third one I did a few minutes after had it working.  I had a friend who did it in the same amount of time that had everything working properly, said that it refreshed on him and the drop down was working where it, I guess, said I was done while scrolling to put in my room information.

I called TP after my third form and asked them if it would count against me but he said they would take my first form (uuuh? I Guess I know what that means now?) and asked which hotel was my first choice. I dunno, I'm confused. I'm going to just keep working and wait it out until Thursday @.@
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SamTurtledove on March 24, 2015, 01:57:35 PM
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The link in the email also seemed to have a tracking id. When I hovered over the link it showed where it was forwarded. Checked it against the link my son received and it was different. Not sure if the issue was just not that it was a cloud thing but also maybe the tracking stuff in the link. I remember one year they did that in the badge sales and lots had issues. I'm glad it's over for now. Now the anguish waiting to see what we got.

The first Comic-Con 2015 Hotel Request link email's link has no "tracking id" when you hover (I got the first on at 7am). 
The second Comic-Con 2015 Housing Opening  - March 24, 2015 -  Link Enclosed  email's link does hover with a tinu url? and received at 7:47am
Both sent to same page however.  I'm hoping this wasn't the "you clicked on the wrong link" answer.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 24, 2015, 02:57:59 PM
From Twitter few min ago:

 Indigo Ballroom Line retweeted
Rose Marie Fox @therosefox  ·  4h 4 hours ago

@sdccindigo "Incomplete submissions will not be thrown out because of the glitch." #sdcchotels

WHAT???

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Dubb on March 24, 2015, 03:00:55 PM
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From Twitter few min ago:

 Indigo Ballroom Line retweeted
Rose Marie Fox @therosefox  ·  4h 4 hours ago

@sdccindigo "Incomplete submissions will not be thrown out because of the glitch." #sdcchotels

WHAT???

LOL
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sinned2007 on March 24, 2015, 03:11:50 PM
Just got an email asking me to re-select the hotels.
Did so & immediately got the Confirm Hotel Order email
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 24, 2015, 03:13:11 PM
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Just got an email asking me to re-select the hotels.
Did so & immediately got the Confirm Hotel Order email

Yes, the e-mails are going out now.  I can also confirm that this is true.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sinned2007 on March 24, 2015, 03:14:57 PM
The email has a link that asks you to enter your email address and then there are 6 drop down lists.

The Confirm Hotel Order email states:

Thanks for submitting your hotel preferences for Comic-Con 2015.

A recap of your Hotel Reservations request form submission is below:
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 24, 2015, 03:23:59 PM
I thought I submitted everything correctly and I even finished in about 50 seconds but they've sent me the email to submit my hotel choices.

Are we assuming they're sending them to everyone?

Check your emails! If your not expecting one you may get one and it MUST be filled out by 5pm PST Tomorrow (Wednesday 25th)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 24, 2015, 03:24:41 PM
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Just got an email asking me to re-select the hotels.
Did so & immediately got the Confirm Hotel Order email

Same here
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 24, 2015, 03:25:45 PM
Im assuming those emails are being sent out only to people with incomplete forms.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sideproject on March 24, 2015, 03:26:14 PM
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The email has a link that asks you to enter your email address and then there are 6 drop down lists.

Do we know if everyone is getting this email, or just those who submitted a bad form? I had a bad form, and had to refresh to get it to work. Wasted so much time filling everything out twice and refreshing... :(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SamTurtledove on March 24, 2015, 03:27:03 PM
Should we all reconfirm?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xandsfaith on March 24, 2015, 03:29:24 PM
How would we reconfirm?

So they are sending to sets of emails out? One to confirm your selection and one to ask you to reconfirm your selections?

this sounds very clusterfrakery
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darthmaul1309 on March 24, 2015, 03:31:08 PM
Just called TP. They said the emails are only going out to the people who had problems.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 24, 2015, 03:31:21 PM
So the real question is... since this year was such a screwup, what will they do next year?

Revert to last year's system/servers where at least the form submission process worked?

Or change the whole system entirely, making it an Epic-style lottery where people go in and submit forms (or even choose actual hotel slots based on remaining availability)?

Stay tuned...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 24, 2015, 03:32:45 PM
This is the email to look out for:

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi769.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx334%2FStarMclight25%2FForm.jpg&hash=9dd3e22b95eb6f2301ad6e4ffa0ddd3abfb5b795) (http://s769.photobucket.com/user/StarMclight25/media/Form.jpg.html)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 24, 2015, 03:34:06 PM
Wait, so they're giving you 24 hours? Does this mean that the results emails will be 24 hours late?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: myfavoriteholiday on March 24, 2015, 03:34:36 PM
This is such a mess. I can't wait for the annual Comic-Con "Suggestions" panel... already shaping up to be a doozy.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 24, 2015, 03:35:13 PM
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This is the email to look out for:

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi769.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx334%2FStarMclight25%2FForm.jpg&hash=9dd3e22b95eb6f2301ad6e4ffa0ddd3abfb5b795) (http://s769.photobucket.com/user/StarMclight25/media/Form.jpg.html)

Looks like we wont get our confirmation email till tomorrow night then...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xandsfaith on March 24, 2015, 03:36:34 PM
Didn't some people already get the confirmation emails that had nothing to do with issues? If so I would say anyone answering the phones right now knows only bits and pieces, is guessing or can't say anything.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 24, 2015, 03:38:20 PM
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So the real question is... since this year was such a screwup, what will they do next year?

Revert to last year's system/servers where at least the form submission process worked?

Or change the whole system entirely, making it an Epic-style lottery where people go in and submit forms (or even choose actual hotel slots based on remaining availability)?

Stay tuned...

At this point, it's much too early to tell what they will do for next year's hotel sale.  Right now, I'm sure their main goal is to focus on the current hotel sale and try to alleviate whatever they can with the current circumstances.  As of right now, they've decided to ask people to re-submit their six hotel choices.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 24, 2015, 03:38:39 PM
Should I be concerned if I haven't recieved any emails yet? I submitted with no problems.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 24, 2015, 03:42:17 PM
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Should I be concerned if I haven't recieved any emails yet? I submitted with no problems.

Same here. No problems, and no email.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sylent_asassin on March 24, 2015, 03:43:13 PM
I had ALL KINDS of issues, but I didn't receive that email. This is complete BS!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Pyramid on March 24, 2015, 03:44:37 PM
I called and talked in person and no email.  I am betting on it being sent tomorrow though all this talk is causing me concern.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 24, 2015, 03:45:56 PM
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Same here. No problems, and no email.

Same here. My friend who submitted her form after I did got the email but nothing here yet.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: brand4d2 on March 24, 2015, 03:48:09 PM
For next year, I can see them implementing a new system designed to not have this year's flaws but only to find that new flaws are introduced.   

Sadly that seems to be the case yearly as there are virtually zero facets of SDCC that go off without a hitch. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SamTurtledove on March 24, 2015, 03:48:30 PM
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Looks like we wont get our confirmation email till tomorrow night then...
Did it allow you add any waitlist preferences or just the hotel drop down box?  Wondering how TP decided that.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darthmaul1309 on March 24, 2015, 03:49:34 PM
Yeah I have not gotten an email yet either and I didnt have any issues other than the long loading times.....
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 24, 2015, 03:53:34 PM
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Yeah I have not gotten an email yet either and I didnt have any issues other than the long loading times.....

That's the same with me. My dropdown menu worked perfectly, but I had a longer than expected waiting time.

Seems to me that they're sending them out to anyone who had even a small problem.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sylent_asassin on March 24, 2015, 03:55:38 PM
From the looks of it, you will only receive an email IF and ONLY IF you didn't submit any hotels. If you managed to refresh, re-load and work your way through the glitches and errors, you might not receive an email because you've already made your choices.

Ridiculous!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: juliafrood on March 24, 2015, 04:20:11 PM
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From the looks of it, you will only receive an email IF and ONLY IF you didn't submit any hotels. If you managed to refresh, re-load and work your way through the glitches and errors, you might not receive an email because you've already made your choices.

Ridiculous!

Whatever.  I selected 6 hotels, TWICE (so I spent the time selecting 12) and if it didn't take then it isn't my fault.  Not ridiculous. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 24, 2015, 04:23:38 PM
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From the looks of it, you will only receive an email IF and ONLY IF you didn't submit any hotels. If you managed to refresh, re-load and work your way through the glitches and errors, you might not receive an email because you've already made your choices.

Ridiculous!
So does that mean that no news (email) is good news (email)?

Ugh...I wish they'd just send out a status, or at least a validation saying "here's what you did"...then all this speculation/guessing would just go away...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: chirigami on March 24, 2015, 04:38:19 PM
Yeah, I'm wondering about the emails too... unless, because I talked in person that I won't get one (though, I didn't have any room information to go along with it) or if they're actually just using my third form.  Hmm...  guess I'll keep an eye out while I'm at work.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darthmaul1309 on March 24, 2015, 04:40:21 PM
Hopefully this doesnt screw the people that didnt have problems, such as myself.  Will the people that had problems now take precedence over the people that didnt have problems regardless??  I can see a s**t storm brewing......
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Darth_Primus on March 24, 2015, 04:46:37 PM
I had log in issues and problems with the hotel selection.   I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed and hope things work out for the best.

I hope everyone gets at least one of their hotel they listed.

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: spoox on March 24, 2015, 04:59:02 PM
It took me over a minute for the page to load.. my guess 1:30 or so. Once I finally got in autofill did not work with Firefox so I manually typed which was fine but I was struggling with the drop down menu. It was a pain to select the hotels but eventually I got it to work. I selected a double room but could only type in info for one occupant... I think all together it took over 3 minutes to submit and my stomach is in knots about it. I never took this long in the past!!

Reading how people in chrome with the messed up forms that hit enter and accidentally submitted forms prematurely got the time stamp it went through makes me even more worried now.. especially because they didn't even did the hotel selection so most likely clocked 30 seconds or so thanks to that.. sigh. I know it isn't their fault but still.. TP and SDCC needs to work on this.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DaveG on March 24, 2015, 05:02:07 PM
I'm pretty sure if your form went through successfully, then emails are still forthcoming.  If you had an issue with your hotel choices, then you should have an email.

The only thing I feel pretty certain about is that people who get their choice of hotels will feel the system ended up working and people who don't get their choice will feel the system was broke.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Shadows on March 24, 2015, 05:17:21 PM
I think people are worrying too much about these phantom individuals who supposedly:

1) Had the page load quickly for them initially, AND...

2) Also had a screwed-up form / dropdown that didn't let them select any hotels, AND...

3) For some inexplicable reason didn't even TRY to fiddle with the list, at least TRY make it work for a bit, refresh the page etc. etc.....AND...

4) Also weren't in any way confused or concerned at all about clicking SUBMIT when they hadn't selected any hotels, AND...

4) Therefore had a result of "submitted a blank form with no hotels selected with a really fast, early time stamp".

When you think about it, it's really not likely that all of these things occurred, for too many people, really.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Hal Roth on March 24, 2015, 05:25:40 PM
It took me seven minutes of submitting incomplete forms before a good form loaded and I was able to submit correctly. Yet I have not received an email.  Horrible.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: spoox on March 24, 2015, 06:05:14 PM
Someone just said they accidentally submitted a form without hotel selection in like 15 seconds. hey went back to redo everything with the glitchy page which took 10 minutes.. Then called TP who told them that because they went back to redo the form, the first one got deleted and so did the 15 second timestamp.. It saved the one they redid last! .. it seems no matter how we look at it.. it was a mess for every one and it's a waiting game on who gets what now.

Mine went thru around 3 minutes and if I get something downtown I am happy.. if not.. oh well. I will try to find something in mission valley :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Lynnpd on March 24, 2015, 06:16:41 PM
I practiced all afternoon yesterday and when I got to the link this morning, at first it didn't load, then it magically came up a few seconds later.  I completed the form and submitted.  It took me to a page saying my form had been submitted, so I think I did it right.

However, no email yet.  I hope all is OK.  Seems that some have received a response and others haven't.  Just like everything else with CC you just gotta wait but pray for the best.  ::)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 24, 2015, 06:39:24 PM
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Someone just said they accidentally submitted a form without hotel selection in like 15 seconds. hey went back to redo everything with the glitchy page which took 10 minutes.. Then called TP who told them that because they went back to redo the form, the first one got deleted and so did the 15 second timestamp.. It saved the one they redid last! .. it seems no matter how we look at it.. it was a mess for every one and it's a waiting game on who gets what now.

Mine went thru around 3 minutes and if I get something downtown I am happy.. if not.. oh well. I will try to find something in mission valley :)

and my friend called who also had the problem and submitted a form with no hotel selections and then also then went back and put in another completed form and she was told that the first form is the one that will be accepted and they couldn't accept the second form. She's worried because the first form didn't have the number of rooms she need or the dates or the room types filled out so how can they use that form.
I don't think we can really believe anything anyone says from travel planners at this point. I just don't think they actually know anything and are just saying whatever they feel like saying.  Nothing we can really do but wait and see how this all works out in a few days.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 24, 2015, 08:02:16 PM
Just found out one in our group got the email to re-submit her hotels.  Although she says she had no problems.  Overall I feel better knowing we now have an entry in each bucket.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Sandrene on March 24, 2015, 10:28:10 PM
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I'm pretty sure if your form went through successfully, then emails are still forthcoming.  If you had an issue with your hotel choices, then you should have an email.

The only thing I feel pretty certain about is that people who get their choice of hotels will feel the system ended up working and people who don't get their choice will feel the system was broke.
I'll only be upset if someone who submitted after me gets the hotel I want and I dont. I'm not too worried about the people who submitted a blank form, I haven't personally heard of anyone who did and I know lots of people who had the bad form, so I'm thinking its a minuscule percentage in the grand scheme of things. And people who may have submitted faster than me possibly didn't due to slow load times, refreshing or any number of reasons. So for me it evens out. I'm just glad I'm going to be really busy the next couple days so I'm not thinking about it.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: evanarose on March 24, 2015, 10:53:16 PM
Sounds like the hotel lottery didn't go so well for quite a few...
Probably would've been a good idea to have a browser check, like they did for general registration...as I was surprised when it came to filling the form, I couldn't get the hotels in order. I haven't done the hotel lottery before, so didn't think of it as a possibility of happening & then I just panicked at 3am in the morning here in Aus thinking yep, my chances are probably gone already. Good thing at least they sent an email & gave another chance. Though as I spent probably a minute trying to figure out what to do about it, I'm guessing the downtown options are already gone. Anyway see what happens
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SamTurtledove on March 24, 2015, 11:36:53 PM
reposting here again to sum up the day:

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Here are my results

Firefox 9am, pressed enter to load the URL (had pasted it into the address bar)
Loading...

Had chrome on an auto refresh every 1 second on the same URL also.
Chrome alerted the page had changed about 45 seconds after 9am.

Refreshed Firefox, loading for another 30ish seconds before it got to the form

were now at about 9:01:15am
Hotel dropdown wasn't a dropdown!! same issue others had.
Refreshed again. about 15 seconds later, form came up again, this time with the dropdown list.

Picked my hotels, filled out other info, and hit submit. took me a minute at least.
Delay loading the confirmation page, maybe 15 seconds.

Estimated finish time? 9:03:15am . 3 minutes 15 seconds or so.

My take on what went wrong

What went wrong? obviously they hosted the site on an amazon cluster. but somebody didn't get the memo that they needed to set up load balancing, and to make sure the ENTIRE form (website, and associated scripts and such) were copied to all hosts in the cluster. (i don't know how clustering works to be honest).

Load Balancing: The loading Delay

It should have been simple! session1, gets Webserver1, session2 gets Webserver2, session3 gets Webserver3, etc etc. Then when the last host has a session, the next session goes back to Webserver1. this way the load is distributed. I don't think that worked, or was even enabled.

Some able to submit with missing info: Broken Validation Checks

When the page loads for each user session, a bunch of scripts run that creates validations. Like "First name, must have at least one letter" "FirstName:1:text" (or however the logic works). Then the Rules: If Validation(FirstNameEntered)=false, SubmitForm=Disabled & ValidationFailedAlertBox=OPEN() 

If the Web Server was under so great a load that the Validations could not be created, then the submit button would fail to be disabled!!

Hotel Selection Box: JavaScript? Unable to Load

The selection box, has a list of the hotels. But the selections (on click, add selected to PreferenceList) <-- just my guess at how it works
But that special piece, that converts a box of hotel names, into a clickable box with more logic behind it, failed to load.

Again, i think this was a load balancing issue. we probably had 20k+ people all trying to load the page a the same time, and it got overloaded and couldn't make the special clickable box.



All said, i think the old server (www.tphousing.com) may have somehow had load balancing enabled, which is why it worked so well last year.
I think someone forgot to click the "enable" button somewhere.... and someone is getting fired....

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Took forever to load, plus my hotel selection part was all messed up

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi58.tinypic.com%2Fvcqk8w.jpg&hash=55811a1507fb38069a64af8b8cabb943350b3457)

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practicing the online form over the past two weeks, I am ready!

11:59am EST - nervous
12:00 noon refresh!
12:00:30pm ants on fire
12:00:35pm - site loaded
12:01:00pm stressful - having problem selecting the hotels in the drop down or lack of

(figure the form must have changed from what I seen from previous year for 2015)

12:01:30pm relief - figure out I can control select the 6 hotels inside the scrollable list
12:02:15pm worry but I can finally relax, since the form is all fill out and submit
12:06pm saw tweets about people have trouble loading the site. Give me hopes about my 2 mins 15 sec submission time
12:17pm saw tweet about "bad form"
12:40pm  >:( up sad - learned the 6 hotels in my submission might be "empty" after all
1pm - angry
1:34pm  ;D excited - new mini season of X-Files returning to

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I think a LOT of us are screwed b/c the hotel dropdown didn't work.
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs10.postimg.org%2Fv78y8cyl5%2FScreen_Shot_2015_03_24_at_9_04_58_AM_copy.png&hash=9a73226274a3f64f87a38a4df88782b3f0b8740f)

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http://twitter.com/SD_Comic_Con/status/580435137332158464

"Travel Planners representatives saying an e-mail will be sent tonight with more information. Everyone take a deep breath."

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Just got an email from TP:

"Thank you for submitting your Comic-Con housing request today. According to our records, we realize that you may have experienced a problem with the hotel drop down menu on the form. To ensure accuracy of your hotel preferences, please click on the link below to submit your six (6) hotel choices in order of preference. Once you have submitted your choices we will process your request based on the time stamp from your original submission.

To complete the reservation process quickly and efficiently, your form submission must be received no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 25th. Hotel choices cannot be processed via telephone. "

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7w7c2pnfgw5s5w/Confirm.png?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7w7c2pnfgw5s5w/Confirm.png?dl=0)
This is the resubmission form I have. Pretty simple.

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F15%2F03%2F24%2F221c06074fa8978ec31a0daed2fbb380.jpg&hash=b1759d7ecb05a308a0082de9802c48e1d2d54db9) (edit source from xax's)https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xkthbtv4lt3qlg/Email.png?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xkthbtv4lt3qlg/Email.png?dl=0)
This is the email confirmation I got, immediately

Forgot to get a screenshot of the next page, but its just said something like "Thank you for submitting your six choicecs"

No details

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i got this after i clicked submit

(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1051.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fs437%2Fadapaoferidu%2Fsucess%2520tp%25202015.jpg&hash=7f9f041f90097fbc7e0d71747e651da7a446f460) (http://s1051.photobucket.com/user/adapaoferidu/media/sucess%20tp%202015.jpg.html)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 25, 2015, 01:57:08 AM
It seems to me like there is a lot of conflicting information coming from TP. In my oppinion, they should release a statement officially explaining what is happening which would make it easier on them because they wouldn't have so many people calling their representatives 24/7.

At least the hotel form that was emailed was simple and hasn't had any problems (that i've seen)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: admiral-lira on March 25, 2015, 06:10:40 AM
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reposting here again to sum up the day:

I'm inclined to think the problem was that the page scripts won't loaded for a lot of people and the page design permited to submit the form anyway.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 25, 2015, 08:03:52 AM
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It seems to me like there is a lot of conflicting information coming from TP. In my oppinion, they should release a statement officially explaining what is happening which would make it easier on them because they wouldn't have so many people calling their representatives 24/7.

That's what I thought was going to happen last night when they said there would be an email announcement. Instead, the email only went to people who got to re-select their 6 picks.  :(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 25, 2015, 08:20:37 AM
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That's what I thought was going to happen last night when they said there would be an email announcement. Instead, the email only went to people who got to re-select their 6 picks.  :(

Me too. With all of the other stuff they messed up in this year's hotel sale, Travel Planners' lack of a statement seems particularly unconscionable and cowardly. When you know you've made a mistake, the best was forward is to admit it and lay out a plan for how you will move forward. But I guess that assumes a situation in which there's accountability - we're all stuck with Travel Planners no matter how much they suck. But I think not releasing a statement is cruel to their employees as well, since I'm sure people will keep calling and harassing them for answers they don't have.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MarvelGurl on March 25, 2015, 09:03:22 AM
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Me too. With all of the other stuff they messed up in this year's hotel sale, Travel Planners' lack of a statement seems particularly unconscionable and cowardly. When you know you've made a mistake, the best was forward is to admit it and lay out a plan for how you will move forward. But I guess that assumes a situation in which there's accountability - we're all stuck with Travel Planners no matter how much they suck. But I think not releasing a statement is cruel to their employees as well, since I'm sure people will keep calling and harassing them for answers they don't have.

yes which is probably what they are doing behindthe scenes. We're talking about real people going through probably thousands and thousands of submissions and I want them to be working on getting hotels booked and confirms out, not making statements. We're still in the 48 hour time frame of confirmations going out. With this problem we can no longer say "well we got this at this time last year". Let's adapt to what happened. Trust me I'm going to be super pissed if I get nothing but I'm not going to put my energy on getting pissed at TP before I even know my results. Its the internet and s**t happens.

So far they have tried to fix things by letting people resubmit choices with their original time stamp which is nice enough already as they could just say f* it we have a schedule to adhere to, and they let people switch reservations and the like so let's just give them a break for now and see what happens in the next couple days.

Sorry i just feel like someone had to defend TP lol. Let's not act like most of us don't work for companies that screw up.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Hal Roth on March 25, 2015, 09:12:33 AM
Some on twitter said they were told bad form emails would go out yesterday and this morning.

Has anyone received a TP bad form email this morning? 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 25, 2015, 09:16:31 AM
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Sorry i just feel like someone had to defend TP lol. Let's not act like most of us don't work for companies that screw up.

Have to agree to disagree with you here. When my company screws up, we 1) go to the client and admit it, 2) apologize, 3) explain how we're going to fix it, 4) fix it, and 5) change our procedures so it doesn't happen again. Travel Planners has not done 1 or 2, has given conflicting answers on 3, 4 is impossible (no matter what they come up with, it won't be nearly as fair as if their system had worked as intended), and clearly can't do 5, because this is not their first year massively screwing things up.

I am still fairly hopeful that I personally will get a decent result. But that doesn't change the EPIC FAIL status of Travel Planners.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: nvj29 on March 25, 2015, 09:22:17 AM
I just spoke with TP and asked about the bad form and receiving the email to resubmit the hotel list. Was told that they did send those emails to people but then stopped as the result was higher than they expected. Told the recp emails will be received within 48 hrs from the sale, I said 48 hrs is to long to wait after what happened to so many people. I did, after accidentally hitting the return because I could not get the hotel list to accept my hotels, reload the link and received the good form. By then it was like 3mins into the sale and I know I had a late submission.

A drink last night and another tonight until I get the recap email. Thank goodness Arrow is on tonight! 

Edit to above comment:
The "stopped as the result was higher than they expected" not completely fair, as was told they did send and then stopped, but the exact reason is unclear. I may have heard what I wanted at that point in the conversation, since I never received the email at all. FYI.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 25, 2015, 09:22:40 AM
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Have to agree to disagree with you here. When my company screws up, we 1) go to the client and admit it, 2) apologize, 3) explain how we're going to fix it, 4) fix it, and 5) change our procedures so it doesn't happen again. Travel Planners has not done 1 or 2, has given conflicting answers on 3, 4 is impossible (no matter what they come up with, it won't be nearly as fair as if their system had worked as intended), and clearly can't do 5, because this is not their first year massively screwing things up.

I am still fairly hopeful that I personally will get a decent result. But that doesn't change the EPIC FAIL status of Travel Planners.

Agree 100%. Their actions aren't in a vacuum. The way they handle false submissions also impacts EVERY SINGLE OTHER submission as well, so everyone should be in the loop as to how these are being considered.

Why should someone who got an immediate "false" submission be allowed to "jump the line" ahead of someone who had to wait 60-90 seconds for the page to load, then correctly filled out the form.

It's tough to find fairness for everyone here, but they dropped the ball and should explain to everyone how it's being fixed (or not fixed).
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 25, 2015, 09:24:51 AM
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Was told that they did send those emails to people but then stopped as the result was higher than they expected.

That's clearly the scariest part of that response.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 25, 2015, 09:25:56 AM
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That's clearly the scariest part of that response.

That was my immediate thought as well. At this point I'm laughing b/c it seems pointless to cry over their incompetence.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mlgagne on March 25, 2015, 09:36:12 AM
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I just spoke with TP and asked about the bad form and receiving the email to resubmit the hotel list. Was told that they did send those emails to people but then stopped as the result was higher than they expected. Told the recp emails will be received within 48 hrs from the sale, I said 48 hrs is to long to wait after what happened to so many people. I did, after accidentally hitting the return because I could not get the hotel list to accept my hotels, reload the link and received the good form. By then it was like 3mins into the sale and I know I had a late submission.

A drink last night and another tonight until I get the recap email. Thank goodness Arrow is on tonight! 

I've been saying that the SDCC hotel lottery is the reason why anti-anxiety meds were invented...though I was thinking the same thing of alcohol, so I'm glad to see your train of thought in that last sentence reveals that I'm not the only one  ;D

Nevertheless, this is still utterly horrifying...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sylent_asassin on March 25, 2015, 09:39:40 AM
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I don't think we can really believe anything anyone says from travel planners at this point. I just don't think they actually know anything and are just saying whatever they feel like saying.  Nothing we can really do but wait and see how this all works out in a few days.

This. All the reps at TP seem to be telling conflicting stories. When I called, I told them that the page wouldn't load properly, and that I submitted 2 requests without Hotel selections because it wouldn't allow me to do anything aside from put in my name, address and email. She told me that I would receive an email for each submission, but I haven't received anything or heard a peep from them.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: SoCalNerdGal on March 25, 2015, 10:30:05 AM
Technical question - is anyone able to explain or have other insight toward the answer?

I've read a lot that second form submission cancels the first form submission.  What is that based on?  For example, is it insta-cancelling based on emails?  Same names?  IP address?  Some sort of tracking in the link?

I'm concerned because on my same link, I had a timestamp for me of 9:03'ish, for the bf at 9:05'ish, and then, I put through for my dad and sister (different hotels, different names) at 9:11'ish.

If the system is auto-cancelling, I'm just not sure what criteria it is using to drop that first time stamp.  Should I call Travel Planners or wait it out?  Are our first submissions recoverable in this case?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: RustyPonds on March 25, 2015, 11:03:39 AM
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Technical question - is anyone able to explain or have other insight toward the answer?

I've read a lot that second form submission cancels the first form submission.  What is that based on?  For example, is it insta-cancelling based on emails?  Same names?  IP address?  Some sort of tracking in the link? If the system is auto-cancelling, I'm just not sure what criteria it is using to drop that first time stamp.  Should I call Travel Planners or wait it out?  Are our first submissions recoverable in this case?

I doubt it would be due to the IP Address. For Badge Sale, CCI said they don't filter based on IP due to the fact that it would affect a lot of people registering from a University/College connections. So while this is a different company running it, I would imagine the same consideration applies.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DaveG on March 25, 2015, 11:20:41 AM
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Technical question - is anyone able to explain or have other insight toward the answer?

I've read a lot that second form submission cancels the first form submission.  What is that based on?  For example, is it insta-cancelling based on emails?  Same names?  IP address?  Some sort of tracking in the link?

I'm concerned because on my same link, I had a timestamp for me of 9:03'ish, for the bf at 9:05'ish, and then, I put through for my dad and sister (different hotels, different names) at 9:11'ish.

If the system is auto-cancelling, I'm just not sure what criteria it is using to drop that first time stamp.  Should I call Travel Planners or wait it out?  Are our first submissions recoverable in this case?

I had some of the same concerns and called TP yesterday.  They key off of email address.  So if your email addresses are different, you're good.  If they're the same, she wasn't certain, but said there could be an issue.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darthmaul1309 on March 25, 2015, 12:48:54 PM
Starting to get concerned cuz I have not gotten ANY email of any kind yet.  The process was relatively smooth for me. Only hiccup for me, as well as everyone, was the slow loading...after that I got it submitted pretty quick.  This was my first attempt at hotel hell so I don't know how long it usually takes to get a confirmation email, but I would have thought I would have gotten the first email by now...im probably just paranoid.....
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 25, 2015, 12:57:51 PM
with them saying they cut off the Hotel Resubmitting emails, because too many people were resubmitting hotel preferences (must have been an automated email that sent out to anyone missing hotel preferences, and they didn't realize how many people that was), im concerned that the number of early, incomplete forms submitted, is in the thousands.

/FULLOFDREAD!!

They took down the re-submitting form also from what i can tell. So much for 5PM EDT.

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 25, 2015, 12:57:56 PM
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Starting to get concerned cuz I have not gotten ANY email of any kind yet.  The process was relatively smooth for me. Only hiccup for me, as well as everyone, was the slow loading...after that I got it submitted pretty quick.  This was my first attempt at hotel hell so I don't know how long it usually takes to get a confirmation email, but I would have thought I would have gotten the first email by now...im probably just paranoid.....

I haven't gotten any emails yet either. I think if your form was okay and you submitted with no problems except slow load-times, you should not have received an email yet. I think. Nothing is for sure this year, but that seems to be how it's working (by a VERY loose definition of "working").

In a normal year, like last year, you would have received an email confirming you r successful submission and recapping your hotel choices sometime yesterday afternoon/evening. But I don't think anyone at all has received those yet.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DaveG on March 25, 2015, 01:14:05 PM
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Starting to get concerned cuz I have not gotten ANY email of any kind yet.  The process was relatively smooth for me. Only hiccup for me, as well as everyone, was the slow loading...after that I got it submitted pretty quick.  This was my first attempt at hotel hell so I don't know how long it usually takes to get a confirmation email, but I would have thought I would have gotten the first email by now...im probably just paranoid.....

You're not the only one paranoid.  I called TP and got an automated message saying if you submitted a form yesterday to expect an email by 3/26...tomorrow.  I know we're all worried, but I wouldn't panic unless I started hearing that everyone else was getting an email and I didn't.  Even then, give it a couple of hours.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 25, 2015, 01:23:50 PM
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with them saying they cut off the Hotel Resubmitting emails, because too many people were resubmitting hotel preferences (must have been an automated email that sent out to anyone missing hotel preferences, and they didn't realize how many people that was), im concerned that the number of early, incomplete forms submitted, is in the thousands.

/FULLOFDREAD!!

They took down the re-submitting form also from what i can tell. So much for 5PM EDT.

Wow. Just wow. I love (by which I mean hate) how they really stick to their own policies. You know, how you can really trust the information they're giving out. Ugh.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MickeyJack on March 25, 2015, 01:34:24 PM
I was stressing so badly about this that I had to decide to take a different approach. I'll be the guy camped out in the Hall H line all week. Stop by and visit. I'll have a fully stocked bar. Bring your own martini glass.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: spoox on March 25, 2015, 02:24:53 PM
Double shot of jager for me please! :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 25, 2015, 02:38:51 PM
This may or may not add to the confusion but it made me feel a little better . I spoke to travel planners . My situation was I got a bad form , the system automatically submitted , I went back in and submitted a good form . I received two confirmation pages . Travel planner says that I did not receive a correction email last night because my requests were merged and they got my hotel information from the second form . After the merge, they will be taking the timestamp from the first submission . He actually sounded like he knew what I was talking about and seemed pretty authoritative .
 At this point, I am just going to have to stop worrying about this for the next 24 hours . Whatever happens happens . I have a flight and a badge . I'm sure I'll find a place to stay . It may not be what I wanted but I will still get to enjoy the con and have a good time . Hope this helps someone who's in a similar situation to me .
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: diomedes on March 25, 2015, 03:15:54 PM
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This may or may not add to the confusion but it made me feel a little better . I spoke to travel planners . My situation was I got a bad form , the system automatically submitted , I went back in and submitted a good form . I received two confirmation pages . Travel planner says that I did not receive a correction email last night because my requests were merged and they got my hotel information from the second form . After the merge, they will be taking the timestamp from the first submission . He actually sounded like he knew what I was talking about and seemed pretty authoritative .
 At this point, I am just going to have to stop worrying about this for the next 24 hours . Whatever happens happens . I have a flight and a badge . I'm sure I'll find a place to stay . It may not be what I wanted but I will still get to enjoy the con and have a good time . Hope this helps someone who's in a similar situation to me .
how fast was your first submission?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 25, 2015, 03:18:09 PM
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This may or may not add to the confusion but it made me feel a little better . I spoke to travel planners . My situation was I got a bad form , the system automatically submitted , I went back in and submitted a good form . I received two confirmation pages . Travel planner says that I did not receive a correction email last night because my requests were merged and they got my hotel information from the second form . After the merge, they will be taking the timestamp from the first submission . He actually sounded like he knew what I was talking about and seemed pretty authoritative .
 At this point, I am just going to have to stop worrying about this for the next 24 hours . Whatever happens happens . I have a flight and a badge . I'm sure I'll find a place to stay . It may not be what I wanted but I will still get to enjoy the con and have a good time . Hope this helps someone who's in a similar situation to me .

The system automatically submitted your bad form?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 25, 2015, 03:20:18 PM
Got my email :)  I had a good form.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: carovan on March 25, 2015, 03:21:01 PM
Just got my e-mail as well. Finally.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 25, 2015, 03:22:18 PM
Just now received my confirmation from Travel Planners that they received my form.  "We've received your form and are processing it in the order it was received. Please save this email and print a hard copy for your records as well." Plus it showed the recap of my hotel choices, names etc. It also stated:  "Important Notes:

If your request can be accommodated, a second email will arrive confirming your actual Hotel Reservation. This Hotel Reservation Confirmation email will be sent no later than March 26, 2015. It will contain instructions on how to provide your deposit, as well as other important deadline information.

If we are unable to process, your request you will be notified.

Also note:

You'll need to provide a deposit equal to two night's room rate plus tax, within 72 hours of receiving your hotel reservations confirmation.
After 72 hours from receiving your reservation confirmation - RESERVATIONS WITHOUT DEPOSITS OR WITH ONLY A PARTIAL DEPOSIT WILL BE CANCELLED AND WILL NOT BE RE-INSTATED FOR ANY REASON.
Deposits are fully refundable if your reservation is canceled on or before April 15, 2015.
Reservations canceled between the dates of April 16, 2015 through May 15, 2015 will incur a one night's room rate plus tax cancellation fee deducted from the deposit provided.
Reservations canceled on or after May 16, 2015: DEPOSITS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.
ADA requests - are based on availability and have no bearing on your assigned hotel's proximity to the Convention Center.
Thank you for your participation; we look forward to seeing you in San Diego this summer!

The Team at Travel Planners"

So now the wait for the actual reservation. Good luck to all. Keeping fingers crossed. This has been such a stressing situation but then again...anything Comic Con related usually is..
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 25, 2015, 03:23:39 PM
Just received mine as well. Whew.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: noobie on March 25, 2015, 03:25:24 PM
I got the same email too. I hope we all get our choices. :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 25, 2015, 03:27:54 PM
Oh great, no confirmation here. So now I'm wondering if mine went through at all...  >:(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: eek on March 25, 2015, 03:28:26 PM
Also just received that same email. Will still be stressing until that confirmation tomorrow!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 25, 2015, 03:28:35 PM
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Oh great, no confirmation here. So now I'm wondering if mine went through at all...  >:(

Same here!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: eek on March 25, 2015, 03:29:35 PM
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Oh great, no confirmation here. So now I'm wondering if mine went through at all...  >:(

Hopefully they are just sending out the messages in batches and you'll get yours soon.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 25, 2015, 03:30:12 PM
Yes having this email helps lower the stress a tiny bit for me. This year was quite a mess. No matter how much we all practiced the problems with load times, bad forms, submit delays etc really made the process super stressful. Keeping fingers crossed for all! I won't be able to breathe a sigh of relief until after knowing which hotel we get. I can see a lot of attendees venting over this mess at the talk at Comic Con at the end of the con (where people get a chance to vent)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 25, 2015, 03:31:33 PM
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Hopefully they are just sending out the messages in batches and you'll get yours soon.

Agree. Try not to stress over it. They send out the emails in batches.

Ok now this is really weird. I just got the same email from Travel Planners. One email is timed at 3:17 PST and the new one saying the same exact stuff is dated 3:31 PST. Oh lordy..
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xDumpweed182x on March 25, 2015, 03:32:45 PM
I was one of the many that was only able to submit a half completed form and this is what my email says at the end.. Can anybody clarify what exactly I'm seeing?

Group Room Details:
Group Single Rooms: 0
Group Double Rooms: 0
Group Twin Rooms: 0
Group Triple Rooms: 0
Group Quad Rooms: 0
Group Arrival Date:
Group Departure Date:

Room Details:
Number of Rooms requested: 1

Room 1
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 2
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 3
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 4
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 5
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 6
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 7
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 8
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 9
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 25, 2015, 03:35:19 PM
I only submitted one time but I got 2 emails exactly the same.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 25, 2015, 03:36:05 PM
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Same here!

I *just* got mine, so it looks like they're still being sent! Hope you get yours soon!

Badwolf, do you have the same confirmation/reservation number on both emails, or does it have you in the system twice?

ETA - I just got a second one. The Request Number was the same on both emails.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: eek on March 25, 2015, 03:39:39 PM
Also just received a duplicate email.
But the reservation request number is the same in both emails, so should be fine.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 25, 2015, 03:39:55 PM
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I only submitted one time but I got 2 emails exactly the same.

Same here. The hotel reservation request number is the same on the two emails.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 25, 2015, 03:47:55 PM
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I *just* got mine, so it looks like they're still being sent! Hope you get yours soon!

Badwolf, do you have the same confirmation/reservation number on both emails, or does it have you in the system twice?

ETA - I just got a second one. The Request Number was the same on both emails.

Yep you guys are right, it's the same on both emails.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Nicodimas on March 25, 2015, 03:50:53 PM
Got mine too!!

I totally panicked and wiffed on my selections..check it out:

2/6 not bad!

Hilton Bayfront
Hard Rock Suite<woops>
Hilton Gaslmap
Hampton Inn<woops>
San Diego Marriott Gaslamp <woops>
San Diego Marriot w/concierge service <woops>
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: leecharra on March 25, 2015, 03:53:51 PM
My reservations request number is different on both emails
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darthmaul1309 on March 25, 2015, 03:54:42 PM
nervously waiting to receive mine  ???
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: dunkaroos on March 25, 2015, 03:54:52 PM
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I was one of the many that was only able to submit a half completed form and this is what my email says at the end.. Can anybody clarify what exactly I'm seeing?

Group Room Details:
Group Single Rooms: 0
Group Double Rooms: 0
Group Twin Rooms: 0
Group Triple Rooms: 0
Group Quad Rooms: 0
Group Arrival Date:
Group Departure Date:

Room Details:
Number of Rooms requested: 1

Room 1
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

Room 2
Room Type:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Occupant Names:

...

I requested one twin room. Mine looks the same as yours but with the Room 1 info filled out. Here's what it looks like (I redacted the occupant names but they're both just on one line like that).

Room Details:

Number of Rooms requested: 1

Room 1
Room Type: 3
Arrival Date: 7/7/2015
Departure Date: 7/12/2015
Occupant Names: [name 1] [name 2]

And then rooms 2 - 9 blank, like yours.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xDumpweed182x on March 25, 2015, 04:03:33 PM
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I requested one twin room. Mine looks the same as yours but with the Room 1 info filled out. Here's what it looks like (I redacted the occupant names but they're both just on one line like that).

Room Details:

Number of Rooms requested: 1

Room 1
Room Type: 3
Arrival Date: 7/7/2015
Departure Date: 7/12/2015
Occupant Names: [name 1] [name 2]

And then rooms 2 - 9 blank, like yours.
See, that's what I'm worried about. I wasn't able to get to the Room Type, Arrival Date, Departure Date, or Occupant Names because it was submitted before I got to that point. My worry is that since I wasn't able to fill those in, I won't be able to get a room.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MarvelGurl on March 25, 2015, 04:06:28 PM
Call Travel Planners immediately to get that fixed.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: dunkaroos on March 25, 2015, 04:08:06 PM
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See, that's what I'm worried about. I wasn't able to get to the Room Type, Arrival Date, Departure Date, or Occupant Names because it was submitted before I got to that point. My worry is that since I wasn't able to fill those in, I won't be able to get a room.

Yeah, I'd call TP if they're still open. But at least you got a confirmation email, which means they didn't immediately disqualify your submission, right?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Jekecy on March 25, 2015, 04:14:17 PM
Got my email that they received the reservation request. No problems except for the initial page hang, so all the info was correct.

My concern is how long it took me to receive this email. If they're giving them out based on when our requests were sent in, I'm way back in the line.  >:(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 25, 2015, 04:15:48 PM
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Got my email that they received the reservation request. No problems except for the initial page hang, so all the info was correct.

My concern is how long it took me to receive this email. If they're giving them out based on when our requests were sent in, I'm way back in the line.  >:(

I doubt they are sending the confirmation emails by the order they were received.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on March 25, 2015, 04:20:00 PM
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I doubt they are sending the confirmation emails by the order they were received.

And you know this because?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Charlotte2997 on March 25, 2015, 04:20:44 PM
It's 11.20pm here in England and I really don't want to sleep until I get the first confirmation email.

*Continues to refresh my inbox every second*
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: AlaskaRainbow on March 25, 2015, 04:22:13 PM
Got two confirmation emails, both exactly the same.  Weird because I know I only submitted one form, I was lucky and didn't have any issues except for my shaking hands.  All the info is correct - just wondering why they sent two emails, 14 minutes apart.   I requested two rooms but the information for both rooms is on both confirmations.

I don't know, I'm just relieved they got my request.

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: angoradebs on March 25, 2015, 04:22:59 PM
I got mine, and all the info I typed in was correct, but it said I selected that if none of my rooms were available to book me into any available hotel. I definitely meant to hit any hotel on the shuttle route, but, honestly, I was so freaked out about time (I had a one minute loading delay and a bad form) that I may not have paid close enough attention on that part. Oops!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Emerald_Mom on March 25, 2015, 04:25:04 PM
Jopari,  just wanted to say thank you for all you did.  I was able to keep my concentration despite all that was going wrong with the form and get it filled out.  If I hadn't had your expertise to practice with I would have totally lost it. 
Thank You!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 25, 2015, 04:26:41 PM
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I doubt they are sending the confirmation emails by the order they were received.

I agree. There's no reason to assume that would be the case. And, even IF they were, different servers/ISPs/webmail programs can sometimes cause lag. One year everyone with a Comcast address was getting everything several hours late, IIRC. Or something like that.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MarvelGurl on March 25, 2015, 04:29:42 PM
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And you know this because?

They're not sending it in the order it was received. My stepdad submitted his request pretty much right after mine. I received my confirmation almost 30-45 minutes ago and he has not yet.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 25, 2015, 04:35:08 PM
Just got my email notification. It appears I had my No. 1 and 2 selections backwards, but in the grand scheme of things that's not too bad.   Good luck to everyone (which is obviously impossible).
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 25, 2015, 04:37:10 PM
Have not gotten any confirmation yet. Getting nervous. Anyone else not get anything else yet?


Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: eek on March 25, 2015, 04:38:17 PM
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Jopari,  just wanted to say thank you for all you did.  I was able to keep my concentration despite all that was going wrong with the form and get it filled out.  If I hadn't had your expertise to practice with I would have totally lost it. 
Thank You!

+1
Thanks so much for this thread (and this forum in general). As a first time attendee, I was able to prepare and practice as much as possible. 

Too bad the TP site was such a mess at game time.  Hopefully everything gets fixed for next year.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: xDumpweed182x on March 25, 2015, 04:38:29 PM
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Yeah, I'd call TP if they're still open. But at least you got a confirmation email, which means they didn't immediately disqualify your submission, right?
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Call Travel Planners immediately to get that fixed.
I called and the guy said he doesn't have access to that info and told me to reply to my confirmation email with that info, so I did that. Hoping that works.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Bionic 7 on March 25, 2015, 04:38:38 PM
Yeah...I just got my TP request confirmation as well.

Now its all in the hands of the Comic-Con gods.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: koop1974 on March 25, 2015, 04:41:10 PM
Just checked my email and I received mines.  Fingers still crossed.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: 28savagedays on March 25, 2015, 04:41:43 PM
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I was one of the many that was only able to submit a half completed form and this is what my email says at the end.. Can anybody clarify what exactly I'm seeing?

Group Room Details:
Group Single Rooms: 0
Group Double Rooms: 0
Group Twin Rooms: 0
Group Triple Rooms: 0
Group Quad Rooms: 0
Group Arrival Date:
Group Departure Date:

Room Details:
Number of Rooms requested: 1

My two emails were received like this also. Same reservation numbers though. Tuesday I was told just to reply to the email with your incomplete information. So thats what I'm going to do.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 25, 2015, 05:00:34 PM
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Now its all in the hands of the Comic-Con gods.

Don't you mean the power-hungry megalomaniac Travel Planner idiots?  ;)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: lawboysam on March 25, 2015, 05:05:07 PM
To those of you who got two e-mails - roughly what time did you submit? That's the only thing that makes me think it might be order submitted, because I haven't seen anyone with a time of over 90 seconds with two e-mails, which makes me think if that is how they're sending e-mails, they may have started, stopped, then re-started the e-mail process.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 25, 2015, 05:07:15 PM
I got 2 emails, the first at 3:17. I submitted at 9:01:17
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MickeyJack on March 25, 2015, 05:08:46 PM

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This may or may not add to the confusion but it made me feel a little better . I spoke to travel planners . My situation was I got a bad form , the system automatically submitted , I went back in and submitted a good form . I received two confirmation pages . Travel planner says that I did not receive a correction email last night because my requests were merged and they got my hotel information from the second form . After the merge, they will be taking the timestamp from the first submission . He actually sounded like he knew what I was talking about and seemed pretty authoritative .
 At this point, I am just going to have to stop worrying about this for the next 24 hours . Whatever happens happens . I have a flight and a badge . I'm sure I'll find a place to stay . It may not be what I wanted but I will still get to enjoy the con and have a good time . Hope this helps someone who's in a similar situation to me .

Exact same happened to me and I was told the exact same thing by TP.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 25, 2015, 05:12:26 PM
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Exact same happened to me and I was told the exact same thing by TP.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

...and how would we ever know?
Its not paranoia if they are truly out to get ya!   >:D
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Fazermint on March 25, 2015, 05:16:46 PM
Taking the timestamp from a submission that wasn't completely filled out is not fair to the rest of us. I accidentally hit submit with only 5 hotel selections, and it sent me back to the form to pick a 6th, as it should have. I'm being put at the back of the line because my form worked! I'm so fed up.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 25, 2015, 05:19:58 PM
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Taking the timestamp from a submission that wasn't completely filled out is not fair to the rest of us. I accidentally hit submit with only 5 hotel selections, and it sent me back to the form to pick a 6th, as it should have. I'm being put at the back of the line because my form worked! I'm so fed up.

I'm in the group that allegedly is getting helped by this and I understand and agree.  On the flip side, I should have gotten a form that worked and it would have been a level playing field.  I would have been fine if they added a factor of time to my original submission to make it more fair.  My guess is this will certainly be addressed in the procedures for next year.
I still think this is lip service and there is no accommodation being made for us with the bad form as far as time stamp.  But I am a pessimist.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: lowgun on March 25, 2015, 05:27:03 PM
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To those of you who got two e-mails - roughly what time did you submit? That's the only thing that makes me think it might be order submitted, because I haven't seen anyone with a time of over 90 seconds with two e-mails, which makes me think if that is how they're sending e-mails, they may have started, stopped, then re-started the e-mail process.

Hmm I don't remember my time stamp but i know the 2 ppl out of my 6 that got two emails were the quickest to submit the forms
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: jristen on March 25, 2015, 05:30:04 PM
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Hmm I don't remember my time stamp but i know the 2 ppl out of my 6 that got two emails were the quickest to submit the forms

I got two emails for my form... I hit submit at around 1:15-20 but then didn't get to the confirmation page til like 1:30.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: lawboysam on March 25, 2015, 05:44:17 PM
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I got two emails for my form... I hit submit at around 1:15-20 but then didn't get to the confirmation page til like 1:30.

Yeah, I was somewhere between 1:00-1:05, and I got two as well. Still haven't seen anyone over 90 seconds get two e-mails...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: IfIWereMagneto on March 25, 2015, 05:52:08 PM
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I'm in the group that allegedly is getting helped by this and I understand and agree.  On the flip side, I should have gotten a form that worked and it would have been a level playing field.  I would have been fine if they added a factor of time to my original submission to make it more fair.  My guess is this will certainly be addressed in the procedures for next year.
I still think this is lip service and there is no accommodation being made for us with the bad form as far as time stamp.  But I am a pessimist.

I think they should've probably tacked on at least a 2-2.5 second factor per hotel choice and your newly reflected time stamp would be dependent on how many of the hotels were missing. If you only had one missing hotel, add two seconds to the final timestamp, if you were missing the entire thing, 12-15 seconds. That doesn't even get into filling out the bottom half of the room info including occupants, arrival and departure, etc., so I think 12-15 seconds would be a fair attachment for all of that.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 25, 2015, 05:55:27 PM
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I think they should've probably tacked on at least a 2-2.5 second factor per hotel choice and your newly reflected time stamp would be dependent on how many of the hotels were missing. If you only had one missing hotel, add two seconds to the final timestamp, if you were missing the entire thing, 12-15 seconds. That doesn't even get into filling out the bottom half of the room info including occupants, arrival and departure, etc., so I think 12-15 seconds would be a fair attachment for all of that.

That would have been reasonable to me.  I'm confident that next year there will be 1) a load balance test 2) a browser check and 3) additional procedures that will address all these nightmare scenarios. :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: 28savagedays on March 25, 2015, 06:02:08 PM
Bummer...one of my friends got this email from TP. And the "resubmit your hotels" form was resubmitted
before the deadline even though it wasn't a bad form.:

Thank you for submitting your Comic-Con 2015 hotel request through Travel Planners.
We have not received a reply from you to our email regarding your preferred hotel choices.
In order to accommodate your request, you will be placed in the hotel closest to the Convention Center, based on the time your form was received.

Sincerely,
Travel Planners

But…atleast a close hotel will be fulfilled IF TP can accommodate the request. I won't be able to concentrate on anything else for the next 24 hours. SDCC…I can't quit you-uuuuu!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: yvaine on March 25, 2015, 06:31:43 PM
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Bummer...one of my friends got this email from TP. And it "resubmit your hotels" form was resubmitted
before the deadline even though it wasn't a bad form.:

Thank you for submitting your Comic-Con 2015 hotel request through Travel Planners.
We have not received a reply from you to our email regarding your preferred hotel choices.
In order to accommodate your request, you will be placed in the hotel closest to the Convention Center, based on the time your form was received.

Sincerely,
Travel Planners

But…latest a close hotel will be fulfilled IF TP can accommodate the request. I won't be able to concentrate on anything else for the next 24 hours. SDCC…I can't quit you-uuuuu!

We got this email too.  After THEY CALLED US to verify hotel choices.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 25, 2015, 07:31:22 PM
I did get my email at 6:39p tonight EST, so, here's to waiting another 24 hours to hopefully find out where I'm really hanging my hat that week...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sumomoblack on March 25, 2015, 07:57:02 PM
I'm extremely worried because i put the hilton mission valley instead of gaslamp quarter on my 4th option, and got it submited by 9:01:47, so OF COURSE that is gonna be available, but i selected to only put me on downtown hotels: OBVIOUSLY I don't want mission valley, i replied to the confirmation email explaining this, but i dont know if i should also try calling them (being outside of the us, it would be quite expensive) mostly i'm worried that if my first 3 options are not available, theyll stick me in mission valley instead of any downtown...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 25, 2015, 08:21:02 PM
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I'm extremely worried because i put the hilton mission valley instead of gaslamp quarter on my 4th option, and got it submited by 9:01:47, so OF COURSE that is gonna be available, but i selected to only put me on downtown hotels: OBVIOUSLY I don't want mission valley, i replied to the confirmation email explaining this, but i dont know if i should also try calling them (being outside of the us, it would be quite expensive) mostly i'm worried that if my first 3 options are not available, theyll stick me in mission valley instead of any downtown...

I'm kind of in the same situation. But i know i put the Marriott marquis and marina as my first choice i actually have a screen shot of the page before i submitted it. But they have me down for the Sheraton Marquis and Marina which is by the airport. Of course the Sheraton will be available and with it being my first choice i have no chance at a downtown hotel. I replied to the confirmation email but i have little hope that they will do anything and by the time i can call them in the morning it will probably be to late if they would even do anything anyway.
With all the people who say they put in different options on there forms for the waitlist options and other  things then what they got in the confirmation something is really messed up. I'm just really annoyed at this whole process. I honestly think this will be my last going for a while. SDCC has just gotten too big for any company to be able to handle. If it keeps going like this I would't be surprised if it eventually collapses under it's own weight.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sumomoblack on March 25, 2015, 08:37:26 PM
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I'm kind of in the same situation. But i know i put the Marriott marquis and marina as my first choice i actually have a screen shot of the page before i submitted it. But they have me down for the Sheraton Marquis and Marina which is by the airport. Of course the Sheraton will be available and with it being my first choice i have no chance at a downtown hotel. I replied to the confirmation email but i have little hope that they will do anything and by the time i can call them in the morning it will probably be to late if they would even do anything anyway.
With all the people who say they put in different options on there forms for the waitlist options and other  things then what they got in the confirmation something is really messed up. I'm just really annoyed at this whole process. I honestly think this will be my last going for a while. SDCC has just gotten too big for any company to be able to handle. If it keeps going like this I would't be surprised if it eventually collapses under it's own weight.

I know!!! It's my first time going, after a lifetime of wanting to, so Im still excited, but this hotel thing is really stressing me out; but you should definitely send them the screen shot of your choices, it MAY make a difference, plus, if they're letting thoe whose form didnt work correctly choose hotels at their leisure, its only fair that they hear the rest of us out to change one hotel...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: zuko3984 on March 25, 2015, 10:01:14 PM
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I know!!! It's my first time going, after a lifetime of wanting to, so Im still excited, but this hotel thing is really stressing me out; but you should definitely send them the screen shot of your choices, it MAY make a difference, plus, if they're letting thoe whose form didnt work correctly choose hotels at their leisure, its only fair that they hear the rest of us out to change one hotel...

I emailed them all the info with the screen shot. I'm just not sure they will actually see it in time. I could;t call tonight because by the time i got the confirmation they had already closed and i will be at work tomorrow all day and unable to make a call until late in the day which will be way past when they will have already done the hotels request. Maybe they will see my email and make the change but i am not hopeful.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Ghost6 on March 25, 2015, 10:47:10 PM
I was another person who had a form not load correctly....I picked all 6 hotels but I didn't realize they weren't populating anywhere...I submitted after my picks and several hours later got the email allowing me to resubmit my picks which I immediately returned and got a confirmation.

But I have to say, that in my case...although it's nice that TP is attempting to help those of us who got bad forms, I still spent precious time trying to figure out WHY my form wasn't populating instead of submitting.  So, it might not be of ANY help to me that they asked for my six again since I spent so much time trying to figure what was going on.

This siituation has many sides to it, and it's just not going to be great for everyone involved.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 26, 2015, 03:25:35 AM
I recieved three correction - FOUR emails that said request received. - three different request numbers - all three had correct hotels in order.

First one had my details, and under rooms requested, it had 6 blanks (Any downtown hotel option listed)

Second one - same as first

third one - Correct details, rooms requested and type correct. NO extra hotel options

fourth one - - details correct, rooms requested and type correct - NO extra hotel options
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 26, 2015, 06:45:24 AM
Wow, did you actually submit that many times, Xax? :o
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DianaOfThemyscira on March 26, 2015, 06:49:07 AM
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Wow, did you actually submit that many times, Xax? :o

I had two automatic submissions, one that worked, and I spoke to TP over the phone once.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 26, 2015, 08:03:46 AM
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Yeah, I was somewhere between 1:00-1:05, and I got two as well. Still haven't seen anyone over 90 seconds get two e-mails...

My SO was just over 90 seconds and he didn't get 2 emails. Whoever put forth the theory that they started and stopped and then started again sending emails seems to be dead on. I'd say if you got 2 emails, you're probably going to do alright. (That's speculation, of course).
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: conventiongeek on March 26, 2015, 08:11:14 AM
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My SO was just over 90 seconds and he didn't get 2 emails. Whoever put forth the theory that they started and stopped and then started again sending emails seems to be dead on. I'd say if you got 2 emails, you're probably going to do alright. (That's speculation, of course).

I got 2 emails!!! I guess hope is all we really need. I don't have an exact time on the submission, but it was likely right around that 90 sec spot.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: imcla on March 26, 2015, 08:25:53 AM
I got two e-mails, and my full submission (the one with number of room, occupants names, etc) was screencapped at 9:02:30, so I guess it took me about 2:15 to submit, so that kind of breaks that theory? But then again, my two e-mails have two different reservation number (under the same e-mail address, with the same 6 hotels which I only picked once) so I don't know...
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: jristen on March 26, 2015, 08:40:38 AM
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I got two e-mails, and my full submission (the one with number of room, occupants names, etc) was screencapped at 9:02:30, so I guess it took me about 2:15 to submit, so that kind of breaks that theory? But then again, my two e-mails have two different reservation number (under the same e-mail address, with the same 6 hotels which I only picked once) so I don't know...

I do think there's a difference between people who got two identical emails (same #, same hotels, same room info, etc) and people who got two different emails. Two different emails seem to be some sort of weird system glitch to me and doesn't have a relation to time stamp. I'm not 100% convinced that that two identical emails do indicate time stamp, but anecdotally it seems like most people who got them submitted a form in under 1:30.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: conventiongeek on March 26, 2015, 08:45:16 AM
So much speculation.... that's what we all do... funny.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 26, 2015, 09:09:48 AM
It passes the time.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 26, 2015, 09:38:07 AM
And still it's not passing fast enough!!!!

 
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It passes the time.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: semigeekgirl on March 26, 2015, 09:40:04 AM
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And still it's not passing fast enough!!!!

I wish I could 'like' this a million times.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MickeyJack on March 26, 2015, 09:48:51 AM
We are damaged people. God help me; I love it so.


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: foxbatkllr on March 26, 2015, 09:54:19 AM
I was having nightmares last night and checked my email in the middle of the night "just in case" even though I know it won't be until much later today.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 26, 2015, 10:08:33 AM
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And still it's not passing fast enough!!!!

No, it is not.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 26, 2015, 10:11:05 AM
And we may be checking email obsessively all weekend waiting for that 'result/allocation' message from TP....
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: MickeyJack on March 26, 2015, 10:36:36 AM

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And we may be checking email obsessively all weekend waiting for that 'result/allocation' message from TP....

Say it's not so!!!


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DaveG on March 26, 2015, 10:39:57 AM
Not so.  Several people (myself included) are getting confirmation from TP that reservations will be going out today.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: sylent_asassin on March 26, 2015, 10:47:56 AM
Hmm... It wouldn't be the first time that we've gotten misinformation from TP.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Pyramid on March 26, 2015, 10:48:09 AM
Though I would like to stay downtown this year, I am so glad I found a work around and have a backup.  Honestly though, I would prefer just to pay a higher price and not deal with this uncertainty.
Title: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: gaeilstar on March 26, 2015, 10:48:32 AM
Edited to remove, sorry!


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 26, 2015, 11:34:05 AM
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Not so.  Several people (myself included) are getting confirmation from TP that reservations will be going out today.

I hope that's the case!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: beadrbop on March 26, 2015, 11:42:52 AM
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Not so.  Several people (myself included) are getting confirmation from TP that reservations will be going out today.

Yes I've seen a few also on twitter saying the very same thing. TP is telling folks that the reservations will be today! (impatiently waiting here…) Someone on twitter asked if anyone picked Andaz as their first choice to please chime in when they get their email.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Arpanet on March 26, 2015, 11:45:48 AM
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Yes I've seen a few also on twitter saying the very same thing. TP is telling folks that the reservations will be today! (impatiently waiting here…) Someone on twitter asked if anyone picked Andaz as their first choice to please chime in when they get their email.

I hope we get the email within a couple minutes lol
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: kiddo235 on March 26, 2015, 11:47:58 AM
I'm taking it whomever gets a confirmation will tell us that we can expect them soon.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Lynnpd on March 26, 2015, 12:49:19 PM
I got an email yesterday from [email protected] with the subject saying:

Hotel Reservations Request Email

This is NOT your hotel Reservation Confirmation.



I got it at 4:31pm confirming my registration for hotels and it listed the hotels I picked and said:

If your request can be accommodated, a second email will arrive confirming your actual Hotel Reservation. This Hotel Reservation Confirmation email will be sent no later than March 26, 2015. It will contain instructions on how to provide your deposit, as well as other important deadline information.

Then, I got a TEXT message last night about midnight saying:

NOTIFICATION: COMIC CON hotel reservation confirmation due @ Thu 26 2015).

What do you think this means?  How am I to confirm if I don't yet know if I got a hotel or not?  OR, are they telling me that I will get the confirmation today?  And, if I don't get the confirmation today, do I assume I don't have a hotel room?

Like many others, I'm real confused. 

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 26, 2015, 01:00:21 PM
Sounds like a scam, I have never heard of them texting people.

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I got an email yesterday from [email protected] with the subject saying:

Hotel Reservations Request Email

This is NOT your hotel Reservation Confirmation.



I got it at 4:31pm confirming my registration for hotels and it listed the hotels I picked and said:

If your request can be accommodated, a second email will arrive confirming your actual Hotel Reservation. This Hotel Reservation Confirmation email will be sent no later than March 26, 2015. It will contain instructions on how to provide your deposit, as well as other important deadline information.

Then, I got a TEXT message last night about midnight saying:

NOTIFICATION: COMIC CON hotel reservation confirmation due @ Thu 26 2015).

What do you think this means?  How am I to confirm if I don't yet know if I got a hotel or not?  OR, are they telling me that I will get the confirmation today?  And, if I don't get the confirmation today, do I assume I don't have a hotel room?

Like many others, I'm real confused.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: kiddo235 on March 26, 2015, 01:54:36 PM
Yes, if they text anyone that's the first I've heard of it.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Sandrene on March 26, 2015, 04:18:11 PM
Sounds like rejection emails are going out. My friend just got one :(
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Emerald_Mom on March 26, 2015, 04:23:31 PM
Someone just posted their rejection email.....
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mightymoose on March 26, 2015, 04:47:56 PM
I got my email and my first pick!!!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 26, 2015, 04:51:42 PM
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I got my email and my first pick!!!

what was your first pick?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 26, 2015, 04:55:38 PM
<<<<AshleeKellehear ‏@AshleeKellehear 2m2 minutes ago

So, I didn't even get tix to SDCC but have a hotel and people who got tix to SDCC don't have a hotel? Wanna swap?>>>>


Saw this on Twitter. Why are people without Comic Con tickets getting hotels through this system?

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mightymoose on March 26, 2015, 05:02:38 PM
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what was your first pick?

It was the MMM. 

I was nervous cause i made a few goofs on the form with my email address by putting a comma instead of a period.  I stayed here last year and it was amazing!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: leecharra on March 26, 2015, 05:56:29 PM
I got MMM too =D First pick. Email received 7:20 PM Eastern time
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Blubutterfly505 on March 26, 2015, 05:58:22 PM
My friend just got an email he opened it to see which hotel he got but sadly it was a rejection


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BadWolf on March 26, 2015, 06:53:53 PM
Yikes, rejections are still going out?
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: juliafrood on March 26, 2015, 06:58:58 PM
(https://www.friendsofcc.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmakeameme.org%2Fmedia%2Fcreated%2FIM-FREAKING-OUT.jpg&hash=39f8834eb7052ea81409a49ea40e5a6e80b25613)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Surfworld on March 26, 2015, 07:03:41 PM
Got a rejection e-mail just like everyone else in my group. if you know anyone who's part of a group and doesn't need their confirmed hotel please let me know.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: LesJ on March 26, 2015, 07:35:00 PM
Just got email with confirmation for my accidental first choice, the Embassy Suites (Bayview King). It was meant to be 2nd choice with Embassy CityView as the 1st ($40 cheaper a night), but we're obviously pleased.

We've stayed at Embassy Suites in Temecula the last two years and the drive back after our Hall H day (including camp out the night before, obv) was pretty horrible. Normally an hr drive wouldn't bother me, but staying awake was such a difficult struggle. Glad for a spot right down by the craziness.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: BrierRose on March 27, 2015, 10:40:24 AM
If somebody wants to point me in the right direction, we have two reservations we're willing to give up.

One of them is the
Manchester Grand Hyatt
7/8/2015 - 7/12/2015
4 people, 2 beds
$332.00 per night plus tax

The other is the
Holiday Inn San Diego Bayside
1 person, 1 bed ( don't know how that happened!)
7/8/2015 - 7/12/2015
$188.00 per night plus tax
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: chaosdreamer on March 27, 2015, 11:12:08 AM
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If somebody wants to point me in the right direction, we have two reservations we're willing to give up.

One of them is the
Manchester Grand Hyatt
7/8/2015 - 7/12/2015
4 people, 2 beds
$332.00 per night plus tax

The other is the
Holiday Inn San Diego Bayside
1 person, 1 bed ( don't know how that happened!)
7/8/2015 - 7/12/2015
$188.00 per night plus tax

I can't get into the google doc but I just sent you a PM re the Hyatt room.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Six2midnight on March 27, 2015, 11:40:41 AM
Woke up to good news today! :) While I didn't get my top 6, I was booked into a room downtown.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: flipology on March 27, 2015, 12:24:34 PM
is there another email we get once the payment is processed? ive used the link on the email and logged in. then i added my credit card information to the guarantee thing (which is confusing itself because at first i had no idea where to add my card). i did get an email right after i hit save and now the guarantee type says my credit card but i dont think ive been charged yet.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mlgagne on March 27, 2015, 02:26:01 PM
I just wanted to thank Jopari for putting this thread together. Even though there was a lot of pressure and many unexpected circumstances occurred, I still felt at ease filling out the form because of the information and preparation skills listed here. In fact, my entire group of four was able to score FOUR downtown hotel rooms and give away three on the exchange. So thank you to Jopari and everyone else who offered their advice!  :)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 27, 2015, 02:33:29 PM
Your welcome! were all in this together. And if we continue to work together as a community, we can overcome most any obstacle.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: darkron9 on March 27, 2015, 02:36:21 PM
Two thumbs ups up for Jopari!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: TxSpeedracer on March 27, 2015, 03:53:14 PM
Yes thanks to Jopari and everyone involved in this site. I received my 1st choice Marriott Gaslamp, but more important now I don't have to concern with getting parking just another headache ahead.  :D
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 27, 2015, 05:09:36 PM
<clearing throat> well, um...

if any body happens to win the parking lottery...all of the moderators, admins and a bunch of the helpful forum members are looking for parking & would be grateful
 ;) ;)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: TxSpeedracer on March 27, 2015, 05:27:38 PM
Yes the family submitted emails some weeks ago for parking, and now with no need for parking we will gladly give up any winning selections.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: bothanspy on March 27, 2015, 06:39:33 PM
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<clearing throat> well, um...

if any body happens to win the parking lottery...all of the moderators, admins and a bunch of the helpful forum members are looking for parking & would be grateful
 ;) ;)

Haven't read the instructions or anything for parking so just asking what might be a loaded question.  Can I participate in the lottery without having to pay for anything?  I have no intent to park during the con but am more than willing to try and give away my reservation(s) to the mods here as long as I don't have to pay for anything.  You guys are amazing
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on March 27, 2015, 06:49:41 PM
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Haven't read the instructions or anything for parking so just asking what might be a loaded question.  Can I participate in the lottery without having to pay for anything?  I have no intent to park during the con but am more than willing to try and give away my reservation(s) to the mods here as long as I don't have to pay for anything.  You guys are amazing

Yes, you can participate in the parking lottery without having to pay anything.  (Payment information is still up in the air, as Ace hasn't quite announced how that would work.)

There are some discussions and theories going on in the Ace parking thread for Comic-Con 2015 though, so you might want to catch up on the news (or lack of news, ha ha) so far:

http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?topic=4050.0

Helping with the parking lottery is greatly appreciated as well.  ^__~
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Lynnpd on March 29, 2015, 07:15:27 PM
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Yes, if they text anyone that's the first I've heard of it.

I think it was a friend of mine who was playing a joke on me; not very funny, if you ask me.

Anyway, I GOT one of my six hotels and went online and registered. YEA, downtown gaslamp district and nice hotel. We're thrilled!  Thanks to all.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 30, 2015, 04:24:04 AM
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Helping with the parking lottery is greatly appreciated as well.  ^__~

can i re-say that?  more like

Helping with the parking lottery is greatly appreciated as well.  ^__~

please & thank you
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: madfly on March 30, 2015, 08:06:20 AM
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<clearing throat> well, um...

if any body happens to win the parking lottery...all of the moderators, admins and a bunch of the helpful forum members are looking for parking & would be grateful
 ;) ;)

I entered the lottery but will not need parking since I was lucky enough to get a downtown hotel. I will gladly pass it on to you!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 30, 2015, 11:46:12 AM
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I entered the lottery but will not need parking since I was lucky enough to get a downtown hotel. I will gladly pass it on to you!

Same here. I have a hotel downtown and entered the parking though I won't need it. If I am selected I will gladly pass it to those who do
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: flipology on March 30, 2015, 03:34:39 PM
anyone still not get charged for their room? i thought for sure id at least see a pending  charge but nothing.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: madfly on March 30, 2015, 06:41:51 PM
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anyone still not get charged for their room? i thought for sure id at least see a pending  charge but nothing.
My charge is still pending...since Friday. (Amex)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 30, 2015, 08:11:22 PM
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My charge is still pending...since Friday. (Amex)

Same. Mine is still pending since early Friday morning (Visa)
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: jenluciabb on March 30, 2015, 08:56:41 PM
Mine too still no charge since Friday afternoon (visa)

Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DaveG on March 31, 2015, 04:07:51 AM
I think the only thing keeping me from panicking at this point is seeing so many others in the same position.  Yeah, still no charge to my cc(Visa) from about 1am Friday morning.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mystical althea on March 31, 2015, 05:56:57 AM
Everyone, please check your reservations if you're still having problems.  I've had several problems with incorrect info on my reservation and I'm still waiting to be charged.  Later I'm going to check with my bank to see if it didn't go thru because of all the MIS-information submitted.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Az_Rael on March 31, 2015, 06:03:28 AM
I just got a cancellation notice on the downtown room I had transferred to another forum member.  I hope that wasn't some f' up by Travel Planners with regards to deposits not being processed in a timely manner. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 31, 2015, 06:04:50 AM
That's scary. They Should call TP NOW!!


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Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 31, 2015, 06:05:15 AM
agreed, that is troubling

by all reports deposits aren't due until tonight tho
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on March 31, 2015, 06:08:26 AM
(877) 552-6642

is the best number to use
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Az_Rael on March 31, 2015, 06:10:33 AM
I PM'd them and forwarded the reservation cancellation notice to their email as well.    Hopefully they can get it sorted out.   
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Fazermint on March 31, 2015, 06:16:42 AM
Just called TP, and they said they currently couldn't help with the deposit issue. They asked me to call back later today.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Az_Rael on March 31, 2015, 06:37:44 AM
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I just got a cancellation notice on the downtown room I had transferred to another forum member.  I hope that wasn't some f' up by Travel Planners with regards to deposits not being processed in a timely manner.

I just heard back from them - they cancelled it because they found a room at the Marriott instead.    I wish they had put it back up for trade with someone else or let me know so that I could have put it back up for trade, but oh well.  (Maybe they had already paid the deposit?) 

Anyway, a Residence Inn Gaslamp hotel will be going to someone on the waitlist now. 
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 31, 2015, 06:50:22 AM
You can try uncancling it
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: teriqueen on March 31, 2015, 06:58:40 AM
Anyone have their deposit go through last night? Mine was pending on Friday morning, then disappeared on Saturday. I called TP yesterday and they said their record showed that the charge had gone through and everything was fine. I am very, very confused.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DaveG on March 31, 2015, 07:30:00 AM
I checked my cc transactions online and did not see the deposit posted yet.  However, it was listed under "outstanding transactions" with an "approval" status.  I called my cc provider and they told me that means that the charge came through and they approved it, but the merchant hasn't taken the money yet.  So really, the hold up is all TP at this point.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Mel on March 31, 2015, 08:55:15 AM
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I just heard back from them - they cancelled it because they found a room at the Marriott instead.    I wish they had put it back up for trade with someone else or let me know so that I could have put it back up for trade, but oh well.  (Maybe they had already paid the deposit?) 

Anyway, a Residence Inn Gaslamp hotel will be going to someone on the waitlist now.
That is messed up. I personally believe anyone caught "hoarding" rooms on the exchange just taking whatever until they get their "perfect" room and then canceling something they took and not passing it on, needs to be banned from further exchanges. That's ridiculous to do that.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Az_Rael on March 31, 2015, 09:06:32 AM
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You can try uncancling it

Well, I would probably have to put a deposit on it to un-cancel it, and I don't want to deal with that added risk.   So I let it go.   

I was always a bit nervous about putting hotels up due to the amount of personal info you have to share, but I thought I would pay it forward in case I ever needed a downtown hotel in the future (I put up an extra MMM reservation  last year, which went fine).    This person was in my badge buying group, and they apologized for cancelling the hotel; but overall I was just left with a bad taste in my mouth.   I doubt I will participate in the hotel trade next year.     

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: retired on March 31, 2015, 09:30:27 AM
Maybe that can be a law for next year. If you take a room. you MUST use it! if you don't and we find out, you are banned from all future group endeavor's (badges, hotels, parking, etc).

We'd have to be lenient to current offenders because it wasn't a rule for 2015, though you can argue that the requirement of actually using a room you were given would be implied.

/canOworms
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Az_Rael on March 31, 2015, 10:08:30 AM
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That is messed up. I personally believe anyone caught "hoarding" rooms on the exchange just taking whatever until they get their "perfect" room and then canceling something they took and not passing it on, needs to be banned from further exchanges. That's ridiculous to do that.

Yeah, I wouldn't have been as upset if they had just told me as soon as they found the other hotel and I could have re-listed it up on the board.  I understand people are going to horse trade to try and get the best location possible.   

Maybe Jopari is right and we need to set some new rules/guidelines next year.     <Sees can of worms; opens!>
Title: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: DRWHO42 on March 31, 2015, 10:18:20 AM
I have to agree there has to be some ground rules in place and communicated. Cancelling a downtown room without attempting to pass it on to a forum member in need should be frowned upon at the very least. Offenders should be put on notice that we are here to help each other out - this action was selfish.

Bottom line - if you traded for a room and you get something else better do everyone else a favor and help someone else in return.

There is a motto I heard a few years ago: "Lifting as you climb". That is why I love this forum.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on March 31, 2015, 10:36:06 AM
This is certainly something to take under consideration. We are learning something about exchanging hotels every year, and I agree that this is an area where a change should be made.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Michaelnaut on March 31, 2015, 10:42:24 AM
Looks like mine went through onto my credit card (AmEx).
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: StarBell84 on March 31, 2015, 11:38:39 AM
Mine still has not gone through (pending, visa) I'm going to call them and see what they say

Edit - no luck calling TP so i  just re-entered my cc information and i at least have the deposit amount at the bottom of the deposit receipt so hopefully they will take they money out of my account soon.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: dancetomusic on March 31, 2015, 11:51:11 AM
Charge pending, finally!
And switching the dates and contact info was an easy fix, so I think I'm good to go for now! ;D
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on March 31, 2015, 12:09:08 PM
I have situation where the person said they would transfer the room first thing Monday morning and never transferred it.  I have tried several attempts to reach them through the forum and email.  At this point I am under the assumption they found a hotel.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Az_Rael on March 31, 2015, 12:16:37 PM
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This is certainly something to take under consideration. We are learning something about exchanging hotels every year, and I agree that this is an area where a change should be made.

I started a separate topic where we could collect suggestions for next year.   Hoping it will be easier to find that way.

http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?topic=4536.0
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mystical althea on April 01, 2015, 08:06:28 AM
Got this from TP earlier.

"Your room is still secured. Our company charges the rooms manually. So they will go back soon and start charging anyone who hasn’t been charged. If there is anything wrong with the credit card, you will be contacted.ot this from TP."

Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on April 01, 2015, 09:30:57 AM
Glad to see that, Mystical Althea! Hopefully Travel Planners are still working to track everything down. I saw in the other thread that there are still people who haven't received their lottery results (either a room or a denial). I would guess that those cases are their main focus right now. But it's good to know that they are collecting payments and confirming the deposits!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NCDS on April 01, 2015, 09:49:49 AM
Really, manually?  I did data entry in my early days, it's no fun! 

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Got this from TP earlier.

"Your room is still secured. Our company charges the rooms manually. So they will go back soon and start charging anyone who hasn’t been charged. If there is anything wrong with the credit card, you will be contacted.ot this from TP."
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: mystical althea on April 01, 2015, 01:46:27 PM
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Really, manually?  I did data entry in my early days, it's no fun!

That's what I thought, since people were posting about immediate transactions over the weekend.

BTW--I got a callback!!! They are supposed to put thru deposits tonight or tomorrow night.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Transmute Jun on April 01, 2015, 01:48:43 PM
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That's what I thought, since people were posting about immediate transactions over the weekend.

BTW--I got a callback!!! They are supposed to put thru deposits tonight or tomorrow night.

Wow, TP really seems to be working hard for you! I hope everyone else is able to get in contact and have their issues resolved as well.
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: NeedaRoomPlease on April 02, 2015, 11:40:50 AM
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Wow, TP really seems to be working hard for you! I hope everyone else is able to get in contact and have their issues resolved as well.

Working hard for them? LMAO...

Oh yea, I forgot, yesterday was April Fools Day...

Good one TJ ;).
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Roomedi.com on June 15, 2015, 05:52:22 PM
Roomedi.com makes hotel room sharing easy and secure.

Want finding a roommate to be easier and more secure? Check out www.roomedi.com. We make is easy for convention-goers to share hotel rooms. Post your hotel room information or a room request. It's dynamic. It's secure. It's FREE to search, post, and connect.

www.roomedi.com

Happy travels!
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: alyssa on June 15, 2015, 07:08:16 PM
& no rooms for offer for sdcc...... me thinks the old fashion way has worked much better then a corporate for profit web site.

please do not spam the forum & cross post


Absolutely no spamming.

Please don't double or triple post.
This is where two or more posts are made in a row by the same person.  Please use the "Modify" button to add comments to your previous post.
http://friendsofcci.com/forum/index.php?topic=178.0
Title: Re: CCI 2015 Guide to getting a Downtown Hotel Room (Travel Planners Hotel Lottery)
Post by: Zero on July 12, 2015, 11:18:44 PM
Forum Housekeeping:
Thread closed because Comic-Con 2015 is officially over. 

^__^d