Author Topic: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd  (Read 293519 times)

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1035 on: April 27, 2017, 07:39:44 PM »
FWIW, I don't entirely trust OnPeak/Travel Planners. There have just been too many years where things clearly didn't happen as they said they would/did, and there is too much clouding/obfuscation of how they actually allocate rooms. I would be willing to bet that there are factors OTHER THAN the time you accessed the form that come into play when they allocate rooms... but what those factors are, and how they play into it, is unknown. There are too many stories (every year) of people whose room allocations do not match what OnPeak/Travel Planners has officially stated. There's something else involved in it and they are not telling us everything.

Sigh... that seems to be the way of things with a lot of these SDCC messes.

Offline lawboysam

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1036 on: April 27, 2017, 07:41:14 PM »
Oh, there's definitely some dart-throwing and wheel-spinning involved in most of onPeak's decisions.

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1037 on: Today at 05:45:33 AM »

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1037 on: April 27, 2017, 07:42:50 PM »
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Oh, there's definitely some dart-throwing and wheel-spinning involved in most of onPeak's decisions.

Is there? I suspect it's not 'dart-throwing' at all, but a stated policy/formula to determine who gets what rooms. The thing is, we don't know what variables are a part of that formula other than 'form access time'. And they don't want to tell us, because if we knew, we'd all cater our requests to that formula to maximize our chances, and then it would mean nothing.

Offline SoCalNerdGal

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1038 on: April 27, 2017, 07:44:01 PM »
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Oh, there's definitely some dart-throwing and wheel-spinning involved in most of onPeak's decisions.
I assumed it was more like a game of beer pong where each cup had a random answer to give the next caller. Ha. :)  I don't envy those staff; this sale must suck so much.

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Offline SoCalNerdGal

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1039 on: April 27, 2017, 07:46:30 PM »
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Is there? I suspect it's not 'dart-throwing' at all, but a stated policy/formula to determine who gets what rooms. The thing is, we don't know what variables are a part of that formula other than 'form access time'. And they don't want to tell us, because if we knew, we'd all cater our requests to that formula to maximize our chances, and then it would mean nothing.
This part is why I love the push to collect good data.  Sure, we have lost our chance to maximize success this year, but we can maybe learn something for the future if this year's data closely matched that of the last sale.  Thanks to the data collectors.

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Offline accelerate

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1040 on: April 27, 2017, 07:47:35 PM »
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I actually don't think that has anything to do with the QueueID. I think - and this is mostly just speculation - that the links when you hover over them are unique due basically to how whatever they're using to send mass e-mails codes links (I'm not technical enough to use the right verbiage). I know last year there was a lot of question about whether some other e-mail they sent out was "fraudulent"/phishing because when you hovered your mouse over it, the link was different similar to this one, and we had to get it confirmed that CCI had actually sent it.

The QueueID is basically generated in each browser - but you could absolutely open up that link in multiple browsers and have different QueueIDs.

Anyway, that's my take. I may be totally wrong!

Your explanation makes a ton of sense. The more I think about it, the more I think you're right. In any case, I was lucky in that I got in right around 9:01am, so I didn't need multiple browsers anyway. I just hope the it is true that it's based on entry time and not submission time... unless OnPeak's assurances that it's entry time only wasn't actually communicated to their tech guys, who have their own way of determining order (and at this point, I wouldn't put it past them).

Offline NeedaRoomPlease

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1041 on: April 27, 2017, 08:04:52 PM »
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WoW [member=1431]NeedaRoomPlease[/member]  why are you angry with folks on the forum? blasting [member=4270]mark[/member] for telling you what he's planing on doing.

I'm not angry with mark or anyone else here. Nor did I "blast" him. I disagreed with his statement. Others here as well mentioned OnPeak not being upfront. That was my only intention regarding my response. If it appears otherwise, I apologize as that was/is not my intention.

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WoW [member=1431]NeedaRoomPlease[/member] THEN make unfounded accusations against OnPeak saying they deliberate have clueless CS people so they can lie to you.

How do you know any of my comments are "unfounded"? For your information my comments are founded. I was on the phone with ONPeak before the sale three times and each time the CS rep was clueless. If I can isolate the audio (as I had my camcorder on recording my laptop ready for the sale which picked up the phone audio) I will back up my statements if that will satisfy things.

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WoW [member=1431]NeedaRoomPlease[/member] All of that is followed up with bringing up behavior from 3 years ago when the unofficial blog was under entirely different management?  I may not agree with every thing the current editor in chief, Kerry aka [member=550]lawboysam[/member] has to say but she get the information out to folks - we would not know half the stuff we do thanks to Kerry.

Blaming my mentioning what that blog was accused by an employee in the past is ridiculous and doesn't change anything. As for not knowing half the stuff we do, I disagree. There are dozens and dozens of other sites and blogs that do the same thing without the taint that site has. Now I am saying that site, not anyone by name, nor did I call anyone names or attack anyone personally in any of my comments.

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May i remind you of the rules of the forum?

Please consider this a warning

Duly noted.

Offline jontargaryen

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1042 on: April 27, 2017, 08:05:57 PM »
All we can do is speculate for this year until May 1st. Then we'll know if 9:04's got better rooms than 9:01's. Until then.... let's all have a gin & tonic and cheers to SDCC 2017. Which will no doubt be spectacular if we are in Mission Valley or the Gaslamp.

Offline NeedaRoomPlease

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1043 on: April 27, 2017, 08:17:27 PM »
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All we can do is speculate for this year until May 1st. Then we'll know if 9:04's got better rooms than 9:01's. Until then.... let's all have a gin & tonic and cheers to SDCC 2017. Which will no doubt be spectacular if we are in Mission Valley or the Gaslamp.

Couldn't agree with you more ;) . It is what it is (never liked that statement, lol).

Offline dkd

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1044 on: April 27, 2017, 08:36:53 PM »
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All we can do is speculate for this year until May 1st. Then we'll know if 9:04's got better rooms than 9:01's. Until then.... let's all have a gin & tonic and cheers to SDCC 2017. Which will no doubt be spectacular if we are in Mission Valley or the Gaslamp.

There are so many factors to consider.  Last year, I got in quickly and was emboldened to ask for two single-person/1 bed rooms.  My first choice was the Horton Grand, which wasn't one of the top five requested hotels.  I got those two rooms.  Would I have been as successful if I requested the Omni or the Hard Rock.  Who knows.  It isn't just about the time you submit, but the inventory of your top 6 hotels vs. what you are asking for at the time they get to your form.

Offline jontargaryen

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1045 on: April 27, 2017, 08:56:02 PM »
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There are so many factors to consider.  Last year, I got in quickly and was emboldened to ask for two single-person/1 bed rooms.  My first choice was the Horton Grand, which wasn't one of the top five requested hotels.  I got those two rooms.  Would I have been as successful if I requested the Omni or the Hard Rock.  Who knows.  It isn't just about the time you submit, but the inventory of your top 6 hotels vs. what you are asking for at the time they get to your form.

One thing I've learned in my 12 years of going to SDCC is that you can never compare this year to the previous year. We'll see on May 1st.

Offline mark

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1046 on: April 27, 2017, 09:05:00 PM »
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One thing I've learned in my 12 years of going to SDCC is that you can never compare this year to the previous year. We'll see on May 1st.

That's funny, i was just writing a longish post mostly about comparing to previous years :) I think you can compare this part a little bit, but I am really hoping some year we are at a place with the hotel lottery like we kind of are with the badge sales. May never be perfect but it would be nice for it to be stable enough to know what to expect each year.

There's a lot of parts to this. Right now we've just seen what was communicated and experienced the lottery process. So that's all we can really evaluate right now. Say there's a special restaurant I go to once every year. But then 2 years ago my chair only had 3 legs and they got my order wrong. Then last year they changed the menu but the descriptions didn't make sense and I wasn't sure what to order.

This year at least my chair worked, the menu looked good, and the waiter seemed to take my order down. But I don't know if he got it right, if I'll get any food or how it will taste if I do. (And how helpful will management be if I have a problem? I've heard bad things on yelp.)

Last year there was a lot of confusion about the new process, how randomization was going to work, and if the time it took to fill out the form would play a role. We were able to establish a few things, that the time to fill out and submit the form did not affect your results, and that your results tended to be better the earlier you got access to the form. This last part wasn't perfect, and there are lots of other things that could be going on, but there was a definite trend. That's something to look at again this year, also to try and see how all of the new options changed things.

So yeah, there could still be problems, and we should be critical of them if they are. But we should also point out things that have improved. (Admittedly, things like the the fact that the sale didn't crash don't make for a very high bar, but still.)


Offline semigeekgirl

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1047 on: April 27, 2017, 09:23:01 PM »
I just really wish this special restaurant was one of those modern ones where you can sit at a counter by the open kitchen and watch how your food gets made...

And while there does seem to be a (frustratingly incremental) year-over-year improvement, the fact remains that if they're committed to randomization, there is ABSOLUTELY no reason to have Hotelpocalypse. Either give everyone ample time to submit (like a week or so) and randomize after the fact, or randomize everyone, give them an appointment time, and let them book whatever they like best at that time.

Offline mark

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1048 on: April 27, 2017, 09:48:47 PM »
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I just really wish this special restaurant was one of those modern ones where you can sit at a counter by the open kitchen and watch how your food gets made...

And while there does seem to be a (frustratingly incremental) year-over-year improvement, the fact remains that if they're committed to randomization, there is ABSOLUTELY no reason to have Hotelpocalypse. Either give everyone ample time to submit (like a week or so) and randomize after the fact, or randomize everyone, give them an appointment time, and let them book whatever they like best at that time.

"Dinner at Chez TP was greatly improved, our chicken arrived cooked and the kitchen didn't catch fire."

Completely agree. I think I posted something a few pages back, but if they want to do random, then I'd really rather have an offline sale, provided you are able to enter a more complete description of your preferences.

For a live sale, the sale for Hamilton tickets they had here also used queue-it and made for an interesting comparison. There was a single queue, so the queue number that you saw was meaningful. They gave a time-left-in-queue estimate but that was pretty rough. What was really nice was you could enter an email address and you would get an email when you were a few minutes from being able to buy.

There were still problems, there was nothing to prevent multiple sessions and the reservation system was just the theater's and not built for a lot of quick searching. Not to mention the sale took the better part of a day.

Offline semigeekgirl

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Re: SDCC 2017 Hotel Discussion, July 20th to July 23rd
« Reply #1049 on: April 27, 2017, 10:03:24 PM »
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For a live sale, the sale for Hamilton tickets they had here also used queue-it and made for an interesting comparison. There was a single queue, so the queue number that you saw was meaningful. They gave a time-left-in-queue estimate but that was pretty rough. What was really nice was you could enter an email address and you would get an email when you were a few minutes from being able to buy.

There were still problems, there was nothing to prevent multiple sessions and the reservation system was just the theater's and not built for a lot of quick searching. Not to mention the sale took the better part of a day.

Yeah, I tried the SF Hamilton sale (with no luck) but I was impressed by the method and the fairness of it. As you said, it took pretty much all day (my one session got in at 4pm from a 10am start time, and by then no weekend tix less than ~$450 were left), but at least I felt well informed and like it wasn't entirely taken over by bots. Which was a stark contrast to the LA Hamilton presale, which was basically an Oklahoma land rush via Ticketmaster. It was awful and super frustrating. I did eventually get the tickets I wanted, but only because someone on Twitter tipped us off that for some reason Ticketmaster's mobile site was working about 100x faster than the website, which meant I bought $1000 worth of tickets on my phone, which was nerve-wracking.