Yep. I just saw the cancellation in my e-mail. I'm not surprised really. Oh well....back to the lottery.....I always end up making it work out regardless even if I have to sit and watch the housing website every day for a couple of months.
Regardless, the Conrad still has rooms up [i think] so alternative options exist.
When I checked the Conrad just now (after seeing your post burrfoot) I checked for 1 adult, general search for Aug 17-20, 2017 and came up with nothing. Just fyi to everyone
I had just called the Embassy suites, and although they were very nice, I was told that they "COULD" cancel all the reservations by the Hilton Legal Crew when the found it was due to a computer error, and when I mentioned that we were told they would honor the reservation, he stated "I don't know what to tell you, that's why there is the fine print at the bottom about cancellations due to computer error." Ultimately got nowhere with that one. Worth a shot though.
Edit: ... although now that I think about it, my confirmation form is from Hotels.com, not the Conrad itself. I wonder if that signifies anything?...
I had one room booked through Embassy directly and one booked through booking.com. I got the cancellation email from Embassy today, but it still appears that my reservation with booking.com is still active.
Yeah, got my cancellation as well. I saw the fine print in their cancellation policy right away and wondered if they would invoke it. Most times they won't, but I guess they got backed into a corner on this one. Bad public relations in general, but I still bet they will be one of the first to sell out in the lottery.
I have booked an apartment already. $1200 for a week on Mass Ave. (because this is also a belated honeymoon). From what I've seen most AirBnBs are around $100-150 a night. That's for entire apartments though, I didn't search for single rooms or shared situations since we're staying in town for so long I wanted a more private vacation feel. There were some studio apartments in that area for $80-100 a night. I'm also super Type A and I don't like the idea of waiting for a lottery and then scrambling when I don't get it. That makes me all kinds of nervous. Hmm, I hope they don't cancel on us! We'll be sleeping in the car!
I booked through hotels.com, but I haven't received any cancellation email (yet). I did call ES to confirm my reservation after I made it and have both conf. #s from hotels.com and ES. I don't need to shake a magic 8 ball to know the outlook is not so good....
*tightly holds Booking.com reservations and nervously glances around*
Well got my cancellation email from Embassy as well. Thought that the deal was too good to be true...
Super crappy that they can get away with doing this, but really nothing I can do but call and complain, and it seems like that hasn't gotten anyone anywhere.
I guess I just will go back to hoping the housing lottery works out and be prepared to pay significantly more than what I just thought I was getting.
Still seems crazy to me that it took them 9 days to decide to go this route though. If it was really a computer error....I dunno. I would expect they could have responded to it much faster than this. Alas. Good luck to those who still have reservations through Booking.com and good luck to everyone else for finding other rooms. I'll be searching with you.
Interesting.
My booking using Hilton Honors points at the Conrad was NOT cancelled. I wonder if the cancellations were just from the Embassy only?
SLEEP INN & SUITES AND CONFERENCE CENTER DOWNTOWN
It's about 2mi away from convention center, but they do have shuttles. They are accepting reservations. I have mine Wed-Sun booked as a good option if I cant get one that is a couple blocks away from the conv center. Its not on any of the searches, go directly to their site.
I stayed at the Sleep Inn a few years ago and it's actually a great alternative to the downtown hotels. There's a free shuttle that runs downtown and because it's a straight shot and the closest "non-downtown" hotel, it takes basically the same amount of time as it would to walk from the non-connected downtown hotels. They'll give you a card with a number to call when you're ready to be picked up from the con and then he'll pick you up right at the convention center. It only runs like 7am to 10pm or something but there's always Uber/Lyft as a backup and it's super cheap since it's just a straight shot up Indiana Ave. Combined with the free parking makes it quite affordable.
I too booked a reservation there as a backup.
For those that REALLY want to stay at the JW, rooms are available to book at $659 a night, non refundable.... member discount bring it down to $646..... it was like 2976.48 when everything is said and done. *shake head* that is insane....
The whole hotel thing is killing the fun of GenCon, but I don't see a solution to it. Demand is exceeding supply. Simple economics. Nascrag has lost judges who don't want to go through the hassle.