housing WORST Ever
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Posted by bigfathairyguy cemmyberry
#126

cemmyberry wrote:
Been going to GenCon for many many years. We have never stayed downtown. Usually, by the time we get into housing "lottery" of some sort, everything is sold out and we have to book 30 minutes outside the city. There was only one year we have ever used the housing block to book and that hotel wasn't downtown.  This year is the first year I haven't been able to book a room outside the block that isn't 45 mins+ outside of Indy. I don't know what's gotta give but something has to. 

This has to be your budget/choice of hotels that you are 45 minutes away not availability. There are plenty of hotels still available within 30 minutes of downtown for around $100 a night such as the Country Inn in Greenfield ($103) and Baymont Inn NE($85), Baymont Inn Fishers ($105), and Suburban Extended Stay Northside ($85). 

 

Posted by garhkal knuteski
#127

knuteski wrote:
A bunch of interesting points.
Personally, Vegas is my favorite city, Vegas has a plethora of good "cheaper" connected rooms (CES draws 180,000 so you can't compare to that), Vegas has lots of food (buffets!!!), and it definitely has the meeting space.  But, I would never take my kids to Vegas.
As gharris said, it's pretty hard to miss the adults only atmosphere.  I'd let my kids out during the day but as soon as the soon goes down, my kids would be on locked.  From the cards to the drunken revelers, it's just not kid friendly.

Is reno the same?  In regards to its 'mostly adult only atmosphere'?
Does reno have a similar # of hotels in relation to where its con center is??

Posted by breye austicke
#128

austicke wrote:
breye wrote:I have heard, and I have no verification if this is true, that people who purchased ONE DAY badges for each day got 4 lottery times.

 That would only work if they purchased the four badges under four different accounts.
Actually that is my understanding of how the stunt works - buy 4 different one day badges on 4 different accounts, get 4 different hotel lottery access times.

Posted by braewe
#129

That would be as intended. Since the system has no way of knowing a fake account or duplicate from a real one.

Posted by breye
#130

It is possible we have different opinions on the meaning of working "as intended".

I'd call this "shenanigans that the system is ill equipped to defend against".

Posted by squirecam breye
#131

breye wrote:
austicke wrote:
breye wrote:I have heard, and I have no verification if this is true, that people who purchased ONE DAY badges for each day got 4 lottery times.

 That would only work if they purchased the four badges under four different accounts.
Actually that is my understanding of how the stunt works - buy 4 different one day badges on 4 different accounts, get 4 different hotel lottery access times.
but it should know its the same name and address and credit card user.

This seems improper to allow people to game the system in this manner.

Posted by austicke squirecam
#132

squirecam wrote:but it should know its the same name and address and credit card user.

Still hard to detect. Families often consist of multiple people with different given names who all use the same credit card.

Posted by squirecam austicke
#133

austicke wrote:
squirecam wrote:but it should know its the same name and address and credit card user.

Still hard to detect. Families often consist of multiple people with different given names who all use the same credit card.
If Fred Smith buys four 1 day badges, all using the same name on 4 different days, using the same address and credit card info....we can logically assume its the same person and not 4 relatives with the same name...who all decide to go once to Gencon on different days.

No, this is pretty easy to discern from the evidence.

 

Posted by squirecam squirecam
#134

double post deleted

Posted by remnant
#135

What if Fred is like George Foreman and names all his kids Fred?

Posted by austicke
#136

As I mentioned, what if Fred Smith used four different given names?

if Fred Smith were trying to cheat, why would he use the same name on all four fake accounts?

Posted by braewe breye
#137

breye wrote:
It is possible we have different opinions on the meaning of working "as intended".
I'd call this "shenanigans that the system is ill equipped to defend against".
Okay, agreed there.

But I am also pretty sure it'd be darn near impossible to actually detect. I can't be the only person with a few possible cc numbers to use. And No, I didn't do this. One badge for me, a four day, and a 7:59 time, and one badge for my daughter, a four day, with a 2:31 time.

Posted by braewe
#138

or, now that I take a moment to consider it, just buy a handful of the mastercard/visa gift cards. In fact, don't use your your REAL account at all until the good lottery number hits. Then simply transfer your ill-gained room(or rooms) over to you and your friends accounts, request refunds, use the gift cards less ten bucks on whatever, or even use them as a 'savings account' for gen con.

With different emails easily obtainable, and no possible way to verify ANYTHING with a gift card...yeah. All you have to do to use them online is 'register' a zip code. That's it. Doesn't even need to be the right one, just one the user can confirm.

Posted by lmengsol squirecam
#139

squirecam wrote:
twosheds wrote:
garhkal wrote:
That's something i don't understand though.  IF other cities HAVE the capacity to host us hotel wise, AND has good infrastructure (busses or trams etc) to get people to and FROM the con, why should "walkability" matter? 

Just off the top of my head:

  • Personal needs.  People with disabilities or other medical issues who may have difficulties when staying remotely because it is difficult for long trips and/or they may have medication that needs to be kept in a refrigerator.
  • Convenience.  Staying offsite and having to rely on taxis or public transportation means I need to pad out my plans with extra time for the to/from commute.
  • Safety.  A lot of attendees like to partake at the nearby watering holes for a drink (or more) during the con.  Obviously being able to walk (stumble) back to your hotel room is a lot easier than getting a taxi or driving back to your hotel under the influence (PLEASE DON'T DO THIS).
  • Being near the action.  Unlike a lot of conventions where things happen 9-5 and then everyone scatters for the night, Gen Con is non-stop from Thursday morning until Sunday afternoon.  There have been multiple times that I've thought "hey, it's 2AM, I want to do a Magic draft".  Being able to simply walk over to the ICC makes that much easier.
  • Easier Coordination.  If I'm sharing a room with 3 other people, it is a lot easier to come and go as I please if I can walk to the hotel instead of trying to coordinate car rides with people.

Yes, there are places like Chicago and Vegas that can physically handle more people, but the "walkability" factor would be destroyed in places like that and would ruin the con for a great many people.Edit: Spelling
This is just not true.Trip advisor shows 31 hotels within a mile of the LVCC. Not to mention many of them are larger hotels with thousands of rooms.
Many more are within 1.5 miles and many have monorail service door to door with the LVCC.
 
I don't know where more people don't see this as a fix. Mandalay Bay has 1.5 million feet of exhibit space where as the Indy Convention Center has 566,000. Mandalay Bay also has 3300 guest rooms nearly the connected amount that is in downtown Indy. When you add Luxor (which is next door) that's another 4400 hotel rooms. That exceed the capacity of Indy and they are all walkable. I am guessing you could get those rooms at or below the price point Indy is charging. More space, more walkable rooms, I don't see how this isn't a winner.

Posted by mhayward1978 austicke
#140

austicke wrote:
As I mentioned, what if Fred Smith used four different given names?
if Fred Smith were trying to cheat, why would he use the same name on all four fake accounts?

You know - I'm not even sure that's cheating.  I explicitly asked on the forums whether this was OK or a violation of terms before registration.   No one from Gen Con responded.

If it's OK I wish they would make it easy to just buy lottery entry slots for $10 rather than this roundabout way of registering for extra accounts and then refunding.

Another question that was never answered (at least that I saw) was:

What if you buy more badges after you get a lottery time but before you register in the portal?  Can your group of 8 all buy their own badge, find out who wins they lottery, then have that person buy 7 more badges and reserve 4 rooms when their time comes?

Posted by ethrdemon
#141

In theory, our group came up with most of these exploits.
In practice, the couples didn't even bother to register separately, so we got 7 hotel times for 12 of us.
 

Posted by stiehle
#142

Heh.  No wonder then that those who followed the rules of the lottery as intended never really had a shot at a decent time slot if this sort of cheating was commonplace (and yeah, I'd personally call it cheating).  I suppose there will always be those that exploit the system for the benefit of themselves with no concern or respect for others.  Sad, really...

Posted by armadilloal lmengsol
#143

lmengsol wrote:I don't know where more people don't see this as a fix. Mandalay Bay has 1.5 million feet of exhibit space where as the Indy Convention Center has 566,000. Mandalay Bay also has 3300 guest rooms nearly the connected amount that is in downtown Indy. When you add Luxor (which is next door) that's another 4400 hotel rooms. That exceed the capacity of Indy and they are all walkable. I am guessing you could get those rooms at or below the price point Indy is charging. More space, more walkable rooms, I don't see how this isn't a winner.

According to http://www.lvol.com/conventions/large.html, the largest convention coming up at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center is the JCK Annual Trade Show on June 5-8, at 39,000 attendees.

Prices for a Resort Queen room on those dates?

6/4 - $327
6/5 - $470
6/6 - $470
6/7 - $327

That's a Monday-Thursday convention, so those are midweek rates.

Let's try another one.  The Licensing International Expo is there on May 23-25 and will have 24k attendees.  Throw in RECon's 37k at the LVCC (which runs from 5/22-5/24), and we're right on the 61k number Gen Con was at last year.  Rates for the Mandalay Bay's basic Resort Queen?

5/21 - $308
5/22 - $524
5/23 - $524
5/24 - $294

Again, those dates are Sunday through Wednesday.  

I really don't see a 60+k convention like Gen Con getting better rates there than they do in Indy.

 

Posted by watchdog lmengsol
#144

lmengsol wrote:
squirecam wrote:
twosheds wrote:
garhkal wrote:
That's something i don't understand though.  IF other cities HAVE the capacity to host us hotel wise, AND has good infrastructure (busses or trams etc) to get people to and FROM the con, why should "walkability" matter? 

Just off the top of my head:

  • Personal needs.  People with disabilities or other medical issues who may have difficulties when staying remotely because it is difficult for long trips and/or they may have medication that needs to be kept in a refrigerator.
  • Convenience.  Staying offsite and having to rely on taxis or public transportation means I need to pad out my plans with extra time for the to/from commute.
  • Safety.  A lot of attendees like to partake at the nearby watering holes for a drink (or more) during the con.  Obviously being able to walk (stumble) back to your hotel room is a lot easier than getting a taxi or driving back to your hotel under the influence (PLEASE DON'T DO THIS).
  • Being near the action.  Unlike a lot of conventions where things happen 9-5 and then everyone scatters for the night, Gen Con is non-stop from Thursday morning until Sunday afternoon.  There have been multiple times that I've thought "hey, it's 2AM, I want to do a Magic draft".  Being able to simply walk over to the ICC makes that much easier.
  • Easier Coordination.  If I'm sharing a room with 3 other people, it is a lot easier to come and go as I please if I can walk to the hotel instead of trying to coordinate car rides with people.

Yes, there are places like Chicago and Vegas that can physically handle more people, but the "walkability" factor would be destroyed in places like that and would ruin the con for a great many people.Edit: Spelling

This is just not true.Trip advisor shows 31 hotels within a mile of the LVCC. Not to mention many of them are larger hotels with thousands of rooms.
Many more are within 1.5 miles and many have monorail service door to door with the LVCC.
I don't know where more people don't see this as a fix. Mandalay Bay has 1.5 million feet of exhibit space where as the Indy Convention Center has 566,000. Mandalay Bay also has 3300 guest rooms nearly the connected amount that is in downtown Indy. When you add Luxor (which is next door) that's another 4400 hotel rooms. That exceed the capacity of Indy and they are all walkable. I am guessing you could get those rooms at or below the price point Indy is charging. More space, more walkable rooms, I don't see how this isn't a winner.
Vegas has many other issues, lincludong but not limited to:

1. Strong Teamsters Union makes convention set-up much more expensive.

2. Non-central location means many more attendees have to fly, which cancels out any savings in hotel room costs.

3. Potentially opressive temperatures in a Vegas summer. (It's one thing to not have to go outside, it's another thing to have to stay inside).

4. The Strip is not family friendly despite some protestations to the contrary.

Posted by ccapps
#145

I hope Louisville falls into consideration for a potential move in the future as they realized their hotel problem when they lost a few big conventions years ago. The convention center is expanding and they're adding thousands of downtown hotel rooms in hopes of getting some of the business back.

Also, Louisville is right across a walking (and a few driving) bridge from Jeffersonville which is building new hotels as well.  The location is only moving 2 hours south and Louisville is famous for having more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the country.

A downside is their public transportation, which is improving, but still pretty dated.

The biggest benefit for me would be that it's about a 15-minute drive for me and the convention center is easily walkable from my office.

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