Hey, folks — When I typed in my room stay (arriving day before con; leaving day after con), and room type and hit ‘submit’, the next page said “no search criteria matched” and it didn’t give me any room options. Tried it in Safari and Firefox with cookies turned on. Didn’t work. The good news — I phoned the Fairmont and they happily made my reservation. My room rate was $130 excluding taxes. I’m assuming that’s the con’s basic negotiated room rate, so if not, let me know. As far as the online glitch, was it just a fluke or has anyone else has had any trouble making online reservations?

How very strange! I can reproduce the problem here as well and will inform the hotel liaison. It appears that none of us who made test reservations used the exact range of dates you did. Other ranges will work, and the individual days are all available, but that particular combination will not.

We’ll work on it. Thanks for telling us about it.

— Kevin Standlee

And I’ve just sent John an email thanking him for cracking our reservations system in such a useful way, much more then coming up with a temporary work-around.

Yup, it’s a glitch and the work-around of calling the Fairmont should only be needed until Monday or Tuesday; I can’t remember if my person handling this at the main Fairmont office is taking Monday off.

Elspeth

And I’m running late getting this done. I’ve been off at Boskone and then had to take care of some family matters. But that’s explanation, not excuse, especially since I had my baby laptop with me and should have been more on top of things.

Another point to beware of, if you’re bringing children, is that on the online booking form, it asks for the number of adults and the number of children in each room. The basic rate for two adults in one room is $130.00, and children should be free; but if you indicate online that you’re bringing a child (as we are), the rate that comes up is $155.00, which would seem to indicate that the online form doesn’t differentiate between extra adults and children in the room. Since we’re arriving on 28 October and the online form wouldn’t let me book that night, I phoned the reservations number and got the correct rate; but this is something to watch out for.

Whoops. That’s one I didn’t even think about so didn’t mention it needing to be done. It’s now in my notes.

A general update:

I was in San Jose last week with most of the time spent in meetings with our hotel people or prowling around. I now know what the room and suite names actually mean — the Powers that Be have changed them about three times since we were last there so it’s been hard to figure out without heading West to look at them. (No one on either side knows why the names keep changing, it’s just one of those things.) I’ll have those descriptions up shortly. I’m also now able to address suite requests.

The room nights glitch was supposed to be fixed; when I tested it just after I got back it hadn’t happened yet but I’ll test it again today.

E.

And the date glitch is now fixed.

Still trying to book a suite, here in late April. No clue to how to go about it.

Robert, go to the top of this page and click on the “Hotel Information” link in the first paragraph. When you get to the Hotel Information page, scroll down to the “Suites” paragraph and click on the “Suites Page” link.

I have just booked my hotel but am wondering what is the neartest airport to fly into, and how one gets from the airport to the hotel. Is there a shuttle and what is the distance from the hotel to the airport. Also I have to fly out on the 30th after the con. Can I leave my bag at the hotel until I need to go to the airport, and what is the latest the shuttle ( if there is one) will take me there? Also is the hotel the same place as the convention

Isobelle:

There is a great deal of travel information available on this page. I’ll reply in more detail offline, but the headline information is that you should fly into San Jose and yes, the con is taking place at the hotel.

I’ll be driving in. Does anyone know where I can park for less thatn $26/night. That’s a lot of moola!!! Are there any residential areas close by where I can park for free? Or *any* kind of parking which is signifcantly cheaper?

Emily:

Read our Travel page, and in particular, the section on “By Car/Parking.”

Getting a free parking space in downtown San Jose is difficult. The muncipal parking lots and garages are much cheaper than the Fairmont’s valet parking, and may be free under certain circumstances that change so erratically that we can’t detail them here. (I got free parking during ConJose even though I’d parked in the lot across the street from the hotel for a week, simply because I left sometime after midnight and there was nobody staffing the booth. No guarantees that this will work for you now.)

One cumbersome way to get free parking would be to drive to the Tamien light rail station just south of downtown San Jose, park in one of the Long Term Parking (7-day) spaces, and ride light rail back downtown to the Paseo de San Antonio station in front of the Fairmont Hotel. The parking is free, although you’ll have to pay the light rail fare back and forth to your car if you use this option, and of course your car will be a couple of miles away from you.

Is anyone looking for a roomie? I’m trying to reduce expenses.
Ricia

Also looking to share a room, if anyone is interested in saving some $$$.

Daniel, if nobody has responded, I need a roomie, since my original one has opted to bring his spouse and somehow thinks I would be a third wheel. Drop me a line.

Derryl – no bites so far. Drop me a line at dkorn at comcast dot net.