3-Mar-2007
Hi Everyone,
The MarsCon Staff has finally made the decision on a hotel. Our decision will come as a surprise to some, while some will be disappointed, but it was a decision made in the best interest of everyone.
We have decided to return to the Holiday Inn Patriot for the weekend of Jan. 18-20 2008.
I want to explain the reasoning behind our choice. The major reason was purely financial. The Patriot gives us a deal we can’t get anywhere else. The room rate would have gone from $56 to $69 or more. A change to another hotel would have added over $5000 to our budget. In order to move, we would have to increase the membership and dealers fee. We would also have to restructure our budget, which could result in us not being able to hold the type of convention our fans look forward to each year. Instead of improving our convention by adding new things, we would have to decrease what we offered. It just didn’t make sense.
There were several other factors that were discussed. Our choices of hotels in the Williamsburg area are becoming fewer every year as we continue to grow. We need more space, but the hotels that have the space don’t want us. So that limits us. The ones that want us either don’t have the space or they have other problems that would limit our con. The Patriot is our best choice in Williamsburg at this time.
Okay, so why not move it to another area. This was another discussion we had. Many on the staff felt that MarsCon is a Williamsburg Convention. Robert McMath and I made the decision in 1994 to move to Williamsburg. It was there that the con strived and built its loyal following. We grew from being a relax-a-con of 90 attendees to around 700 attendees this year. Moving it to another town just didn’t feel right.
Finally, our decision was based on the hotel. They want us. I didn’t get that feel except from 1 or 2 other hotels. They are willing to work with us. Yes, they had problems last year, but we know what those problems are. We can be prepared for them. We know what to expect. If we go somewhere else, we might not like what we find in the staff. We were also afraid that if we made the move, that the hotel might not like us and decide after one year to kick us out. That has happened to other Science Fiction Conventions.
So that was our thought process. We are trying to put on the best convention we can and that fuel our decision. Hope you understand. We are looking forward to seeing everyone next year. Hope everyone has a good summer.
Butch
30-Jan-2007:
Hi Everyone,
As Hotel Liaison this last year, I wanted to address the problems we experienced with the hotel and if the decision is made to remain at this hotel what the MarsCon staff will do to address these problems.
Many may already know, but for those who do not, the Hotel was sold between MarsCon 2006 and 2007. The new owner, although he owns another hotel, has never owned a full service hotel. The new ownership resulted in a complete change over in Hotel Staff. There was only one remaining front desk person and the setup crew all left. I also believe most of the maintenance personnel are gone. In the Sales Office, our Sales Manager was the first to go, and then sometime in December the other Sales Manager left. We were without a Sales Manager until just a week before the con.
Despite this, I think the hotel did a decent job in certain areas. The setup crew worked well with me and we adjusted our setup as needed. The new owner was on site the whole weekend and tried to solve every problem that arose. The maintenance man responded to every request and did the best he could. I didn’t eat in the restaurant but I didn’t hear any complaints about the food.
Now to the areas that did not go well and probably caused the most complaints – all of them deservingly so – and that was reservations and the front desk.
The first thing the hotel did wrong was to overbook their space. The hotel has only 160 rooms. Most hotels will keep a few rooms in reserve and release them the week of the convention. They did not. This resulted in individuals having reserved two rooms and only being able to get one, or people getting turned away. One attendee had to drive back to Virginia Beach to get their conformation number to prove they had a room reserved. Their name had been entered wrong. One person was told they had canceled their reservation online, which resulted in a major problem. These are only a few of the problems for I’m sure there were others I did not hear about.
The one problem that I was not at all happy with was the rudeness shown by one front desk person. That person was even rude to one of our staff members. That was totally uncalled for. This is an area that I have brought to certain Hotel Staff members attention and will continue to remind them of.
We also have layout problems and the convention didn’t do a decent job of advertising the location of certain events. I heard people saying on Sunday that they didn’t even know where the Con Suite was located. The Gaming room was crowded and exposed to the noise of the entertainment, which makes it hard to enjoy your game. The convention has grown so large, so quickly, that we need more space. This hotel doesn’t have it. We plan to set down and look at a different layout usage for the future, but it may not change. I will try to make sure that locations of rooms are clearly marked with large signs directing the way. We will do the best we can to solve these problems.
To finalize this, I wanted to quickly discuss the future. We have been searching for a new hotel since we heard of the ownership change. We do have at least 4 hotels in the area – 1 in Newport News, 1 in Hampton and 2 in Williamsburg – that have expressed interest in having us. Each one has their own problem. One has limited parking – even worse than at our current hotel – and a convoluted layout. You would need a map to find everything. The others are just way too expensive. One doesn’t have a convention suite so we would have to buy our food from them. If we held the convention at those hotels, we would have to increase the membership to a point that we couldn’t put on as good a convention. So you see the dilemma that the staff is facing.
If we end up in the same hotel, I recommend the fans do the following:
1. Call directly to the hotel. Do not use the online Holiday Inn feature – this can cause some confusion. Speak clearly and double check everything before you get off the phone. Call during the daytime if possible. I believe that is the shift the most experienced front desk person works. Make your reservation as early as possible, so if you are having problems you can call back later to fix it.
2. Bring your conformation number with you to the convention. That can solve a lot of problems.
3. Be very patient at the front desk. The rudeness you receive may not be because of you but because of the last 5 people the front desk person had to take care of.
Any way, I hope this helps everyone understand what the MarsCon Staff is dealing with. We really do care about what everyone thinks and how the hotel treats you. It makes us look bad when bad things happen. We are simply doing the best we can.
Thanks for attending,
James Ford “Butch” Allen
MarsCon 2007 Hotel Liaison
MarsCon 2008 Chairman