Why Anime Central continues to annoy me

[the_archfiend]

No, it's not the fact that it's gotten too big, as this entry in Wikipedia indicates. It's not the fact that IRT - which is what they call their security staff, which I worked for from 2003 to 2005 - has been badly outnumbered and overworked even back when the con had not swelled to over 12,000 attendees. It's not even the fact that a DDoS attack completely knocked out their online registration system in 2008 when they failed to take adequate steps against such attacks and forced people to stand in line for over 6 hours in order to pay for their badge. All of those are annoyances, yes. But they're not as currently annoying as this:

This is a link to Acen's room rates as of today, January 2nd, 2010. As you can tell, the rate was $155 for a single and $165 for a double at the now sold-out Hyatt Regency O'Hare and a little less than that ($16, to be exact) at the Embassy Suites. For comparison's sake, the rate for a regular (single through quad) room at Capricon is $103, Duckon's is $89 (!) for a single through double/double and last year's Windycon rooms ran at $104.

Beginning to see my point, yet?

For further comparison's sake, consider this: if you book a room at the Hyatt Regence O'Hare on the weekend before and after Acen, care to guess what the rates are for a vanilla double/double room? Try $139 on for size. That's right, the regular weekend rate for a room at the Hyatt is $16-26 less than what they're charging for a similar room during a convention that's (A) ostensibly run on a not-for-profit basis and (B) could actually ask the hotel for a deep discount as a result of that status, especially in a recession-wracked economy that's killed off other convention hotels in the past. Likewise, the Embassy Suites charges less or roughly the same rate a week later depending on what type of room you request and how you're paying for it.

Keep in mind that I'm well aware that Acen has a younger, wilder crowd that has damaged hotel property in the past. As a former member of their security staff, I'm well aware of the problem. Let's just say that I'm more than a bit put off by the fact that the current hotel liason seems to be more than a bit...oh...challenged concerning their acumen in dealing with hotels. I could say that in much cruder language, but I'll spare you that experience since I might keep typing obscenities for a good, long time.

Comments

[the-archfiend.livejournal.com]

IIRC, 2009 was $145 at the Hyatt, 2008 was $139 and 2007 was $129. I also failed to point out that the glorified con men at the Hyatt tacked on an extra $50 a night only *after* we checked into our smallish "suite" in 2007, so *that* room went from the $199 a night we were quoted to $249. If it wasn't for the fact that the contract probably has a clause that allows them to do that, I'd be accusing the Hyatt of outright fraud.

What department didja work, btw?