Room assignment troubles

[summerrose.livejournal.com]

Edit: Thank you for your advice. I emailed the innkeeper again. She got back to me right away (I guess I was just unlucky before) and it sounds like I am being moved to a Standard Double in the Quiet Block.
I made a reservation for a room several weeks ago by printing out, filling in, and mailing a hotel form from the Arisia website. Because I'm sharing a room with 5 other people, I requested a Delux Double or as a second choice, a Standard double. Last week, I received an email from the Park Plaza confirming my reservation for a Queen room. I assumed that some sort of data entry mistake had been made and emailed the Arisia innkeeper about the problem. I just received an email back from her telling me to reserve a room *now*, because Delux Doubles were sold out a while ago and there are only a few Standard Doubles left.
Perhaps I'm incredibly confused, but - it seems like she thinks I haven't made a reservation yet, instead of what's happened, which is that somehow between my sending in the form and the hotel sending me a confirmation, the room type got switched. What should I do?
I've removed my confirmation number, but otherwise:
Arisia Inkeepers wrote:
> Hi Susannah --
>
> There are definitely a few standard doubles available -- but reserve
> *now*. The deluxe doubles sold out a while ago.
>
> Ann, Innkeeper
>
>
> On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 19:03:26 -0500, Susannah S Larrabee
> <sslarrab@mtholyoke.edu> wrote:
>
>>I recently sent in by paper mail a reservation for a hotel room. Because
>>I'm going to have 6 people total sharing the room, a Deluxe Double was
>>my first choice and a Standard Double was my second choice. I just
>>received an email from the Park Plaza Hotel confirming my reservation of
>> a room with 1 Queen bed. I'm understandably somewhat concerned by this
>>- does it mean that I was accidentally booked into the wrong type of
>>room or that there are no rooms with 2 Double beds left? My reservation
>>confirmation is *********.
>>
>>Susannah Larrabee
>>sslarrab@mtholyoke.edu
>>
>
>
>

Comments

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

I'm sure someone else is going to be far more help than I am on this, but last year I had more luck going directly to the hotel reservations staff.

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

I've historically had problems with the Arisia-run hotel booking system. Try calling the hotel directly and speaking to the reservations desk. Good luck.

[dda.livejournal.com]

The first thing I would do is push back on the Innkeeper, explaining what you've done; clearly they didn't get the message properly. You might consider reserving a Standard Double just to be sure you and your friends have a place to stay no matter what; you'll have to make sure to cancel it, though.

If the Innkeeper can't help, you probably have no choice but to deal with the hotel directly, explaining what happened, etc. Do make sure that the hotel understands this is for the con so you don't get any nasty surprises about the rate.

Good luck!

[caulay.livejournal.com]

I have had a similar problem with reservations, for exactly the same situation (well, there will be a total of 5 people, so it's not *exactly* the same).

Please note, according to the Park Plaza, this year it is *not* possible to make your room reservation in anyway but through the web page. All emailed, mailed or FAXed reservations are apparently being manually entered through the web page.

I received an email from the Innkeeper today that she will be meeting with a hotel rep. later this week to resolve at least some of these issues.

[xdaemon.livejournal.com]

Yes, as one of the Reg folks was sitting at the ConComm meeting yesterday with a laptop and a stack of forms, I can say that all of the paper registrations are just getting entered in to the web site.

If people want to ensure there are no transcription errors (always a possibility with humans in the loop), I'd suggest going straight to the website and doing it yourselves. Yes, it's not perfect... but it IS getting better.

[dda.livejournal.com]

...it sounds like I am being moved to a Standard Double in the Quiet Block.

This sounds good. :-)

I don't know if the Innkeeper mentioned this but you might want to check back periodically to see if there have been any cancellations; that might get you the Deluxe Double that was your first choice.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Outing myself here...
As I explained, I did misread the first email. But I have asked the friendly hotel rep to move you to a standard double for now. Ifwe have family doubles come available, you'd be 2nd on the list to be moved. The hotel has been removing a lot of the double rooms and turning them into Executive Kings.

[summerrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm sorry about panicking and posting on here.