The Eurofurence Forum
Eurofurence Information => Questions & Answers => Topic started by: Jumpy on 27.12.2018, 14:12:06
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Hi all!
This is a thread for questions regarding the room booking procedure.
Please wait before you post here until we have actually announced the procedure in the announcement section. We are working on a good description.
As the announcement will include a link to this thread, I needed to post it here first, so I can link to it.
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Hello :)
My Question is if the Credit Card verification still exists, it was Not mentioned but i would be good to know that.
My Second Question is if i can try out that Webapp for myself, for having an good live Experience and better feeling for the Use.
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Hello :)
My Question is if the Credit Card verification still exists, it was Not mentioned but i would be good to know that.
Hi!
As far as I am aware, you should not need a credit card to make a hotel reservation.
For the convention fee itself, a VISA or Mastercard credit card or debit card is the preferred method of payment, but we also accept money transfers if you really cannot obtain a credit card. As this causes manual work for us, we're grateful if this option is only used by those who really have no access to a credit card.
My Second Question is if i can try out that Webapp for myself, for having an good live Experience and better feeling for the Use.
You cannot really try the app beforehand. Sorry, I just don't have the time to install more test systems. You'll have to wait and see.
The forum post (https://forum.eurofurence.org/index.php/topic,8413.0.html) has screenshots of the first two of the three screens.
There isn't much more to it. Just a welcome screen with a language selector and a single button, then on the second screen a bunch of fields to fill out, a checkbox to set, and a button to press. On the third screen (not shown in the screenshots), you get a link to open the email in your email program. It works with outlook and some other mail programs. If it doesn't work with yours, the web app also prints the email subject, the To: address, and the full text of the mail, so you can copy & paste and manually mail it.
You need to send the email as the web app writes it for you. It should already be addressed correctly and contains all necessary information for the Estrel, which greatly simplifies their booking process.
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Hi!
1) "3 persons" room - does this actually mean 2+1 (roll-in bed already counted, so it is actually 2 persons room + 1 roll-in)
Or is it 3+1 (so it is still possible to request +1 roll in bed as extra on top of that 3 person room)
2) Any room categories where 4 people my live together?
Thank you!
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Hi!
1) "3 persons" room - does this actually mean 2+1 (roll-in bed already counted, so it is actually 2 persons room + 1 roll-in)
Or is it 3+1 (so it is still possible to request +1 roll in bed as extra on top of that 3 person room)
2) Any room categories where 4 people my live together?
Thank you!
Hi!
It's 2+1.
There are no 4 person rooms among the available room categories.
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Two questions that occured to me:
1. Does a roommate need a registration at the convention?
2. If someone who wants to get a room is unavailable at the registration time, can i use my account and the other persons account to book two rooms using the same computer or will i be banned because of IP address check or whatever?
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Hi!
1) "3 persons" room - does this actually mean 2+1 (roll-in bed already counted, so it is actually 2 persons room + 1 roll-in)
Or is it 3+1 (so it is still possible to request +1 roll in bed as extra on top of that 3 person room)
2) Any room categories where 4 people my live together?
Thank you!
Hi!
It's 2+1.
There are no 4 person rooms among the available room categories.
I heard there are "family rooms" for 4 people in the hotel (well, it is actually just 2 rooms for 2 people each, with a door in between). But such option is not available on EF site nor on hotel site. So the questions are:
1) If such option is available - could 1 person book such "family room" (2+2) and assign 3 remaining roomates as guests, or should the rooms be booked separately?
2) If rooms need to be booked separately - then which two rooms make a "family room" together and how to properly request that from the hotel?
Thank you!
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Just ask the hotel if there are some left after you booked the room - or simply state it in the comment field when you book it.
The Hotel indeed has some available (its basically two rooms, but only one bath), but some staffers take them to make more rooms available for everyone, so its possible that they are gone.
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The Hotel indeed has some available (its basically two rooms, but only one bath), but some staffers take them to make more rooms available for everyone, so its possible that they are gone.
We are a group of four and this is basically what we intend to do - to free up more rooms for everyone else :)
Thanks, Loewi!
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My question is what happens if both roommates try booking for better odds of getting a room and both end up getting a room.
Can you just message them that you dont want one of the two rooms anymore?
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Another question regarding the room booking procedure:
Does the con fee need to be paid in order to generate my booking code and send the room booking email?
Or, in other words: can I wait until I have reserved a room before paying the convention fee, or the web page won't let me book unless I'm already fully paid?
Thank you!
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Does the con fee need to be paid in order to generate my booking code and send the room booking email?
No. As soon as you are "accepted", that is, you have received the mail asking you to pay, hotel booking is available to you.
We realize that some people for various reasons do not wish to attend if they are not successful in obtaining a hotel room. We do all we can to make overflow hotels work for everyone, with the provided bus service and the security operated storage and the fursuit lounge, but it's not our place to criticize our attendees in making this choice. I have personally heard some reasons that I find convincing, others less so.
You actually have a second week during which you could try to find a room partner in the Room Sharing section of this forum if you're not lucky next Saturday, before you have to pay or make the choice to cancel.
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No. As soon as you are "accepted", that is, you have received the mail asking you to pay, hotel booking is available to you.
We realize that some people for various reasons do not wish to attend if they are not successful in obtaining a hotel room. We do all we can to make overflow hotels work for everyone, with the provided bus service and the security operated storage and the fursuit lounge, but it's not our place to criticize our attendees in making this choice. I have personally heard some reasons that I find convincing, others less so.
You actually have a second week during which you could try to find a room partner in the Room Sharing section of this forum if you're not lucky next Saturday, before you have to pay or make the choice to cancel.
That's great. Thank you!
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Hello,
It was mentioned above that there is no need for a credit card for making a reservation.
Is it needed for the payment ? or is a bank account in the EU enough if the payments are made before a certain date?
I am asking because I only have a prepaid credit card and not all hotels accept those.
So if paying by bank is possible it would make things a lot easier.
Kind regards,
Takuma
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Hello,
It was mentioned above that there is no need for a credit card for making a reservation.
Is it needed for the payment ? or is a bank account in the EU enough if the payments are made before a certain date?
I am asking because I only have a prepaid credit card and not all hotels accept those.
So if paying by bank is possible it would make things a lot easier.
Kind regards,
Takuma
They will send you an invoice with their IBAN details at the near bottom. You just need to fill in the information like your reservation/unique nr so that they know it was you that payed them.
So you must do it manual by going to your own bank to transfer the money, fill in IBAN, Reservation nr and other information. (Similar how you would pay EF)
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Hello,
It was mentioned above that there is no need for a credit card for making a reservation.
Is it needed for the payment ? or is a bank account in the EU enough if the payments are made before a certain date?
I am asking because I only have a prepaid credit card and not all hotels accept those.
So if paying by bank is possible it would make things a lot easier.
Kind regards,
Takuma
They will send you an invoice with their IBAN details at the near bottom. You just need to fill in the information like your reservation/unique nr so that they know it was you that payed them.
So you must do it manual by going to your own bank to transfer the money, fill in IBAN, Reservation nr and other information. (Similar how you would pay EF)
...edited since i misread something:
For the Registration Fee there is a Section "How to pay" in your registration where you can find the online payment by Mastercard or Visa and also the Account Details for a SEPA money transfer.
For the Hotel costs you can pay upfront where they send you a invoice like Doruvon said. AFAIK you can pay in cash upon arrival aswell. Best Practice would be to call the hotel after you got the booking confirmation from them. You do not need any payment information to make that reservation in the first place.
Loewi
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Only that you can't do both or rather once they send you invoice to pay upfront with due deadline date, you must pay upfront fully. So you can't pay upon arrival any more.
That's what the hotel staff told me last time when I tried to do half/half.
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Hello,
I have a question. Which option should i choose in this https://i.snag.gy/F4oBtT.jpg (https://i.snag.gy/F4oBtT.jpg) if i want to have a room with friend. It's stated on registration page that "All rooms at the Estrel are double rooms, but you have the option to occupy a room with just one person, or with three people. All prices are per room, not per person and for one night" It makes me a little confused, so I want to make sure before finishing payments.
Ah, and another question. If we won't book at Estrel, can we still enter EuroFurence, or are we restricted to certain areas?
Thanks
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Hello,
I have a question. Which option should i choose in this https://i.snag.gy/F4oBtT.jpg (https://i.snag.gy/F4oBtT.jpg) if i want to have a room with friend. It's stated on registration page that "All rooms at the Estrel are double rooms, but you have the option to occupy a room with just one person, or with three people. All prices are per room, not per person and for one night" It makes me a little confused, so I want to make sure before finishing payments.
If you want to have a total of 2 people in your room, you should choose any Double Room.
Ah, and another question. If we won't book at Estrel, can we still enter EuroFurence, or are we restricted to certain areas?
The only restriction will be that you are not allowed to spend the night in someone's hotel room at the Estrel (aka "ghosting"), or sleep anywhere else in the Estrel over night.
All regular areas of the convention will be available to you as scheduled.
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It is really nice, that we "normal attendees" do not even get the slightest chance of getting any other room category than "standard room" or that one oder two deluxe suits that may or may not be available at all.
Why even list them at the registration page at all, when only staff members can book them anyway? Really makes me angry and I feel kind of pranked.
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Some times at other conventions I have been to other events are also being run at the same time and helping out at other cons myself.* Unfortunately hotels can have last minute decisions that are not always in the Cons best interest as they have their own interests at heart. I don't know what the cause is as I don't yet help out at EF but there has to be a real reason behind this recent development.
edited the missed period.
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Doing some calculations, I noticed, that the double room for 3 is more expensive per person than a regular double room (60 vs. 65 €). It seems that this was also the case last year.
For me, that doesn't seem very comprehensible as "normally" a double room for 3 is cheaper per person since you have less space and comfort.
Does someone have an explanation for that?
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Doing some calculations, I noticed, that the double room for 3 is more expensive per person than a regular double room (60 vs. 65 €). It seems that this was also the case last year.
For me, that doesn't seem very comprehensible as "normally" a double room for 3 is cheaper per person since you have less space and comfort.
Does someone have an explanation for that?
There is and a very easy one at that: Less space applies to the house keeping just as much as it does to the guest. The amount of cleaning necessary is significantly higher than with two people in the room and less space only makes things worse.
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Next time: Don't list rooms we "normal peasants" won't be able to book anyway. :/
(https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/47403116.jpg)
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Page ded, but hey, thre forum is back alive :>
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I was surprised to see the larger room sizes sell out before tickets went on sale. While I appreciate that the many people who actually run the convention absolutely need to be onsite... I would like to ask roughly how many rooms are left over for regular attendees, once staffing needs are meet?
If the staff are going to reserve the larger rooms, which seems fair as they are going to be working rather than having fun, I have to agree it feels unproductive to list room types that aren't going to be available.
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The hotel has only 12 junior suites, and the deluxe rooms are also only a few, so don't panic.
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Given that the eurofurence community is so successful at killing the booking servers, then it makes sense that one needs to grow, or the other needs to shrink.
Given the email writing app seemed to be running on an EF machine this year, has EF given any thought to renting a cloud computer service? I did some investigation for work last year, and I do not recall the expense being excessive, though we were looking at very different applications.
Alternatively, use the current system, but release the password elsewhere. That appeared to be the hold up this year, as what looked to be our unique ID was showing up in the URL. If we all knew that was all we needed, and the password would be published on Twitter at time X, the server you used would have been sufficient for that task.
It might also be possible to reduce the load on the server by splitting the attendees up into blocks, and assigning each block either a specific day, or a specific time on a single day. Say after staffing needs there are 1000 rooms available. Set a cut off date for room application (say one week after registration). If 1500 people have registered by that point, just split the rooms and attendees into groups. Send the information out on the 21st. Block A consists of the first 150 furs, and are given the password for the first 100 rooms, and told to contact the estrel on (say) 26th. Block B consists of the next 150, has access to the next 100 rooms, and gets to ask on the 27th, and so on. Latter groups might be slightly inconvenienced in having to wait to see if they get a room, but everyone gets a fair shot, and the server shoudl be able to cope with 150 at a time.
Finally, while I appreciate the staff have their own reasons for not wanting to get involved as booking agents, a simple electronic lottery (again, with a well publicised cut off date) could present the hotel with a list of names and contact details for furs who get first refusal.