Celebration 3 FanForce Group Discount Hotel Reservations (Deadline 1 PM TODAY!)

Jedi_Master_Sal of the Pittsburgh Fanforce, has been given authorization to coordinate CIII <A TITLE="Click for more information about hotel" STYLE="text-decoration: none; border-bottom: medium solid green;" HREF="http://search.targetwords.com/u.search?x=5977|1||||hotels|AA1VDw">hotel</A> room reservations for ALL of Fanforce. The deadline to get a Discount Group Reservation with Fanforce is July 1st. The more people we have signing up for the Fanforce group rate, the cheaper everyone's rate will be.

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Message from Sal
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I am authorized to negotiate a group rate for all of Fanforce. It is my hope to secure a full hotel connected to the convention center (by skywalk) for all of Fanforce before the general public is able to book rooms. I am fairly confident that this is possible.

What I need from you all is a tally of FIRM numbers of interested people from your respective Fanforce chapters. (Also, if you have some "possibles," you may give me a count for those as well.)

Please format your numbers as such:
Pittsburgh FF: 14 Firm, 6 Possibles

I will need your final tally no later than July 1st, so that I may compile the list and start negotiating with GenCon (the promoters of CIII).

The 501st already has a deal through them for 250 rooms, but I am confident that with the combined presence of Fanforce we will be able to have many more rooms requested, and could then present a valid case for special consideration in regards to discount rates and "pre-booking".

The room rates quoted to me so far (this was by one specific hotel so rates may differ slightly)
were as such:

$134 per night for a single (1 person) 1 double bed
$144 per night for a single (2 person) 1 king bed
$154 per night for a single (3 person) 1 king bed, 1 roll out bed
$164 per night for a single (4 person) 2 doubles

These numbers HAVE NOT been guaranteed. The price quotes and room sizes where only an initial quote and that by submitting a request it does NOT guarantee that a chapter will have rooms reserved for them.

A deal first has to be made with GenCon. Once that deal is made and we know GenCon is holding those rooms can we count on it being a guarantee.

The submission of requests is to show to GenCon proof of what FanForce is proposing. BTW, chapters CAN submit requests after the July 1st deadline, but I need to get the proposal into GenCon on that date. If other chapters want to sign up after and the deal can be made, that can only serves to bolster our numbers and position. They are welcome to join. It should be noted though that if a deal is made for the room numbers I submit on July1st that GenCon may only be able to honor THAT amount of rooms, so urgency is needed.

Should the actual rates be different (whether higher or lower) you will be notified immediately after I receive that information.

The bed size may vary by hotel. You will also be notified of that should it differ than what is quoted here.

The information contained in the replies I receive will figure prominently in the negotiating process and, as a result, will need to be as accurate as humanly possible since a contract will most likely need to be drawn up.

Do not "pad" your numbers. Only firm numbers, please. (The "possibles" may be taken into account, but I suspect that unlikely.) We, as Fanforce, can not be responsible for extra rooms not filled, so once again I urge you to be absolutely confident with your figures before you submit them to me.

Since this is just the beginning of the negotiation phase, I do not yet have any answers regarding who, how, and when you will be able to pay for rooms. Rest assured that I will post this information immediately after finding out, so as to give you and your respective members as much time as possible to make whatever decisions you need to make regarding payment.

If there are any questions regarding CIII room booking, please PM me for now and I will ensure that a special thread be made for this, which will include a FAQ

see comment made by Oscar_the_Gungan on the Id Falls boards NBO people!!!

Hi NBO
I got a message back from Linda she says when we submit our numbers we should do it jointly, including how many we plan to cram into each room. So if its cool with everyone let's get a firm count in the next few days and I'll get them the info.

I can only be put down as a possible. My first choice is to be crammed into a room with all my Dantooine Base friends, since let's be honest, >50% of why I'm going is to meet them.

wassup? yes, i too must only go down as a possibility, there are friends from out of state that are meeting up w/ me at C3,they're not FanForce so it may very well be that i share a room w/them yet hopefully in the same hotel as NBO and ID Falls Alliance, if thats possible. I guess as more word comes through about the exact hotels and rates i could still throw in w/ the great FF deal but then my buddies would either have to get thier own room by themselves or bunk in w/ us if extra room presents itself. A group rate is a totally cool idea, im happy for anyone that gets a great deal, kudos go to marajadefan and mastersal on the early efforts! I all so like the idea of getting back in the marriot, it was fun staying there for C2 and hey, the accedental running into Dave Dorman and a breakfast conversation w/Troy Denning did'nt hurt at all either(well nothing happens by accedent). C3 is going to rock/be a lot of fun! holding down a whole floor or hotel itself would be cool just as we've all conversed before. EVACUATE! Well, that was interesting im sitting at the bsu sub posting here and suddenly someone that works here ran up and said 'im going to have to ask you to leave,we've been alarmed to evacute the whole studet union bld.' holy snykies for a moment there i was a little scared for my shoe laces...but then they came back and said it was a false alarm. alas, i was ready w/the force as my aly to throw down on any threats present. Reeeaaaly, i wish, but that explains the sudden uppercase evacuate above. Taa, taa. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P.S. is that shot on the home page of our offical site of A. holding his E.iii saber(the one carried by ObiWan to Luke) or his 'im evil now made this new saber'(like vaders from E.4,5,6)? And, Dan im very excited about being at the sw breakfast w/you and friend, im glad to atleast know ill run in to someone i know there, many juicy tid bits, photos and info to our fellow sw heads we will have to bring back, Hmrmm? its speculated we may even get the inside track on the actual title straight from big SanSweeeeet! himself, which would be extra sweet seeing as how its the first sw breakfast of the con tour!---PEACE!

oh yes, i also forgot to mention, spiderman2 will most certainly be super-cool but i was wondering whos up for checking out King Aurthur (correct spelling? correct title? who cares??! anyhue. im not sure what the low down is on a midnight sneak preview, not likely here but we should still go on the day of release.-o yaaa. Come across any new target exclusive cup sets yet? im still just seeing the obiwan and darth maul.the bossk figure is extra sweet! the unleashed bossk and aalya secura figs look to rock da spot! check them out on any of the informed good sites, theres also a cool tusken raider in that assortment(still a long ways out though). get back at me soon.

I'm up for the group rate if everyone else is. The more we save the better.

My friend Adam is also going, so does he grab the group rate with us as well?

yep, you could include your friend in the deal too. I will send the numbers tonight. So far this sounds like a good deal. But, maybe hold onto those reservations for now until this is a done deal.

Edited the thread title to reflect that the deadline is at 1 pm today. Someone from either Idaho Falls or Boise should be designated to send the complete list of rooms needed to jedi_master_sal by 1pm today if this already hasn't been done. And yes, if you have friends/family going with you, please be sure to account for them in the numbers.

If you already have a room for C3, but wish to see if Fanforce can get you a better rate, it is suggested you keep your existing room for now, yet post in this thread what kind of room you would require. If Fanforce can get you a better rate, you could then cancel your existing reservation, and if they can't get you a better rate, you would be under no obligation to honor your fanforce reservation.

Ok ecerybody I sent the info into Sal I will keep you guys posted. If this doesn't work out the official fan club will be offering lots of rooms probably in September

I'm going to send in the numbers..how many do we have....7 including IFSWA???? How many confirmed do we have?

Here are two updates as to the CIII room booking situation. Both are good!
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For everyone's information:

The proposal has been sent to GenCon. I am awaiting their response.

We had a late push last Thursday (July 1) and our totals nearly doubled.

We have 34 chapters who have signed up, more than 100 rooms requested for, accounting for several hundred members from 5 countries.

The exact breakdown will be posted later as I have time. (CR's are to check the thread in the CR forum)

Now we sit and wait for a response. If I do not receive one by Thursday, I will follow up then. It is important that we give them adequate time to respond back. We do not want to rush this to a point where they are offended and back away.

In the meantime keep your fingers crossed. At worst if they say no, we are in no worse position than we currently are in. Which is to say that when the rooms become available to the general public, we would have to fend for ourselves.

You will know, IMMEDIATELY upon me finding out ANY information regarding the proposal. It is my sincerest hope that we are able to come to an agreement with GenCon for the rooms, but were we not to succeed, at least and honest, earnest attempt has been made.

May the FORCE be with us in this,
-Sal
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Here's the second and even better update! The response!
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Sweet mother of Anakin we have an initial response from GenCon and it's very promising!

Here is the response (the person's name sending it to me has been withheld) This in part so that they are not getting calls from everyone and their brother, hope you understand. Anyway here we go:

Hello Chris,

I'm going to discuss this with LucasFilm and will get back to you with reference on how they want us to handle the housing requests for large groups like this.

Talk to you soon.

NAME WITHHELD


This is actually GREAT NEWS. At the very least they did not say no from the get-go. That was the biggest hurdle to jump. Good news is that she carbon copied this to a person at LucasFilm for whom I've spoken to directly in the past and that person now works under Steve Sansweet, with whom I spoke to last month on the phone and have had two e-mails with.

This all plays out well for us. It's a good step in the right direction.

We're still not out of the preverbial "forest of Endor" (woods) yet, but we can see the bunker (light)...

-Sal
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End of updates... for now.
-Sal

Thanks for the update Sal, it's looking promising. And thanks for putting so much of your time and attention on this!

In his best Obi-wan to Lama Su impression-"That's why I'm here."

Keep your fingers crossed though,
-Sal

Hey, I just saw on the city rep board that the FanForce hotel reservation thing fell through. I remember one of you guys went a head and reserved rooms elsewhere and we stil have the offical star wars room reservation coming soon,

I've already got reservations so we're good to go. It will be cheap if all of our numbers share the two rooms. We have it in the bag...I'm so glad that we kept up with when rooms began to open up for reserving! I'd say we have nothing to worry about. Embassy Suites is only across the street. 10 feet of walking maybe. "We will rule the galaxy."

Sounds like the 27th is the day passes go on sale. Here's the link.

http://www.theforce.net/celebration/index.shtml#24853

I forgot how much the rooms were that have been reserved. I thought when the reservations become avaialable from the official fan club I'd compare prices. If these turn out to be cheaper would people be cool with going ahead and reserving them?

Hey Oscar-mine were $200 a night at Embassy. That's relatively cheap since there's so many going. However, I'll bet that the Fanclub can get us cheaper, I'm guessing between $125-150 a night. I guess we'll compare, and if it is indeed cheaper to go with the fanclub, we'll do that!

It's probably good you have those rooms reserved. I haven't been able to get through on the CIII site. They have been slammed and I have heard talk that many of the fan club rooms are already gone.

Maybe we should just say "the hell with it" and go with those rooms then. The Embassy is very nice and will do just fine for all of us.

I managed to get through, the rumors of lack of avaialibility were greatly exaggereted Russell and I both reserved a room we can cram four or more people in for $120 a night
Its at the Best Western near the convention center. Hope that sounds ok to you guys.