Summary Of Changes in Arisia '06 Park Plaza Hotel Contract.
(If it's not mentioned below, then it's the same as prior years.)
Overview:
The Arisia '06 contract is very close to prior contracts. It is a single year deal,
although the language for multi-year agreements remains in many places to serve as a
template.
Arisia benefits from a number of changes, primairly to benefit us a bit more financially
or provide the convention more flexibility. The hotel also wanted a number of changes,
mostly in the area of making it more predictible/easier for the hotel to deal with Arisia.
Hotel Rooms:
Rates remain the same, this is now six years in a row we've had the same rates.
Paid late checkouts must now be arranged in advance (this will have to be a checkbox
on the website). Check of 1 PM is still free, 2PM checkout is $20, 4PM is still 1/3 one
nights room, 6PM is still 1/2 one nights' room. Other late checkouts (eg, Dealer's) are
not affected.
Hotel guests must make rooms available by 2PM in order to be serviced by housekeeping.
Reservations made via Web, US Mail or Fax must be guaranteed with a credit card. Non-
guaranteed reservations can only be made via rooming list.
The hotel really-really wants all cots and cribs to be requested in advance (another
checkbox on the reservation form).
All furniture removal must be requested ahead of time. At-con requests may be
honored,
but will be at a higher charge.
Blocking:
Staff block is again the entire 15th floor. And yes they are feeding us again, but only
this year. Future years we just get the 15th floor and Tower Lounge, they don't feed us.
We have to let them know blocks by mid-September so they can get reservations ready.
Suites:
We get either the Presidential Suite /or/ Garden Suite (4th floor). Phi is picking Garden.
We get first option on all other suites, expiring September 19th.
Dealers:
The liability release the dealers sign was re-written so it's closer to real english.
View it at: Dealers' Contract (pdf).
Both Dealer's Row AND Dealer's Room vendors must sign release (previously it was just
Dealer's Row).
Dealer's can no longer steal the air-wall storage space for boxes, changing rooms, etc.
(They never were supposed to but did anyway, now it's in the contract.)
Function Space:
Slight changes in room pickup and room drops. We pick up the first rooms (on 4th floor
and Mezz) on Wednesday, a lot of rooms Thursday night, then the rest Friday. We lose
a lot of rooms midnight Sunday night, most of the rest sometime Monday, then the last
few on Tuesday and Wednesday. View the entire room schedule at:
A'06 Function Room Schedule
(pdf)
. (And before you ask,
just ignore the last column.)
The hotel now guarantees to supply us with a minimum number of tables (equal to what we
used at A'03). The hotel also has finally purchased new tables to replace what they
disposed of two years ago.
If the hotel "fails to provide a correct and exact inventory in advance" of tables and
other furniture, they agree to rent additional to fulfull our requirements at no additional
charge to us. (I'm betting they'll forget.)
Arisia gets a free meeting room up to five times during the year for planning meetings
(the last two years they've been charging us).
Banquets:
Swan's Court last call is 1:30 AM, open until 2:00. Patrons can remain until 2:30 in
the bottom section and 3:00 AM in the top section.
Ice Deliveries: We still get unlimited ice deliveries to hospitality and party host
rooms; however all ice requests are due one week in advance. Requests received after
that will be charged the usual high prices. (What the hotel is going to do is order
large commercial ice deliveries for all the big users, that way the ice machines don't
run dry.)
Engineering/Electrical/Tech:
We now get a $5,000.00 credit for electrical service (instead of a complex list of
stuff all over the place). This will save us money if we plan it right.
However,
all electrical orders are due three weeks out. Orders received late will be charged
at the hotels usual high rates.
We get unlimited connections to the internet router at no extra cost.
We get to connect to the in-house audio systems free of charge (when it exists, which
is not on the 4th floor), provided it is requested ahead of time.
Lighting control panel in Imperial Ballroom is free, however if it is moved it costs$.
We have free use of the screen in Imperial Ballroom the entire convention.
Parking:
Instead of two convention-long VIP parking passes, we now get two day-long parking passes
each day (and they can overlap actually allowing four cars to park for a short while).
(This is because the hotel was having trouble doing the accounting for the free parking
spaces when we kept switching vehicles each day.)
Financial/Other:
Credit for comp rooms not used now goes on the Master Account (previously it was lost).
Insurance is now required for all Artists and Dealers'. It will cost Arisia an extra
couple hundred dollars for this coverage (instead of requiring everyone to provide their
own proof of insurance).
Things not achieved:
We were unable to get the hotel to agree on any language dealing with rooms or floors
under construction, offline or otherwise unavailable.
We were unable to get the hotel to agree to improve service in Swan's Cafe. They claim
they improved service last year and it is now satisfactory. (Although the contract now
requires that the hotel provide a staff of two servers, one barback, and one bartender).
The hotel (or more correctly the hotel valet vendor) is unwilling to adjust the hours of
the bag/coat check area to make it useful for our attendees. (Normal hours are 8AM-5PM).
We did get mention in the contract that we are allowed to run our own (which means that
the bag/coat check vendor can no longer whine that they have an exclusive contract).
Special Dates (and I've probably missed a few):
September 19th:
- Arisia and hotel review room and meeting space usage (ie, what we're doing where).
- Arisia loses first option on suites, must tell hotel which ones we're using.
- Arisia tells hotel what floors/room are in which room blocks.
October 1st:
- Hotel reservations open (hopefully).
December 2nd:
- Major Room Turns due (room set changes where there is less then 1.5 hours gap
to completely change a room, eg: theater to empty space, etc).
December 12th:
- Arisia and hotel review room and meeting space usage (ie, what we're using & where).
- All room settups due to hotel (in addition to Major Room Turns above).
- Banquet Orders due.
December 23rd:
- Telephone orders due.
- Internet connection orders due.
- Lock recoring/reprogramming orders due.
- Electrical, lighting, all other engineering orders due.
- Connection requests to in-house sound system due.
- BEO's signed for: Room sets, banquet orders
December 30th:
- BEO's signed for: telephone, internet orders, lock recoring/reprogramming,
electrical orders, lighting, other engineering orders.
January 6th:
- Room block closes for reservations.
- Ice Delivery requests due.
- Cot, crib & refridgerator lists due.
January 9th:
January 12th: