Arisia Hotel Registration Process Explained and F.A.Q.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: How do I get to the hotel?
A: Click here for Maps and Directions.

Q: When will I receive a confirmation?
A: Anywhere from one to three weeks after you make your reservation.

Q: How do I find out what room type and block I am in?
A: Use our confirmation web page once you have a confirmation number.

Q: How do I find out what room number I will be in?
A: Room numbers are not given out. If you have a special room you would like to be in, please send email to the Arisia Innkeeper.

Q: Can I check in early to my hotel room?
A: Occasionally rooms are available early. In those cases the hotel might be willing to allow you to check in before the normal check-in time.

Q: Does the hotel have any free late checkout options?
A: Sometimes the hotel will allow a free 1PM or 2PM late checkout if they are not heavily booked that night. This is entirely up to the hotel.

Q: Am I allowed to bring food, beverages, and alcohol into my hotel room?
A: Arisia has a "corkage waiver" with the hotel allowing our members to bring in food and non-alocholic beverages into their rooms. Alochol purchased outside the hotel cannot be brought into your hotel rooms under any circumstances as this is strictly prohibited by the hotel's Alocholic Beverage License and the Boston Licensing Board.

Q: Can I ask for a roll-away bed (cot) when I check in?
A: You can ask, but unless you are really-really lucky there will not be any available.

Q: Will Arisia have an overflow hotel?
A: In the past when the Park Plaza has been undergoing renovation (and not had all rooms available), Arisia has contracted with the Radisson 57 (across the street and down the block) for overflow space. We do not anticipate needing any overflow space this year.

Q: Where is the best place to Park?
A: The Boston Common Parking Garage, under the Boston Common (entrance on Charles Street) has the cheapest rates. Arisia will be selling discount parking tickets for this garage at the Arisia Sales Table. There are closer garages and parking options (including hotel Valet Parking), but they are more expensive.

Q: Where is the best place to eat?
A: Anywhere. The hotel is located in Park Square, within a few blocks can be found over 200 restaurants. Directly in the Park Square Area, adjacent to it in the Theatre District, nearby in Copley Square and along Boylston & Newbury Streets can be found some of the best restaurants in Boston.

Q: What will you do if it snows at Arisia.
A: It always snows at Arisia.

Overview of the hotel reservation process

  • Arisia is listed in the Starwood (Sheraton/Weston/Park Plaza) reservations computer as a "Reservation List" convention. This means Arisia, and not the hotel controls room allocations. Attendees therefore can not make a reservation using the normal reservation system or 800 number.

  • To make a reservation, attendees must fax or mail in an Arisia supplied form, or use an Arisia maintained web page. These forms go directly to the hotel where hotel in-house staff (ie, not Central Reservations) enters a reservation into the Park Plaza computer.

  • The hotel then sends the attendee a confirmation via US Mail with confirmation number.

  • Once a week (or so) the hotel uploads to Arisia a complete list of reservations with name, confirmation number, roommate info, room and block type requested, arrival and departure information, and any added notes or comments. Arisia does not receive any credit-card or payment info.

  • Using the requested room block, room type and any other info, the Arisia Innkeeper assigns a room to each reservation on a first-reserved-first-served basis. Attendees should contact the Arisia Innkeeper directly with any unusual requests or questions.

  • Once a week (or so) Arisia uploads to the hotel updated room assignments.

  • Every time the hotel and Arisia exchange information the Arisia Web Site is updated with the current info. Attendees can then verify what room block and room type they have been assigned.

  • During the convention, a member of the Arisia Innkeeper staff will be manning a table in the hotel lobby. If there are any problems or issues attendees should go there for assistance.

    Why does Arisia have a special reservation process?

    Short answer: We're trying to make it better.

    Long answer: We're trying to make it better by solving a number of difficult problems unique to Arisia and/or SF Conventions.

    Some the important reasons Arisia uses a special reservations process:

  • The Hotel (as of Fall 2001) no longer has an in-house reservations department. They rely entirely on Central Reservations. So we can't even tell people to call the hotel directly to try and get the info correct. (Actually you can call the hotel directly, but you will get central reservations folks anyway who have been trained to say they are "Park Plaza Reservations".)

  • Hotel corporate central reservations departments generally can't manage to deal with Quiet Block vs. Party Block let alone other blocks like Staff, Dealers Row, etc, etc. All of our attendees know the difference though, so we'd rather they just fill out the form instead of dealing with a clerk in central reservations who hasn't the faintest idea what each block is.

  • Confusion as to what constitutes a "double". Most people think of a double as a room with two double beds. However our (and most) hotel chains default a "double" as "two people in one queen-sized bed". This causes problems at check-in. Attendees get very angry when they discover they don't have two beds, the hotel is sold out of rooms with two double beds, and the hotel doesn't have any cots left. Hopefully we've made it clear which-is-what in our mailing and on the reservation form.

  • Smoking is a separate area of the hotel (the entire 6th floor). If we were to include this floor in one of our main blocks we'd have to take the entire floor. (Having dealt with this before, the hotel liason staff would really-really prefer not to have to deal with large numbers of non-smoking fen forced to sleep in smoking.)

    Instead we've made Smoking a small block on the 6th floor separate from the other blocks. Ergo, you can't have a Party or Quiet room and still have a smoking room. Central Reservations can't deal with this either.

  • The hotel has a plethora of different room types. (Main Single, Main Parlor, Main Queen, Main King, Main Double, Family Double, Executive King, Junior Suite King, Suite King, and more). (This is actually a nice feature, the hotel has more character then most others.) However the computer at central reservations only knows about room types "Queen", "King", "Two Double Beds", and "Suites". It's difficult to try and guarantee a specific type of room in advance.

  • By customizing reservations, we (and the hotel) can offer attendees a variable rate, charging more for the very nice rooms, but giving a break to the attendees stuck in (or willing to take) the not-so-nice rooms. By doing this, demand can better be matched to supply making more people happier.

  • The hotel has about 100 fewer rooms with two double beds then our attendees want. This is because the normal business traveling public prefers rooms with King and Queen beds, not rooms with two double beds. Fannish conventions always want more doubles then are available. Folks that wanted doubles that didn't get them at best can use roll-away beds (aka, cots). However the hotel doesn't own 100 rollaway beds, nor do they have the manpower to move 100 roll-away beds into hotel rooms all in one day (upon check-in). The only way to deal with this is to create a list in advance of everyone who wants a pay for a cot and which (pre-assigned) room they will be in. The hotel then has to rent enough extra roll-away beds and move them into the proper rooms. (Note: It costs the hotel over $45 for each roll-away bed rented. They charge Arisia attendees $20 each, thus the hotel incurs a $25 loss for each roll-away rented. The hotel is only willing to do this if Arisia can guarantee that the hotel will not pay for un-needed roll-away beds, and if a complete-and-correct list of who wants one and which room they will be in is provided.)

  • The default hotel room assignment method is "first arrived, first served". In past years that means that people who arrive on Thursday or before 1PM on Friday get what they want. The tired and grumpy individual that arrives at "11PM Friday night" with a "party of five" discovers that the only rooms left over are tiny Airline Singles (even though they made a confirmed reservation back in July.) Since Arisia is doing room assignments, we can implement a "first-reserved-first-served" system which we believe is fairer.

  • The hotel can't do it any other way because their computer system is designed to satisfy the needs of common business conventions. This is not because the hotel is trying to be difficult or doesn't care. It's more because we have different needs then most other conventions. So if we want anything different we really have to do it ourselves.

  • We really-really want to do whatever we can to make the convention weekend experience better for all our members. Part of this requires dealing with hotel reservations. We hope our efforts in this area result in less stress and improved satisfaction for all.
    If you have requests, questions or comments about this, please feel free to send email to hotel@arisia.org.    Thanks.