A post from the ConChair about Hotel Reservations for Arisia 2010

I know there has been a great deal of confusion over the past few days regarding reservations at The Hyatt. Here is the current status of things. The Hyatt has decided to renovate all of their guest rooms during the winter, which, except for Arisia, is normally a quiet period for them. The Hyatt has said that they will have several floors of the hotel unavailable because of renovations during Arisia.

We found out about this only a short time before our reservation system went live. We have been negotiating exactly which rooms will be offline and some other concessions but were unable to delay the project.

Our overflow hotel this year is the Courtyard Marriott Cambridge (formerly the Radisson) http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/boscy-courtyard-boston-cambridge/ on Memorial Drive. The hotel currently has a bar and a restaurant for breakfast. Bisuteki Japanese Steak House is due to re-open there in November. This hotel is adjacent to Starbucks, Trader Joes, and Micro Center and within a short distance of Whole Foods. The room rate is $99 a night. The hotel has fridges in every room, an indoor pool, and laundry facilities. The rooms are very spacious, have large flat screen TVs, and the majority come equipped with large chairs that can fold out into a twin bed.

We will be running a shuttle service to and from the Courtyard. We are aware there have been shuttle schedule issues in the past. We invite those with specific concerns about them to email them to shuttles at arisia dot org, and we will do our best to correct things for this year. Reservations at the Courtyard can be made starting from http://2010.arisia.org/hotel#courtyard . If you wish to be on the waiting list for the Hyatt, please also make a reservation for Sunday night at the Hyatt starting from http://2010.arisia.org/hotel#hyatt and email your Hyatt confirmation number to innkeeper at arisia dot org along with your requested room type and dates of stay. This will allow us to allocate rooms if they become available at the Hyatt.

If you are a party host and have any questions, please email the party czar (parties at arisia dot org). Also, if you have not yet filled out the form at http://2010.arisia.org/PartyRequest , please do so, so that we know about your party. You will also need a room, so if you don't already have a reservation at the Hyatt, please join the waiting list as explained above.

This is our final year at the Hyatt and we are sad to see the relationship ending on such a strained note, but we are working to make this the best possible Arisia, and we look forward to holding Arisia at a new, larger hotel in 2011.

Rick Kovalcik
Convention Chair
Arisia 2010
conchair at arisia dot org