Rio showing sold out for August 2011

[renakuzar]

Curiosity got the better of me and I took some free cycles to check the price for a room at the Rio next August.

Sold out.

For the entire month!

The *good* news is that you can get a room at the Flamingo for $44.

[BonzoESC]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

Hotels.com has several flavors of room available at the Rio for July 27-August 1 2011.

It is a bit early to shop though; lots of travel vendors don't make that much inventory available that far in advance. Why? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_management

[theprez98]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

Have faith my friend. I sincerely doubt that DEFCON would book a convention at a hotel that was already sold out for that time. More likely, there are blocks of rooms that haven't been made available yet.

[shrdlu]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

Curiosity got the better of me and I took some free cycles to check the price for a room at the Rio next August.

Sold out.

For the entire month!

They have the rooms blocked out (as has been pointed out by others), and they simply aren't available for reservations yet. It's only SEPTEMBER. Look again in February or March.

The *good* news is that you can get a room at the Flamingo for $44.

I'm trying to understand how that would be good news.

[liberator]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

The *good* news is that you can get a room at the Flamingo for $44.

That was my favorite hotel for years, for a number of reasons. Now, sadly, they are saving money by not cleaning it. It's a shit hole now. How very sad to see something once so fine deteriorate so quickly.

The good hotel news for me for DC18 was staying at the Hilton Garden Inn, just a bit north of the Riv, on the west side of the street. It's a non-casino hotel so no BS trying to get in and out of the room. Walk in and about 90 seconds later I'm in my room. Also the pool was open until about 11 PM (NOT 24/7 as advertised), way better than the casinos which kick everybody out around 6 or 8 to go spend money on in the casino.

The place wasn't spectacular, but it was perfectly adequate, pretty nice, clean, QUIET, and had NO QUEUES. Nowadays everything about Defcon is queues, from the airports at both ends, to the con, to the hotels, to the restaurants, to the taxi stands. At least this was a nice place that I could walk to and be done with queues. It made a huge difference in my sanity. Price was OK too, $400 for 3 nights all in with taxes, etc.

Obviously it won't be walking distance from the Rio, so I'll have to find something similar for DC19.

[renakuzar]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

Hotels.com has several flavors of room available at the Rio for July 27-August 1 2011.

It is a bit early to shop though; lots of travel vendors don't make that much inventory available that far in advance. Why? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_management

I figured it was something like that, but thought it wasn't too early to let folks know that defcon is canceled, again.

[eris]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

*sigh* Why would "sold out" Rio equal cancelled DefCon? Or was this a case of "omg omg guyz, hotel is sold out, omgwtfbwaaah" only for you to figure out how silly that was and make an attempt to turn it into a joke you have heard before and figure we will all recognize, probably giggle, and therefore ignore your earlier faux pas? (Hay look, you made the same joke here.)

[renakuzar]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

*sigh* Why would "sold out" Rio equal cancelled DefCon? Or was this a case of "omg omg guyz, hotel is sold out, omgwtfbwaaah" only for you to figure out how silly that was and make an attempt to turn it into a joke you have heard before and figure we will all recognize, probably giggle, and therefore ignore your earlier faux pas? (Hay look, you made the same joke here.)

Considering nothing has canceled defcon yet, no reason. Just continuing a bad joke that shouldn't be allowed to die, even if the joke didn't originate with me and won't die with me.

As for my "faux pas", I'll be glad if it turns out the hotel isn't sold out, despite what their website says. This is one of those many times where I'd like to find out I was crying wolf. However, if the website is accurate, then I've given folks as early a heads up as I could.

[okiwan]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

This will be my first time attending defcon. have been wanting too for YEARS. Assuming that this thread is incorrect, when would be a good time to make reservations? Has previous defcon events had the hotel sell out all there rooms? Cause I really don't want to be in a different hotel. The one post said to try again in February or March. Would that be too close considering there might be 12,000 people making reservations?

[pennymule]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

This will be my first time attending defcon. have been wanting too for YEARS. Assuming that this thread is incorrect, when would be a good time to make reservations? Has previous defcon events had the hotel sell out all there rooms? Cause I really don't want to be in a different hotel. The one post said to try again in February or March. Would that be too close considering there might be 12,000 people making reservations?

February or March isn't too early. Also, if you're flying in, consider bundling flight and hotel for a cheaper hotel rate. YMMV, but it can be worth the effort to shop around. 12,000 people won't all stay there, many will room together, some live locally and some will stay elsewhere.

[shrdlu]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

This will be my first time attending defcon. have been wanting too for YEARS. Assuming that this thread is incorrect, when would be a good time to make reservations? Has previous defcon events had the hotel sell out all there rooms? Cause I really don't want to be in a different hotel. The one post said to try again in February or March. Would that be too close considering there might be 12,000 people making reservations?

You are fine. I never ever EVER book that early, and I never ever EVER have trouble getting a room. Defcon is in AUGUST. That's a very long time from now. I'll bet that the hotel doesn't even start booking non-defcon-staff reservations until six months out, which would put it at February, at the very earliest. Relax. Seriously.

I've been attending Defcon for a very long time (since DC IV), and while it'll be nice to stay in a place that's not a total dive (although I liked the Plaza), I still wouldn't worry too much about making reservations until it gets a lot closer. Ignore the panic attack posts. Trust me.

[okiwan]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

Ok great. thanks for the replies.

[neil]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

I wouldn't be alarmed. I haven't verified this yet, but I imagine we'll be posting some sort of registration link about 6 months out for a reserved room block, if past years are any indicator.

I have requested information on this, will verify soon.

[converge]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

The way I see it, one of several scenarios is reality:

0) The hotel does not want customers .. this is not the Riv, most places in Vegas want money
1) The hotel simply doesn't allow booking that far out .. probably, unlikely
2) Defcon has requested the hotel block rooms for booking so that attendees flood the hotel instead of normals for those days .. possibly, but that would require forethought
3) Defcon is cancelled .. this is most likely to be the case

[Dark Tangent]

Re: Rio showing sold out for August 2011

Once the robotic overlords open the room block we will get it on-line, I am guessing some time in Feb.