So I was kinda planning on going to APE. I’d signed up in the middle of summer on impulse and bought a plane ticket. But I hadn’t gotten a hotel because the site’s ‘hotels’ page just said “there will be a list of recommended hotels soon’.
It kept saying that as the con approached.
Finally, they updated it. The weekend before the con. With a pointer to one hostel and one hotel, neither of which has a website. And a note warning me that “A very large event is taking place in San Francisco the same weekend as APE, so hotel rooms are limited and at premium prices. We strongly suggest you book your rooms as soon as possible.”
Why, yes. Thank you. I’ll get right on that, guys. THE CON IS ON THE 13TH AND YOU POSTED THAT ON THE 8TH. THANKS FOR THE HEADS-UP!
So, you know, I am thinking that on the one hand I have freaking out for a day scrambling after a hotel room, plus the fact that my tax number for CA hasn’t shown up here, and the vague possibility of making some new fans with no real hope of covering my costs, especially as the Rita books won’t be here until around Halloween, and having to haul my table crap from whatever hotel I end up at to a shuttle bus and then to the table, versus… the airline giving me credit that I’ll use when I go down to Further Confusion, and me maybe losing the cost of the table at APE.
And if I can’t get the table refunded then, well, I will write it off as a learning experience: make sure the con has a hotel associated with it.
Because the last time I attended a con that wasn’t held immediately adjacent to a hotel it was I-Con, which was a complete fucking debacle. I don’t expect APE to be a debacle in the same way as I-Con was, but I feel like it’s highly likely to be a new kind of debacle. And I’m really not in the mood for a Major Learning Experience With Bonus Con-Crud right now.
I have been debating back and forth about aborting this con, and “we strongly suggest you book your rooms as soon as possible” is really just the keystone of the arch of reasons I have to back out. There will be plenty of other comic conventions that don’t involve me staring at a giant list of EVERY HOTEL IN SAN FRANCISCO and stressing out over trying to make a choice.
And honestly unless someone pokes me next year and says “hey wanna do APE, I’ll handle the hotel” I don’t think I’m gonna try there again. Picking a hotel and worrying about transit around the city is too much stress on top of doing the con for me. Lesson learnt: Make sure the damn con has a @#$% hotel or two lined up so all I have to worry about is what I’m bringing to my table.