Just looking to start a conversation on this! If we want furry conventions to continue to grow, we need to address some of the problems that have come up lately. Anyone have any ideas? Pitches? Things they'd tweak about mine? Let's talk about it! 😃

@IorekByrnison086

4 ай бұрын

My take on this is that the hotel rooms should be first come first serve. This way the early birds can get the worm. And its a bit fair too. If someone pays top tier and gets a room, before someone who had paid sooner to get a room, it's not a fair deal. This way, the con is telling everyone that money is more important than convenience. Feelings will be hurt this way. This is my take on it. But, of course, I don't book hotels for cons. I book airbnb instead.

@Metalcastr

4 ай бұрын

I think the booking link should be sent out after normal working hours, so more people have a chance. Sure some work different shifts, but it would be fairer to more people.@@IorekByrnison086

@arifbayusatrio1028

4 ай бұрын

Over here hotel rooms are on the FCFS basis so on the condition of conventions occuring they tend to be sold out during announcement way before the con tickets were sold. Which brings up another question: how much do hotels charge you for parking daily?

@glamrockfoxy6667

Ай бұрын

Your content is so good

Anthrocon's big problem is the only hotel they have to themselves is the Westin. Every other hotel, they get a percentage of the rooms based on what's available at block opening, and not a single room more. I've been booking my room out of block and well in advance since 2017, usually for a similar or lower rate than in block, and without the nuisance of a one night deposit. Pittsburgh has been trying to address the severe shortage of hotels going back years. Unfortunately, their solution has been to build lots of little hotels far away from where people actually need to be. They really need to build that second hotel tower at the DLCC that they supposedly still can't afford.

Dude the AC room situation is wacked! I was lucky enough to get two nights in the Westin but now we're trying to figure out where to go after that! Cuz all the other hotels are booked out! Thank you for bringing this up!!!

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Yeah man it’s crazy x-x cons can’t keep getting bigger like this haha there’s just no where to put everyone. One of the reasons I prefer smaller cons

@yaboiglitch909

3 күн бұрын

AYYY WASSUP JAY

@jayfox4438

2 күн бұрын

@@yaboiglitch909 Heler!!

There is space for another hotel in downtown Pittsburgh. The two surface lots on either side of 10th St in front of the DLCC are reserved for a future hotel with potentially 600 rooms in two towers. It was originally planned to be completed by 2008 and there's been talk off and on since then.

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

I noticed that lot on maps. Would be nice if they’d actually build it! 😩

It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been to AC, and it was problematic trying to get a room even then. The prices were getting pretty high too…I can’t imagine what they must be like now!

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Yeah my last time was in 2019 and we couldn’t get a room block room so we booked outside the block for $350 a night I think it was. Cheapest one available this time (outside the block) was nearly $700 a night. :/

@chevycamaro78

4 ай бұрын

@@SorenSladkevickIt’s completely ridiculous.

Non-refundable rooms, must be registered to get room, if booking a 2 Queen room must prove more than 2 people will be in room, instead of giving staff priority maybe pay your staff. I’m very against the pay to play AC is doing. The whole system seems like it needs an overhaul.

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

I agree, tho I think keeping Staff members and Dealers Den at the front of the system is a good idea. But yeah the pay to play system right now really sucks haha

A friend of mine was lucky enough to book at Wyndham so I'm grateful, though I can kiss the Westin dream goodbye LOL Not sure how to solve the hotel situation aside from booking further in advance outside the con rates if you really want your desired room, so essentially any way you look at it it seems like pay to win. Also, yoooooo hope to see you at AC! ^w^

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

See you there! And yeah I am not sure. It’s quite the conundrum. 🤔

My idea is probably more divided, dedicated room blocks that are both based on need and based on higher-tier membership status. For simplicity sake, I'd break down the room blocks into four quarters for all hotels apart of the block - staff/volunteers, dealers, fursuiters, and general fandom. All four would be lottery-style. For staff & dealers, their their blocks would be ran first, ensuring the people who provide the means for the convention to exist & crucial entertainment (this would include Dealers who were accepted in & paid their table fee, + volunteers AND panel hosts who went over XX hours of volunteered time the year before, and have contractually agreed to host panels again). For the fursuit block, I'd run a lottery for groups with two or more fursuiters. The requirement? Must have registered as a fursuiter, with proof of you wearing your suit and that suit on file, during the previous year. Perhaps this proof could fall on the fursuit photography room, so it can be tied to your badge & all pictures can be reviewed for duplicates that'd disqualify you (you wear your friend's suit to get an extra entry or something). General attendees would work the same way as they do now for lottery setups. A 5th lottery for all ADA rooms which would be removed from the initial pools, and meant for people with disabilities. Perhaps this could be ran first, or within each block type. Those with a higher sponsor tier would get a weighted entry to their room. Those with 3-4 people within their lottery room group (the system MFF uses), for each category (only counting if all people meet the block requirement), would also receive increased lottery odds. Another point you made that I 100% agree on is making aspects of the room and/or registration non-refundable or pay in advance to discourage botting and scalping. Perhaps just removing the ability to change the room owner from the time of receiving the room, and requiring the room holder to be the one to check in, would put an end to issues, ESPECIALLY if the system in place can monitor duplicated badge registration numbers.

The lighting looks a bit more natural, so this looks very nice.

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Oh, well thank you lol this was the rushed setup lmao

Anthrocon has many more hotels than MFF available, both in the block, and outside. Yet it still runs out quick. MFF 2023 only had 3 (three!) block hotels near the convention including main; they lost a few block hotels the last few years. There are non-block hotels nearby for MFF, and shuttles for the far block hotels. With Anthrocon, it relies on getting the booking link quickly, and acting quickly to book before the rooms are gone. With MFF, it's random chance with the lottery. Either way it sucks getting a room. Anthrocon reserves a small portion of their total room block per hotel for Supersponsors and up, with each level getting a slice. You still have to act quickly before that portion runs out. The rest of the block per hotel is for general opening for regular attendees, so everyone has some chance. What people do for both MFF and Anthrocon is book outside of the block, and see if they can get something within the block, as the block hotel rate is cheaper.

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, that’s the only way I got a con block room at MFF once of the 3 times I’ve been. I’ve never been able to get a con block room at Anthrocon and I don’t know anyone that has been able to after 2020, not without paying for a much more expensive badge at least. It really is just a problem of there not being enough hotel rooms to go around, and I’m not sure how to solve that problem because of how unique it is to furry conventions.

Hello Soren , hope your having a wonderful day and i want you to know that your content is awesome yet entertaining. Keep up the great work

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Thanks so much!

I know it's not a solution as most of these larger cons have outgrown their venues, but I'm of the mind that rooms in the main hotels should be prioritized to people that have fursuits or the dealers den.

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

AFAIK, Dealers Den and Staff members get priority in the hotel registration, and I think that should stay. I’m mostly talking here about how they give out the rest of the slots. Cuz the lottery systems can be frustrating and opaque and the pay to play that AC does doesn’t seem fair. It shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg to go to these events. :/

My friend group has reserved an Air BnB house near the convention and we are splitting the price, and it is cheaper than the hotel and we get a whole house for ourselves

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

We considered doing that with an apartment downtown, but it was pretty expensive, and we managed to get a con block room so we’re gonna take that instead. It’s still a bit of a hike but oh well 🤷‍♂️

I’m fairly new to the fandom and I managed to get a room with general admission. 700 ppl were ahead in queue within 3 seconds of entering, and I feel lucky… but I was planning on maybe askin round at the con to see if a few needed a room. But idk, I’m (sort of) a neat freak and it’s my first fur con.

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

You got seriously lucky then lol, but congrats! I hope you have a good time :)

Me and my friend I’m going with (AC24) we’re honestly so worried about not getting a room that we tried booking at the main hotel two days before and they said it was booked. They referenced us to a sister hotel that’s a 5 minute drive from the con center. Thankfully we were able to get a room! Cant wait!

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Glad you got a room! But yeah it’s quite stressful. Hope you have fun!

Great video. Love it. Keep up the great job.

Why the lottery if you can just book a room in advance with the hotel itself

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

The lottery system reserves a large chunk of the hotel, meaning there’s very very limited rooms available outside the con block, if any. Often there are non left. So booking in advance isn’t always an option.

here is what you do. these cons are usually on the same weekend every year. so you pre-book your rooms as soon as the hotel has them on the site. you can book 3 weekends around the project weekend just in case. then after it is announced you cancel the other 2 weekends. same thing with your flight book it as soon as it is announced. the other problem i see is as the con gets closer the room rates go up. another option is status. Hilton if you get diamond status they have a policy of allways having a room

This is something that is absolutely a problem. the bigger anthrocon,mff and other major cons are getting with attendances of 5,000-15,000!+. I keep saying that conventions need to make there cons bigger like anthrocon making the David n Lawrence convention two or 3 stories high turning it slowly into a mega skyscraper. But I didn’t think about the hotels they could possibly try making 1 single untra mega hotel that hold maximum 20k furries that’s a 5 minute walk to the con space. fluff it! Xd

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Lol unfortunately cons don’t own the convention space. Which is in a way part of the problem I suppose. These spaces aren’t really designed to handle immense furry conventions, and it’s starting to really show at the biggest ones.

@logancaldwell7813

4 ай бұрын

@@SorenSladkevick Hello Soren, I want to ask you something. Are you planning on going to Further Confusion 2025?

Out of curiosity can you Uber in fursuit to the convention center?

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

I don’t think they’d stop you. AC and MFF run shuttles, at least sometimes. But Ubering to and from the convention center even 2 times a day would be prohibitively expensive for the people that already couldn’t afford to buy an expensive registration.

@JadeTheWolf1982

4 ай бұрын

Good point. I think you could just do a video of you and Slush just getting to the con on the shuttle. @@SorenSladkevick

The priority system for people with fursuits is also gonna make cons inaccessible to people with a disability that might not be able to drive or wouldn’t be able to attend if their hotel room was too far away, because, it’s far away. As a person with a wheelchair I feel like that’s a really bad way to solve that issue. I think bigger cons should find bigger venues and I’ve been thinking the same for years now

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

A very good point, thank you for engaging with the discussion. :) unfortunately, many of the bigger cons (like Anthrocon and MFF) are already in one of, if not the biggest venue available in their city. :/

Well, with me being so new to conventions. The first convention i went to was anthroexpo in 2022. It was a smaller con but ik in the future i do want to go to anthrocon. Im just hoping this problem can get solved. I wish I had some ideas but I hope this problem can be fixed just in time I go in the future whenever that will be.

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

How was that? I’ve never been to that one!

@BrutusBowser

4 ай бұрын

@@SorenSladkevick it was pretty good, its a shorter con. Though I believe this year they changed there location to a hotel in Norman, OK just south of OKC. It was a 4 hour drive for me since I live in Texas but it was the closest small con I was able to go to. I wish I could go to TFF this year but tbh I probably want to save for a partial before I go to a con again. I also want my bf to be in the US the next time I go to a con. He currently is in Mexico and Im hoping he will be able to legally immigrate to the US soon.

@BrutusBowser

4 ай бұрын

Im also still a college student. Its currently my 3rd year into my chemistry degree and should be graduating next year in 2025.

Everytime i heard about room problems from big furry conventions, it gave me a second thought of going there in the future because it looks very troublesome. It really sucks though because i want to go there before 2030. However, i've been hearing some fewer attendance with very good convention such as Anthro New England. I would rather gp there then these convention.

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

I always recommend going to a smaller local convention first, and this is just one of the many reasons why. I’ve never had to fight for a room at Furlandia, Aquatifur, etc

@LightBluly

4 ай бұрын

​@SorenSladkevick Yep i've already been to small ones. In my own country Singapore had around 300 attendees and neighbouring country 700+. I am planning to go outside of asia mainly Europe and NA until i learned there's a room problems. You're right though best to go smaller or medium size convention.

This is kinda the same with a few other bigger conventions I’ve been too, mostly automotive conventions. B&B’s were always a good alternative if available.

Hmmm.. I have never been to a furry convention yet, so I have not experienced any of this, but it does sound like a huge problem. I am not sure how solving the room problem could be done. D: However, you explained how this is mainly a problem for furry conventions due to walking around in fursuits for long distances. This makes me wonder if focusing on the fursuits in general rather than the rooms could be a potential solution. My idea is this: a lot of large-ish lockers that are big enough to hold a fursuit with a large "headless louge" next to them to suit-up in. When registering online, an option of "do you have a fursuit?" would be added and anyone who checks this but is not registered for a room at the hotel would get a second question of "would you like to reserve a fursuit locker?" and if yes, assigned a locker number. During pre-registration at the con space, attendees with an assigned locker would get the code for it and would be able to store their suits there so they don't have to walk to the con space wearing them. After finishing fursuiting, the fursuiters can return the suit to their assigned locker. Obviously, there are some flaws with this, like potential stealing and privacy problems, but I thought it was an interesting idea and wanted to throw it out there haha. Nice video as always! :D

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Fursuit lockers eh? Not a bad idea 🤔

Hi Soren, good video. I got my email for AC right when it was supposed to show up and got in the queue. There were only 350ish people in the queue, and when I got theough, there were only 2 hotels left with spots. In the time I was looking at the difference between the two, they were gone. Based on your information about the environment in Pittsburgh, I hope someone with a suit got them. I do not have a suit, and i'm just planning on volunteering, so it's not essential that I have a hotel downtown. I am doing a road trip out there, so I'll have my car, and I'll just commute to the convention center. Hopefully, the parking is decent at DLCC. Is there any info on parking, specifically at AC? Thanks, Soren. Keep up the good work. God bless 🧡

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

The DLCC has a parking garage, and there’s another parking garage like a block from the Westin. AFAIK parking isn’t an issue; but I’ve never driven to AC myself. It sounds like your room booking experience was just about what mine was unfortunately. :/ when I was offered my choices, my group had planned ahead of time which hotels to prioritize, so I went to the first ones I could, and booked the room ASAP.

@LordGingerXIV

4 ай бұрын

@@SorenSladkevick Thanks, good to know. Hope to see you guys there!

There is a shuttle bus system for MFF, thankfully....

We can simply rent the parking lot too and fill them up with tents so we can live out of them for the weekend

Do you ever plan on getting a Soren 2.0 suit?

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

At some point, yeah!

❤🎉🎉❤🎉❤🎉❤🎉❤

Nice vid

I love your fursuit

Life hack- you can reserve your room a year in advance. I just grab my room before they even reserve them for anthrocon, and never have to deal with all of this.

And also it is a good question who is getting all these rooms anyway. I don’t know anyone who got a room so probably can’t go again ( I have been trying to go since 2015)

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Right???

Cool shirt

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Thank you! :D

Big problem is people booking only friday and saturday so a lot of room sit empty thursday and sunday

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Yeah I noticed that. The first hotel I tried to get for AC has rooms “available” but only Wednesday and Sunday. Another part of the problem Imo.

@Bluewah96

4 ай бұрын

@@SorenSladkevickthere needs to be a minimum amount of days at big cons. At least 4 nights I would say

Did his suit used to have green hair? I have a photo of a furry with a green tuft of hair from 7 years ago I believe it's you but I'm not to sure..

@SorenSladkevick

4 ай бұрын

Nope never had green hair.

@UghNgh

4 ай бұрын

@@SorenSladkevick ok

@UghNgh

4 ай бұрын

@@SorenSladkevick thanks anyway:)

I am not going to the con 14:56

Where did bro go

Just live in the floor💀

oh s$it I forgot to be here 😢

I wish I can come but I can't i'm thirteen