As promised the Hyatt San Jose has created a custom online site for BlogHers to reserve their hotel rooms. At that fabulous $75/night rate. The rate is available for the nights of 7/25/06 - 08/01/06 (vacation anyone?) And just so you know, they were awesome to offer us the special rate for all of those nights, while putting us on the hook for a minimum number of rooms reserved for one night only, the 28th. I know some of you have already reserved via the Hyatt phone line, but for those of you like me who prefer transacting all business online, you are now good to go.
UPDATED: Thanks Denise for calling our attention to the problem with the site, and thanks to Jenny for adding more info. Here's the dealio:
The Hyatt has to put some cap in their system as to how many rooms are sold at the special rate. That cap for the Friday night is 200 rooms. But they had put a really small cap in for every other night (like 5 rooms!)
And since they're not putting us on the hook for a minimum number of rooms for any other night, they're not going to just make the cap 200 rooms per night. (The Grand Prix is again in town on the same weekend, so they're pretty confident they can sell out the hotel at a much higher rate.)
So, right now we have negotiated for them to set aside the following number of rooms at $75 per night:
Tuesday July 25th/Wednesday July 26th: 10 rooms
Thursday July 27th: 25 rooms
Friday July 28th: 200 rooms
Saturday July 29th: 50 rooms
Sunday July 30th/Monday July 31st: 10 rooms
We'll start with that. The manager said if it looks like we're gonna rip right through those rooms we will go negotiate to get some more. At that point, we would probably have to make the commitment to cover a certain number of rooms on other nights, like we are for Friday night.
The site should be fixed to reflect these changes this morning.
SORRY for the confusion.
Hmmm the online form isn't giving the Blogher rate for any night except the 28th.
Posted by: Denise | January 12, 2006 at 09:47 AM
FYI - I just got off the phone with the Hyatt reservations - they've sold out the inital block of rooms they allocated for the dates on either side, and are adding an additional block right now, but they will likely sell out quickly. I don't know how many they will be adding, or if there will be additional rooms added if these sell out quickly. My advice is to call and to speak with someone and get confirmation of the rate for all dates ASAP.
I spoke with Jennifer in the sales office at the San Jose Hyatt. From what I understand, they are offering a SMALLER block of rooms on either side than the allowance for the conference date at the special rate.
Posted by: Jenny | January 12, 2006 at 09:57 AM
It worked! We are in Thursday - Sunday! Thanks for the quick fix for the online tool. Nicely done.
Posted by: Denise | January 12, 2006 at 11:07 AM
what about signing up for the conference? can we do that yet?
will someone add me to the blogroll too!?
Posted by: minnie | January 13, 2006 at 02:37 PM
hi! minnie, you're added to the BlogHerRoll.
As for conference registration...should be up next week. Actually trying to decide between the same reg. vnedor we used last year (Acteva) and RegOnline (and maybe Cvent.) If anyone has experience with all of the above and has a strong opinion feel free to email me.
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | January 13, 2006 at 03:08 PM
yay thanks! i missed it last year and was quite sad. i'll be sure to sign up in a timely fashion this time.
Posted by: minnie | January 13, 2006 at 03:42 PM
Hm, while I did reserve the rooms, I by accident discovered the descriptions on tripadvisor for this hotel - and they sound really bad. :(
Anyone here who can confirm this or not?
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g33020-d81686-Reviews-Hyatt_San_Jose-San_Jose_California.html
Posted by: Nicole Simon | January 14, 2006 at 06:16 AM
Maria and I toured the facility before choosing it. Some things to bear in mind:
They are doing a full hotel re-model right now, which is scheduled to be done months before BlogHer. They showed us examples of the re-modeled rooms, which seem entirely acceptable to us.
We ate lunch in the restaurant (from where the meeting catering is also done) and were pleased with the quality.
And their conference organizers has been extremely friendly, responsive and accommodating.
The outside area is truly lovely.
I would agree that this place is not brand spanking new. Some of the meeting rooms almost have a rustic feel, but as long as they can provide full power, WiFi and amplification, then the rustic feel is nice, because it doesn't feel all corporate-y.
The hotel is not in a particularly romantic neighborhood and I would not say it is a luxury resort. But we were prioritizing convenience, very accessible room pricing, all-inclusiveness, and service attitude when choosing a location.
Trip Advisor notes that the hotel class is 3 stars, while the average visitor review is 2.5 stars. The 2.5 score seems mostly to be dragged down by people's reviews of the rooms, as the average on every other criteria is at 3.5 stars.
I would say those numbers set about the right expectations...and given the complete room re-model underway I'm hopeful it will even exceed those expectations.
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | January 14, 2006 at 08:28 AM
I was just in the neighborhood this morning, and I will echo Elisa's statement that "The hotel is not in a particularly romantic neighborhood and I would not say it is a luxury resort." BUT, it's certainly not sucky!
Light rail is right outside (the stop is a block down the street), which would be the preferred method of going downtown especially during Race Weekend. Light rail can also take you a ton of other places, including Caltrain stops to larger and lovelier cities. Starbucks is a 5 minute walk away, at the intersection of Technology and Metro Drives. There's a sushi place and a mexican place in the little clump of stores w/ the SBUX. Two blocks down First Street are the House of Genji (a good Japanese steakhouse, and fun for parties!) and Cathay (a good Chinese restaurant).
Sorry to blather on, but it really is a good price for those amenties plus the proximity to other things...you're not out in the boondocks of Conference Center land, where things are expensive AND you can't get to things without a car, and you're not downtown, which would have been extremely expensive and just hell what with the race going on.
Posted by: JM | January 14, 2006 at 11:03 AM
Hi Nicole,
To echo Elisa and JM's comments - I also saw the Trip Advisor comments before we toured and, I too, was scared.
However, the model room remodel looks terrific and much nicer than the current rooms that reviews describe.
Also, if expectations are set from the perspective of going to this hotel as a vacation destination then I would agree with the Trip Advisor reviewers that the hotel might disappoint because it is not super luxurious and it is not in a touristy area.
But I was pleasantly surprised when we did tour because I think for that for the purposes of the conference, it's an excellent choice and amazing value. If anyone plans to extend their stay around BlogHer and make a vacation of your trip, just be aware that this just isn't the place for lounging by the pool, getting spa treatments, hanging out at the lounge, and walking to nearby attractions. It is however a good, well located place to stay as a base to get to all of those things and more.
Posted by: Maria | January 14, 2006 at 02:20 PM
Okay, I signed up for the hotel -- now how do I sign up for the conference? :)
Posted by: sandy | January 16, 2006 at 08:18 AM
Patience: it's coming within a week!
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | January 16, 2006 at 08:20 AM
To all, thanks for addressing my concerns - and probably not not only mine when reading those comments.
I also did get the feeling from the people writing it, that they where especially underwhelmed and disappointed by going to a Hyatt but not 'getting' Hyatt.
Also, when they are remoddelling the place, that is okay as long as we get this result you where promised.
I am not expecting luxery there - wifi is a absolut basic like running warm water! - but those comments really worried me. But then again, those are strangers, you are friends. You know, the kind of friend I can give a hard time if you promised me something and did not keep it! ;))
And hey - why did you not mention Star Bucks in the first place? ;))
The caltrain station will be perfect for travelling in from SFO where I will be arriving and I will be placing my booking for the flights tomorrow. :)))
Posted by: Nicole Simon | January 17, 2006 at 04:01 PM
Oh, don't worry Nicole...we will expect to give you full rights to the full "I told you so" treatment if we turn out to have been wrong!
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | January 17, 2006 at 04:06 PM
ummm conference rate rooms seem to have either been sold out or not working. eeek! help.
Posted by: jenB | January 21, 2006 at 05:25 PM
Hi Jen. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. The big problem seems to be that once one night you request is sold out at the BlogHer rate, it won't show you the BlogHer rate for any night. I checked for just the night of the 28th. And just the nights of the 28th/29th and could still get the right rate, but once I expanded my search it threw the whole thing off. I will:
a) negotiate more rooms from the Hyatt on Monday
b) and ask them to fix that problem moving forward, so that even if they aren't willing to set aside any more rooms at that rate for the outlying nights, they make sure the rate stands for the nights where we have negotiated more rooms.
As of Thursday we had already met half our commitment in room nights! Yes, half! So, clearly we need to commit to more :)
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | January 21, 2006 at 06:42 PM