[Harrison Bergeron]

It has been brought to our attention that there is active concern regarding the opening of our room block at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare. Specifically, we've heard concern coming from our attendees who registered their rooms prior to 1/24/08 ( before we announced the opening of our block).
In total, there were more than 300 attendees who booked rooms early.

This letter is addressed to those attendees specifically.

Because of past situations,we know that many of you felt that by registering right away, you would make sure that you did not get left out or miss out on our room block. We all understand and respect your desire to make sure that you got into the convention hotel.

On the other hand, however, we were still working with the hotel on our contract, and that's why we had asked everyone not to register with the hotel until we officially announced the rates, and announced that the block was open. We were in negotiations with the Hyatt in order to make sure that resources for the convention would be available. These negotiations admittedly took a bit longer than we planned, but we completed them as promised. Furthermore, when many of you posted on the forums or emailed us that you were booking your room early, many of our staff, including the con chair, urged patience until the block was officially opened so that there were no surprises.

Happily, our room rates for 2008 are identical to the 2007 room rates: $139.00/night.
Unfortunately, if you booked prior to 1/24, you were quoted either the rack rate, (much higher than our rate) or you were booked at the "Prevailing rate" and quoted our previous (2006) negotiated rate ($127/night), depending on where you called to reserve your room.

In the last few days, a number of you were sent emails regarding your reservation and you were told that you would be charged the "prevailing rate." What that means is you will be charged the convention's 2008 rate for your room. In this case, it is the contractually-agreed rate of $139.00/night, single through quad.

Today, we were informed by the Hyatt that they have received a number of calls from attendees voicing concerns with the change in rate. This is exactly what we were trying to avoid, and why we didn't have the reservations links available until 1/24. Please understand that our goal every year is to keep Anime Central as affordable as possible for all of you. The Hyatt has been very good to us over the years, and has kept our rates reasonable even after their massive renovations.

To be clear, though, both Anime Central and the Hyatt Regency O'Hare are contractually bound to the $139.00/night room rate. We apologize for the confusion, and for any inconvenience that this may cause. However, the official rate is $139.00 and neither we nor the Hyatt can change that.

Calls to the Hyatt will not get you a lower rate, and we ask that if you do call with other questions, please be polite to the Hyatt staff. Many of them have worked with us for five or more years, many have family members who attend ACen, or are attendees themselves, and they've worked very hard over the years to help us make the event run.

Again, on behalf of both parties, I apologize for the inconvenience and beg both your consideration and understanding in this matter and I hope to see each and every one of you in May at ACen.



Sincerely,

Beryl J. Turner III

Anime Central 2008