I don't understand this passkey thing for the Marriott. So we cannot call to reserve anymore? Or use the Marriott site? I checked out the passkey site and there is no place to make an account or sign up. It seems like you need to be a part of a company that uses passkey to log in to their system.

I want to reserve a room for the Marriott again this year, but I'm also hesitant because if for some reason the Marriott fills up, we're pretty much shit out of luck. But I don't want to reserve a room for the Sheraton and then end up getting a room for the Marriott and be out 200 bucks from the deposit.

I don't know what to do or what the best course of action would be.

Reserving a hotel is without a doubt the shittiest part of this whole thing. Just way too stressful.

Last year my girlfriend and I were on the phone for about 45 minutes after they opened reservations while constantly refreshing their website and after being on hold for that long something finally opened up online and we found out they were sold out almost instantly. Just such a pain in the ass because if we can't get a room, I don't know what we would do.

So I finally spoke with someone named Jason at the Hyatt. He didn't seem to know a whole lot. They did indeed have an early check out incentive where they let people reserve 2013 via paper application if they checked out early. I heard this was around 300 people but he was not sure. They will have some suites at a discounted rate, but unsure if they will be on passkey. He did not know if there was a deposit, but he thinks there will be a one night deposit. He was unsure about transfers, but said he does not think that is allowed.

Sigh. I will be emailing him and he says he will get back to me when he knows for sure.

I'm still confused about passkey. How do you make an account?

You don't need an account.  A link will be provided at some point, and you use that to make the reservation. (In theory - we crash their servers every year and it's a HUGE headache.)

Ok thanks. So just pay attention to the D*Con website on the 10th then I guess?

I know I'm going to have shitty luck with this. I recently tried to purchase earlybird tickets to a music festival and we brought their servers down. By the time it came back up (20 minutes later) they were sold out. I hate dealing with this crap.

I would pay attention here, on the D*Con LJ and the D*ConRooms LJ as well - sometimes the D*Con page is the last place to be updated.

I'm getting REALLY tired of this entire freaking system. It's opened its self up to massive amounts of scalping and fraud, and a lot of long-time con goers have been royally screwed over.


One question for anyone in the know - is the Sheraton charging a deposit up front? Is it refundable or not?

Although we have stayed at the Marriott for the past 5 years, we decided to forego the hassle of booking at the Marriott for '13. Way too stressful and to be honest, our stay this year had too many little problems-none convention related-that we're reluctant to do it all again next year.

We booked at the Hilton when it became available through the wretched PassKey yesterday at 3:00PM (thanks Pat Henry for the tip-off).

We love the fact that the Marriott is centrally located, but that aint enough to draw us back for 2013.

Marriott Oct 10 @ 9am. I checked with Ms. Cooper and the Marriott still does not have DragonCon rate suites. And to reserve a suite you need to book no earlier than one month prior. She also said that when you book on passkey you will now have to give a deposit of one night that is non-refundable. Also you may not transfer the reservation to any other name. She does not have the website or event number available yet.

Hyatt Oct 2 @ 10 am.  I heard that they already let the first 300 people who checked out book for next year. I have been trying to get in touch with someone at the Hyatt to confirm this and ask other questions.
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Is there any confirmation on these dates for the Marriott and the Hyatt? I can not find anything that gives these dates.