[Dublin 2019 Worldcon chair James Bacon asked File 770 to help distribute the hotel information being released by the convention today.]
By James Bacon: From the chairs desk: Important Hotel information.
Last weekend, we had our first all-staff meeting in the Convention Centre Dublin, which was the culmination of considerable amounts of work, and it went very well.
One of those pieces of work has been the ongoing negotiations with our facilities, including hotels, and it became clear that despite great efforts, our hotels are more expensive than we would like and the booking arrangements are less than we had hoped for.
We have considerable discounts off current Dublin rates, but like one’s airline ticket, one has to pay up early to get the best price. Rates generally also include taxes and a full Irish breakfast, but even so we would have liked to have done better.
This is not the news I want to give, and I am sorry. Yet we agreed that it is important that we are honest and upfront about the situation with all our members as soon as we realised how things stood. Hence, we are using all communication channels, as we hope that fans who are forewarned can plan and find solutions that suit them, and we will work to provide a range of offerings.
We will be publishing our price list in August, and opening general hotel bookings in January, and hope this will allow you to be informed, and make both provision and plan for booking of your accommodation.
We are continuing to work on other offerings, and are pleased with the student accommodation options we have so far, but recognise that the hotel situation in Dublin is not akin to other cities where Worldcon has been hosted.
The convention is not tied to any one hotel by contract. We will have a wide range of contracts, and therefore booking elsewhere yourself independently of the convention is not an issue for us at all.
Most of all, I am sorry we do not have better prices for you all, but we are really working hard on this and hope we can manage it as best we can with you.
We will share our prices in August, so people can plan accordingly. Here is the information we have: https://dublin2019.com/location/hotels-accommodation/.
For those with room-related access needs, you’ll be able to make reservations in December 2018, before general booking opens. In addition, our Access team of Paul and Jen are available at [email protected] for any queries.
My very best as ever,
James Bacon
Update 05/02/2018: Added paragraph about access contact.
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“Below is the information we have.” Is there more somewhere?
Dublin 2019, an Irish Wordcon’s web site is: Dublin2019.com
The page this announcement appears on does not look like it has a “below” but there is a link to their Hotels and Accommodation page.
There is also this added paragraph on the annoucement page:
Their Facebook page appears to offer more/different info.
https://m.facebook.com/Dublin2019/posts/1320688151366932
Thanks, Ultragotha and Mark! I should have searched, but I was in a rush to get somewhere.
Sounds like some creative planning will be needed by a lot of folks. I am doubtful of being able to afford the trip at this point, even with prices lower than these, but I hope those who can will find a way. I’m sure it’s going to be wonderful.
Lenora Jones, there are many B&Bs, AirBnBs, and hostels in Dublin that are convenient to the CCD. Anything on the red Luas (tram) line would be convenient. I stay at a hostel near the bus station when I go to Dublin. Cheap and very convenient.
The “below is the information” is in both the version James sent me and on his chair’s blog, where there also is no obvious info, so I have edited the post to include the Dublin 2019 hotel link where there is information.
Thanks, Mike!
Although it’s in the city center, not near the convention center, I stayed at a hostel-style arrangement on the Trinity College campus last summer when I visited Dublin after the Helsinki Worldcon. The rates were astoundingly low–and I mean “less than Motel 6 low”, but I should note that the accommodation I stayed in wasn’t at all accessible, being a third floor walk-up. In terms of travel to the convention center — roughly equivalent to the downtown hotels for Helsinki. I wouldn’t have even known about it until it popped up in a search on hotels.com.
ETA: And I see that the con’s website mentions “student dorm / hostel” arrangements as one of the things they’re looking into.
The last time I was in Dublin, I stayed at Jury’s Inn, an Irish budget hotel chain, and was pretty happy with the accomodation standard. Unfortunately, the other big European budget hotel chains, Ibis and Premier Inn, don’t have any hotels in Dublin city centre.
Yay, info. Boo, not super-promising. Yay, student rooms, apartments, etc. may make it less €€€ than it sounds. :-/ We’ll see how it goes, I guess.
I had a poke around after the location was confirmed and concluded that to have a room suitable to my needs (accessible hotel; room service breakfast included; very near the convention) then I’d be handing over about four times more than I can hope to afford even with plenty of saving up time. I’m not surprised that they couldn’t get the rates down as much as they would have liked. Most of the cheap options aren’t very spoonie-friendly.
I’ll do my best not to sulk too loudly and obviously about being stuck at home with my nose pressed against the glass again. 🙂
(The breakfast might seem frivolous but in a situation where I have to be able to save as many spoons as possible for Doing Things then having it turn up at my door with no effort required is pretty important. And I can’t just skip it because: medications. Same for needing minimal to non-existent travel time. Mornings are the hardest time of day for me.)
Meredith, have you considered room-sharing, or would that require too many spoons? There might be a Filer or two willing to go in with you on a hotel room and even perhaps bring you breakfast. (I’d offer, but I won’t be able to cross the Pond for Worldcon.)
@Cassy B
It would be less about my spoons* and more that I’m an objectively terrible roommate and shouldn’t inflict myself on innocent bystanders. 🙂 I have sleep issues related to pain and insomnia and painsomnia that make me a fairly disruptive person to try and sleep near. Plus the equipment I drag in tow takes up a lot of space (my wheelchair is small, as wheelchairs go, but it doesn’t fold up).
*Possibly a bit of a drain? Hard to tell. I haven’t shared a room with new people for years – I’m not sure whether it would hurt my ability to recharge.