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Brutally Honest RF Journal [x-post from my art acct]
10 years ago
I've gone to Rainfurrest 3 years in a row now and it seems each year my feelings about this convention have become progressively more mixed. Of course, I don't come into it with a negative attitude - in fact, driving down the highway I was very excited to suit, relax and enjoy the company of people I don't often get to see. I don't have high expectations for any convention, but there are some basic requirements that make it a good time. Let me preface this journal by saying my experience with Rainfurrest 2015 was an utter disaster. The hotel service was terrible. A few people at the convention dressed inappropriately, damaged things, or had overall inappropriate conduct that further enforced the negative furry stereotype to hotel management. Of course, not everything was bad, so lets start with the good things.
Good things:
-HUGE improvement in the layout of the convention space. Having the panel rooms all in one area was a great idea and koodos to whoever made that happen.
-I got to hang out with a bunch of people that I love, including many from overseas that I rarely see and I also met a ton of new, wonderful people.
-Getting a hallway of people to sing and dance and be uncomfortable as we played spice girls on a bluetooth speaker!!
...and sadly, that's about where the good things stop. As we drove down to the hotel I couldn't be more excited: hyping up all the fun I would have at the convention, talking with tyinsdarkwulf, dustypinhead and warofevil about the things I wanted to do, panels, suiting, swimming!. Tyins made the best doorsign ever and we got it printed at Walmart. I had this great ideal weekend planned in my head and all would've gone according to plan if some basic requirements were met. Unfortunately, they were not.
I'll start with the hotel problems. After the drive we got to the hotel and were immediately told that our room wasn't available and that there was no ETA. OK, whatever, no big deal. I've had to wait a little bit for a hotel room before. It happens.
Then an hour goes by. Then two. Then two and a half. Waiting. Get reg. Wait some more. See some people. Wait some more.
Finally we get fed up and approach hotel staff who tell us '20 more minutes'. 30-minutes later we approach them again and are told again, '20 more minutes'. FINALLY we are given a room. And the worst part is that there were people who had to wait 6 to 8 hours for their rooms! That is NOT acceptable by any standard. The hotel really dropped the ball.
Of course once we were finally settled in the room I put the checkin thing behind me. Whatever, it was an inconvenience, but not the end of the world. As I was unpacking my stuff, I noticed that there was a little hole in the ceiling of our room and a wire hanging from it. I thought NBD, it was probably just a missing light, we could tell hotel staff about it later. I was worn out from waiting and just wanted to go do something other than sit around for an hour as hotel staff slowly made their way over.
The next few days were fine and the ceiling disregarded - I heard about things happening in the hotel and incidents with other people that quite frankly didn't surprise me. Rainfurrest has an - err - a certain reputation. Other people told us about their room troubles. A friends room was flooded before he checked in and he was told he couldn't get another room in this hotel. He was literally stranded for the night until someone offered for him to sleep on an air mattress. I attended a fun meet and greet panel with Tyins and Wallin. Suited and met new people. Danced a little. Yelled Spice girls with Tyins while Hornet danced. That was BY FAR the highlight of my con. We swam, then went back to the room to sleep and eat.
On Saturday, I had just finished suiting from the parade, and was just undressing when there was a knock on the hotel room door. OK, I thought, we weren't expecting anyone. And we had a DND sign on our door. They knock again and a voice said, "HOTEL STAFF, OPEN UP."
I opened the door and was a little confused. The lady pushed his way into the room and is like, "Yes this is where it's missing" and then calls over an ARMED security guard, an intimidating hotel manager in his fancy suit and convention staff.
At this point I'm VERY confused and so I ask, "can I help you?"
The hotel manager replies, "do you know tampering with a smoke detector is a misdemeanour and carries a heavy fine?"
My face ----> :l wat?
Turns out that the hole in the roof wasn't a missing light, but a smoke detector. Yup. Apparently the Hilton was violating fire code and blamed us! Even though their fire system is MONITORED and if an alarm is removed it would immediately trigger an alert to the system. They thought we'd pulled it out and for god-knows-what reason tossed it into the hall and were threatening to permanently kick us from Hilton properties and we would also automatically receive a 2 year ban from Rainfurrest. Not only that, but they were going to charge us with a crime, which could've jeprodized our ability to even enter the fucking USA. What. The. Fuck.
Tyins and I calmly explained to the hotel manager that we had no reason to do this; none of us smoke, we don't party, we wouldn't jeopardize our attendance at the convention. Tyins is an Hhonors member (probably why we ended up being let off the hook) and we're respectable individuals. However the manager was a condescending asshole and the convention staff didn't even try to back us up when it was clear that we were not the type of people who would do such a thing and were clueless that there was an issue in the first place.
The hotel manager even had the guts to say "There was a dentist convention here before you and dentists wouldn't do something like this" to which I was thinking. "Uh, yes. Yes they would." He also told us that they had checked "every other room" and that we were the only room with a missing smoke detector (obviously a lie). They'd apparently done a fire code audit earlier that month (Tyins very smartly pointed out how audits are often flawed. The manager didn't have anything to say about that).
They were ready to escort us off the property, but thankfully Wallin showed up and saved the day. As in, with all of us there, it was blatantly obvious that we were not the kind of people to cause problems, so the manager just told us that he would be keeping his eye on us and everyone left. None of the people believed we were innocent but they had no evidence we did anything. (As an aside, I later heard hotel cleaning staff complaining about not being paid overtime and being brutally understaffed)
But basically my convention was ruined after that and we were all a little shaken up. We left early Sunday and I hope both Tyins and Wallin also wrote a long letter to Hilton about how poorly their staff handled that situation. I haven't heard anything back from them yet.
The Bad
-Hotel REALLY dropped the ball
-Conduct of many convention goers was less than appropriate
-Some asshole who fucked with their smoke detector almost got us booted from the con
To the people who run the convention: I know that you deal with a lot of shitty people, and this journal wasn't directed negatively at you. You all put in so much effort and ask for nothing back. The convention itself seemed better organized than last year and the events you put on were a lot of fun. The hotel issues weren't your fault, but seriously. The Hilton fucking sucks. If there is somewhere else to move the convention to, DO IT NOW.
To the convention attendees who were acting inappropriately: just stop. You're wrecking it for the rest of us. You almost got 3 innocent people in serious legal trouble and because of you it's unclear whether this convention will happen in 2017.
Will I be going back to Rainfurrest next year? Honestly, probably. I know I'll say no now, but it's hard to pass up a convention where I can get away with spending less than $200 USD for 3 nights because it's so close to home. But really it's hard to recommend on a whole because of the shitty experiences I've had with it.
Worst. Con. Ever.
Good things:
-HUGE improvement in the layout of the convention space. Having the panel rooms all in one area was a great idea and koodos to whoever made that happen.
-I got to hang out with a bunch of people that I love, including many from overseas that I rarely see and I also met a ton of new, wonderful people.
-Getting a hallway of people to sing and dance and be uncomfortable as we played spice girls on a bluetooth speaker!!
...and sadly, that's about where the good things stop. As we drove down to the hotel I couldn't be more excited: hyping up all the fun I would have at the convention, talking with tyinsdarkwulf, dustypinhead and warofevil about the things I wanted to do, panels, suiting, swimming!. Tyins made the best doorsign ever and we got it printed at Walmart. I had this great ideal weekend planned in my head and all would've gone according to plan if some basic requirements were met. Unfortunately, they were not.
I'll start with the hotel problems. After the drive we got to the hotel and were immediately told that our room wasn't available and that there was no ETA. OK, whatever, no big deal. I've had to wait a little bit for a hotel room before. It happens.
Then an hour goes by. Then two. Then two and a half. Waiting. Get reg. Wait some more. See some people. Wait some more.
Finally we get fed up and approach hotel staff who tell us '20 more minutes'. 30-minutes later we approach them again and are told again, '20 more minutes'. FINALLY we are given a room. And the worst part is that there were people who had to wait 6 to 8 hours for their rooms! That is NOT acceptable by any standard. The hotel really dropped the ball.
Of course once we were finally settled in the room I put the checkin thing behind me. Whatever, it was an inconvenience, but not the end of the world. As I was unpacking my stuff, I noticed that there was a little hole in the ceiling of our room and a wire hanging from it. I thought NBD, it was probably just a missing light, we could tell hotel staff about it later. I was worn out from waiting and just wanted to go do something other than sit around for an hour as hotel staff slowly made their way over.
The next few days were fine and the ceiling disregarded - I heard about things happening in the hotel and incidents with other people that quite frankly didn't surprise me. Rainfurrest has an - err - a certain reputation. Other people told us about their room troubles. A friends room was flooded before he checked in and he was told he couldn't get another room in this hotel. He was literally stranded for the night until someone offered for him to sleep on an air mattress. I attended a fun meet and greet panel with Tyins and Wallin. Suited and met new people. Danced a little. Yelled Spice girls with Tyins while Hornet danced. That was BY FAR the highlight of my con. We swam, then went back to the room to sleep and eat.
On Saturday, I had just finished suiting from the parade, and was just undressing when there was a knock on the hotel room door. OK, I thought, we weren't expecting anyone. And we had a DND sign on our door. They knock again and a voice said, "HOTEL STAFF, OPEN UP."
I opened the door and was a little confused. The lady pushed his way into the room and is like, "Yes this is where it's missing" and then calls over an ARMED security guard, an intimidating hotel manager in his fancy suit and convention staff.
At this point I'm VERY confused and so I ask, "can I help you?"
The hotel manager replies, "do you know tampering with a smoke detector is a misdemeanour and carries a heavy fine?"
My face ----> :l wat?
Turns out that the hole in the roof wasn't a missing light, but a smoke detector. Yup. Apparently the Hilton was violating fire code and blamed us! Even though their fire system is MONITORED and if an alarm is removed it would immediately trigger an alert to the system. They thought we'd pulled it out and for god-knows-what reason tossed it into the hall and were threatening to permanently kick us from Hilton properties and we would also automatically receive a 2 year ban from Rainfurrest. Not only that, but they were going to charge us with a crime, which could've jeprodized our ability to even enter the fucking USA. What. The. Fuck.
Tyins and I calmly explained to the hotel manager that we had no reason to do this; none of us smoke, we don't party, we wouldn't jeopardize our attendance at the convention. Tyins is an Hhonors member (probably why we ended up being let off the hook) and we're respectable individuals. However the manager was a condescending asshole and the convention staff didn't even try to back us up when it was clear that we were not the type of people who would do such a thing and were clueless that there was an issue in the first place.
The hotel manager even had the guts to say "There was a dentist convention here before you and dentists wouldn't do something like this" to which I was thinking. "Uh, yes. Yes they would." He also told us that they had checked "every other room" and that we were the only room with a missing smoke detector (obviously a lie). They'd apparently done a fire code audit earlier that month (Tyins very smartly pointed out how audits are often flawed. The manager didn't have anything to say about that).
They were ready to escort us off the property, but thankfully Wallin showed up and saved the day. As in, with all of us there, it was blatantly obvious that we were not the kind of people to cause problems, so the manager just told us that he would be keeping his eye on us and everyone left. None of the people believed we were innocent but they had no evidence we did anything. (As an aside, I later heard hotel cleaning staff complaining about not being paid overtime and being brutally understaffed)
But basically my convention was ruined after that and we were all a little shaken up. We left early Sunday and I hope both Tyins and Wallin also wrote a long letter to Hilton about how poorly their staff handled that situation. I haven't heard anything back from them yet.
The Bad
-Hotel REALLY dropped the ball
-Conduct of many convention goers was less than appropriate
-Some asshole who fucked with their smoke detector almost got us booted from the con
To the people who run the convention: I know that you deal with a lot of shitty people, and this journal wasn't directed negatively at you. You all put in so much effort and ask for nothing back. The convention itself seemed better organized than last year and the events you put on were a lot of fun. The hotel issues weren't your fault, but seriously. The Hilton fucking sucks. If there is somewhere else to move the convention to, DO IT NOW.
To the convention attendees who were acting inappropriately: just stop. You're wrecking it for the rest of us. You almost got 3 innocent people in serious legal trouble and because of you it's unclear whether this convention will happen in 2017.
Will I be going back to Rainfurrest next year? Honestly, probably. I know I'll say no now, but it's hard to pass up a convention where I can get away with spending less than $200 USD for 3 nights because it's so close to home. But really it's hard to recommend on a whole because of the shitty experiences I've had with it.
Worst. Con. Ever.
Maybe do BLFC next year instead, it's about the same price if you drive =p
I guess that's a lesson learned to always report any room damage before you settle in, or else they'll just assume it was you that did it. I wonder if that's what contributed to the delay.
And to the selfish pricks that could very well cause these cons to fold indefinitely, shame on you. Nobody owes you anything, and if you have any idea how much work, personal risk, sacrifice, etc that the individuals that put on conventions make, or if you had one scrap of respect or decency in you, then you wouldn't even think of doing such things.
I'd be in favour for con-wide blacklists to be used as a deterrent against such fucktards, and would have no sympathy to anyone that earns their spot on one.
Regardless, I expect to be treated reasonably by hotel staff when trying to resolve an issue like that. The way the situation was handled was appalling.
I'm glad I skipped that con, but sad I missed hanging with my friends. Oh well, MFF is around the corner. :p
There are a number of reasons a different hotel would be better, though no one seems to know where we should go next. The config of all the convention space at the Hilton is a bit weird and doesn't lend itself well to the convention.
One of the main reasons Main Theater is in the same ball room year after year is because it's the only one with power drops for our lights and sound, otherwise we'd happily move dealers in there. We've been asked to get more dealer space forever.
I heard a few rumors about places to move that are pretty nearby. I didn't know about all the weird intricacies of the organization though, with the stage and power and stuff. Hopefully the convention does find a better space, because frankly after this I don't really want to support Hilton in any way lol.
I like a lot of your suggestions as far as a blacklist for offending trolls. It would have to be tightly controlled as not to cause... issues.
The hotel experience has turned me off of it though. And stricter rules in terms of acceptable conduct would be TOTALLY beneficial.
I almost think that there should be a shared blacklist between all fur cons so people who are caught vandalizing stuff and jeopardizing the ability to enjoy the convention for everyone else could be banned from any convention. But then again, that's just my opinion, because people who go and stuff adult diapers into the hot tub filters are fucking stupid.
That being said, it would've been nice if the convention person who came to our room with hotel mgmt actually stood up for us, instead of just letting the hotel staff throw around blame and totally trash furries in general to our faces. Many of us are working professionals too, just that these conventions are our ways of relaxing and letting lose.
And yeah, I'm not just pinning the blame on the hotel here. There definitely is a reason why they think this way of the group; and they've gotten to witness it first hand, in both the way people dress in public space, or the vandalism, or whatever. It still doesn't justify lumping everyone into that category and treating us like we're scum though.
After posting this journal I've gotten many replies with horror stories at other Hiltons too, and it's certainly got me thinking that they're best avoided in the future.
But hey - for what it's worth - you should definitely go to a convention when you get the chance. Think about this - there were thousands of attendees, and the vast majority of them had no issues (other than long check in time). So seriously, don't let my experience sour conventions in general for you. Out of the 10 that I've gone to, this is the only time I've had issues like this, and that's certainly an OK record.
The community on a whole needs to step back and talk to each other. I think that the biggest issue here is that certain rules aren't being enforced that are - and maybe a blacklist that is shared between conventions is needed for those that break the rules multiple times (so long as it doesn't hit people that are innocent like we were in this case). I can honestly understand the way the hotel manager felt about the group if some of the rumors I heard were true. Certain things should be kept to private space, and from what I heard there was a lot of damage to the hotel by convention goers. It fucking sucks that a few people are literally wrecking this convention for everyone else because as I heard it right now, we're not sure if we will have the same space for 2017.
I hope that even if the Hilton does invite us back for 2017 we can find a better space. Because honestly I don't want to give them any of my business.
A blacklist would be a good idea, and other cons are already using that to keep certain people out. I have a few people in my mind right now that are blocked from other cons.
The hotel probably treated us bad by not putting effort into finding evidence for claims, etc. because we treated them bad. That's what I guess. It's a sick relationship. At least from what I think, some people (trolls) probably just registered for like, one day, and messed everything up before leaving. I've heard people doing that at Anime cons. Of course, some actual furries are to blame as well.
You're right about a few people wrecking it for everyone. Five people got kicked out? There was something like ~2700 attendees, so that's about 0.019%. Lol geez.
But regardless of who's to blame, the Hilton probably wouldn't want us back in 2017.