Yay Westercon, Bah earthquakes. Also, how to use Priceline.
Bah for today:
we've discovered that we can't get earthquake insurance on Ye Olde House until we get the earthquake retrofit done. That's not the problem. The problem is that the retrofitting contractors know they have us by the 2x4s, and have way upped their prices from when we last got quotes. /Bah.
Yay Westercon:
We will be going to Westercon this year, and we'll mostly likely be throwing a party as we did at LACon last year.
Westercon won't be as big as Baycon (I've read in a random spot on the web), but will have just as many if not more authors*. Concentrated SF goodness, that. (We had to miss Baycon this year- the first time in a decade. Fruit flies, doesn't it.)
Westercon 60: June 30 (Sat) - July 3 (Tues) + Friday events + an extended dead-dog party on July 4th. San Mateo Marriott's, San Mateo, CA, USA = very close to San Francisco Airport (SFO). Find a good flight and come on out.
How to use Priceline right
If you're thinking about flights or hotels, Priceline can be useful if you use it right. We used it to get a $25/night hotel in downtown Toronto, for example. The secret is to know
1. what Priceline's base price is, that is, the price they bought a block of hotel rooms at, and
2. how to make multiple bids. PL implies you can only make one bid per day per (Date+Rating), but you can make more.
Informed Priceline at BiddingForTravel helps with both- we've been using it for a few years now. The forum gives you the information you need to make multiple bids, and the other users tell you what prices worked, which tells you where to start bidding.**
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* Kage Baker and L. Bujold? Sold by the B's alone.
Let me make up an example. People in IP tell you that 4-star hotels in downtown SF often go for $60, so your first bid is for downtown, 4-star, $60. PL rejects this, but tells you they'll let you rebid for, say, $120. You laugh at PL, and instead expand your acceptable regions to Downtown Or WestSF, 4-star, $70. For this made up example WestSF does *not* have 4-star hotels, so you've changed your bid without changing it. PL accepts $70. You're happy.
we've discovered that we can't get earthquake insurance on Ye Olde House until we get the earthquake retrofit done. That's not the problem. The problem is that the retrofitting contractors know they have us by the 2x4s, and have way upped their prices from when we last got quotes. /Bah.
Yay Westercon:
We will be going to Westercon this year, and we'll mostly likely be throwing a party as we did at LACon last year.
Westercon won't be as big as Baycon (I've read in a random spot on the web), but will have just as many if not more authors*. Concentrated SF goodness, that. (We had to miss Baycon this year- the first time in a decade. Fruit flies, doesn't it.)
Westercon 60: June 30 (Sat) - July 3 (Tues) + Friday events + an extended dead-dog party on July 4th. San Mateo Marriott's, San Mateo, CA, USA = very close to San Francisco Airport (SFO). Find a good flight and come on out.
How to use Priceline right
If you're thinking about flights or hotels, Priceline can be useful if you use it right. We used it to get a $25/night hotel in downtown Toronto, for example. The secret is to know
1. what Priceline's base price is, that is, the price they bought a block of hotel rooms at, and
2. how to make multiple bids. PL implies you can only make one bid per day per (Date+Rating), but you can make more.
Informed Priceline at BiddingForTravel helps with both- we've been using it for a few years now. The forum gives you the information you need to make multiple bids, and the other users tell you what prices worked, which tells you where to start bidding.**
-----------
* Kage Baker and L. Bujold? Sold by the B's alone.
Let me make up an example. People in IP tell you that 4-star hotels in downtown SF often go for $60, so your first bid is for downtown, 4-star, $60. PL rejects this, but tells you they'll let you rebid for, say, $120. You laugh at PL, and instead expand your acceptable regions to Downtown Or WestSF, 4-star, $70. For this made up example WestSF does *not* have 4-star hotels, so you've changed your bid without changing it. PL accepts $70. You're happy.