Re: [Debconf-team] Online rooms booking systems

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 1:54 PM, Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> wrote:

Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.com.au> writes:

> On 23/01/13 18:17, Gaudenz Steinlin wrote:
>> Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.com.au> writes:
>>
>>> Philipp Hug <debian@hug.cx> wrote:
>>>
>>>>> choosing rooms by algorithm only is a sure recipe for desaster.
>>>>
>>>> I don't think we should automatically assign rooms.
>>>> It's better if we let the attendees choose their own room according to
>>>> availability.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Can we come up with some solution where people pay and then manage
>>> their exact location/room mates through a wiki page?
>>
>> I don't think that's a good idea because a wiki does not ensure that no
>> room will be overbooked or else enforce any allocation rules we might
>> want to set. It will create a lot of chaos I fear.
>>
>
>
> I wasn't proposing a complete free-for-all
>
> Another possibility is to use a shopping cart to sell the beds. The
> `stock level' feature of the cart software could be used to limit the
> number of beds sold. People then organise themselves however they like
> through private communications (whether it be wiki, email or whatever)
>
> The only risk is that people have to accept that if they don't organise
> themselves into a group for a room, they will be allocated to any
> available bed at random on arrival - but thanks to the stock-level
> mechanism, nobody would miss out on the category of bed they actually
> paid for.

Has anyone that's been responsible for doing the room allocation bit of
debconf actually contributed any views to any of these threads yet?

As someone who was involved with the room allocation for dc12 I have to agree with cate. Manual allocation is not perfect, but it'll do a better job than implementing a room registration system, even if we end up using it only on the backend.

If we let the atendees do the reservation themselves it will lead to anger and frustration when they end up in another room with other people. And yes, there will be situations when we need to make some adjustments or move people around.

Right now, the amount of people with special accomodation needs/preferences (i.e. I want to share room with X) is not significant. Just imagine how it will be trying to manage 400 people, and each of them with a special preference.

I fear that without their input all these ideas that are kicking around
will just turn out to be noise what one of them turns up and points out
the (probably several) fatal flaws.

I'd be happy to be wrong about that of course.

I think we normally do a lot better than allocating rooms at random, and
even so there are still gripes about it, and last minute changes, so as an
uninvolved observer that approach seems likely to end badly.

Also, I'd like to know what our past no-show and last-minute-booking
rates are, as I have a feeling that they're high enough to break any
assumptions along the lines of "just get people to book way in advance,
and it'll be fine". At least there seem to have been times when the
accommodation team was having to work much harder than you'd expect if
those assumptions were true.

Cheers, Phil.
--
|)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] http://www.hands.com/
|-| HANDS.COM Ltd. http://www.uk.debian.org/
|(| 10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London E18 1NE ENGLAND

_______________________________________________
Debconf-team mailing list
Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org
http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team