Homeless in Boulder

Not really homeless, just without affordable lodging. During this past weekends 3 night Phish run in Camden, I was alerted that the prime reservation I scored with Rocketmiles may be suspect. I called the Millennium Harvest House and in fact there was no reservation. Called the concierge at Rocketmiles, they eventually offered a hotel in Longmont, 14 miles away. That was not acceptable. Eventually Monday at noon the got us a reservation in Boulder. Checking in today the desk clerk looked at a list and said that a call never came confirming the reservation was paid. 

It seems the 3rd party Priceline, Rocketmiles ect are using, are not following through with the hotels

https://www.dailycamera.com/2019/07/02/trouble-ahead-100-deadheads-witho...

Trouble ahead: 100+ Deadheads without rooms for weekend after Millennium Harvest House overbooked

Two and a half weeks ago, Timothy Espinoza booked a relatively cheap room at the Millennium Harvest House Boulder for the upcoming Dead & Company shows using Priceline.

Even though the third-party booking agency confirmed his reservation Friday, two days later — just five days before the first of two Boulder shows — Priceline called him to tell him the Millennium Harvest House failed to update its site with the correct reservations, which resulted in the hotel being severely overbooked.

Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer

The Millennium Harvest House in Boulder was overbooked by 100 rooms for the weekend.

Before the 269-room hotel could post up-to-date bookings, it was overbooked by 100 rooms. Those who booked their rooms through the Millennium Harvest House will have their reservations honored, but many of those who used third-party booking sites will simply be refunded their money.

While Espinoza was able to use the money to partially cover a room at the Hilton in Denver, he said a lot of the other people he knows coming to the shows are not so fortunate. With 24,000 tickets sold for Friday night’s concert and another 31,000 tickets sold for Saturday night’s show, most hotels were booked solid long before this week. Those rooms that remain are either too expensive or too far from Folsom Field.

“It would have been nice to stay right by Folsom,“] so I could have partied and not had to worry about a DUI while driving down to Denver or paying for an Uber, but at least we are fortunate enough to be able to pay for another room,” Espinoza said. “Some people paid every last penny they had to get there. That used to be me, so I know how frustrating this could be, but at the end of the day there’s nothing you can really do but smile, smile, smile.”

Bob Trotter, general manager of the St. Julien Hotel & Spa, said overbooking can be a problem for smaller hotels that don’t pay someone to double- and triple-check that the correct reservation numbers are being posted to their sites, but no other hotels in town have yet to report a similar issue.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. While Deadheads were once known to be a rather disheveled and rowdy crowd, as the fan base has aged over the band’s 54-year career, many of its fans have grown up to become quite successful. As a result, many of the hotels in town plan special events catering to the jam band’s passionate fans.

“It’s a darn good weekend for the St. Julian,” Trotter said. “We’ve enjoyed really good business and really good guests for the Dead & Company shows we’ve had here. They spend a lot of money locally, so we just have fun with it. We even changed the names of all the menu items to reference the Grateful Dead. ”