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Hilton Prague screws over ICANN delegates

Kevin Murphy, June 2, 2012, 08:55:29 (UTC), Gossip

Lots of people attending ICANN’s public meeting in Prague later this month are complaining that the venue, the Hilton Prague Hotel, has rebooked them into hotels miles away.
It’s not clear how widespread the problem is, but I’d guess dozens of people are affected, judging by the chatter.
Amusingly, given recent events, it appears that a technical glitch with the hotel’s booking system is to blame.
One attendee, who was bumped to a hotel an hour’s walk away from the venue, was told the rebooking was “due to the unexpected circumstances with the reservation system”.
The Hilton is the venue and the first-choice hotel for the week-long meeting. ICANN had negotiated a special rate for attendees.
It’s not the first snafu to hit a meeting hotel recently. Last October, the venue one of the hotels chosen for the meeting in Dakar, Senegal, was slammed as smelly, dirty and insecure by many delegates.
However, with regard to the Prague snafu, I’ve been unable to confirm whether ICANN has filed an official complaint with the Czech minister of telecommunications yet.
While DI is attending Prague, your humble reporter is not affected by the mix-up. I’ll be sleeping on public transport and doing my morning ablutions in McDonald’s as usual.

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Comments (15)

  1. theo says:

    Sounds like you need more DI PRO subscribers :p

  2. jam says:

    People on the inside said this was planned and done on.

  3. I got bumped and booked my room on March 16th

  4. Michele says:

    It seems to have impacted people who booked via ICANN or who used the ICANN group code.
    Anyone who booked directly with the Hilton without using the group code appears to be OK

  5. John Berryhill says:

    Many people mistakenly believe Kafka wrote fictional novels and short stories. As I learned before in Prague, he was more of a guidebook author.
    As a general rule, customer service in the Czech Republic will make you feel as if you’ve interrupted someone who is contemplating suicide. Trying to cheer them up will only earn you their contempt.

  6. John Berryhill says:

    Wait until they experience the airport:

  7. Gerber says:

    American people always think that USA is great and the rest of the world sucks. So funny.

    • John Berryhill says:

      Every culture has its quirks. Czech beer is vastly superior to what is sold as “beer” in the US, and waitstaff tends to be so intrusive that they might as well have a seat at the table and dominate the conversation.

  8. RR says:

    FYI the information on this blog is not actually correct: the Dakar venue was not the hotel that had issues, but it was one of the hotels CLOSE to the venue. The venue was a standard 5 star hotel, not smelly, nor dirty.

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