This is how it happens. On Saturday the Calgary World Fantasy Committee sent out a warning that their hotel is filling up. If you were on the ball, like I was, then you booked immediately. If you left it a day, like Jonathan, you got an “unavailable” message. That’s how quickly a room block can fill.

But you see, it isn’t really full. As I discovered in trying to help Jonathan, the day that is full is Sunday. Other days you can book fine. Why does this happen? It is like this. Not everyone attending a convention attends for the full period. Some people can only get away for the weekend. Others can’t afford more than a couple of hotel nights. So inevitably the convention sells fewer rooms on the “shoulder” nights than on the main nights of the convention. Everyone knows this will happen, so when the convention and the hotel agree how many rooms will be available at the cut price convention rate each night they allocate fewer of them on the “shoulder” nights.

Which is fine, except for WFC, because Sunday isn’t really a shoulder night. Officially the con finishes after the banquet on Sunday lunchtime. If you are in Saratoga Springs it isn’t too hard for many people to go home after that. After all, a large proportion of the attendees live in New York, or at least in the North East of the US. Getting home on Sunday afternoon from Calgary is a very different prospect indeed. So probably most of the people going to Calgary want to stay there Sunday night. And now convention rooms for Sunday have sold out.

With any luck the Calgary committee will be able to go back to the hotel and get more rooms added for Sunday. But in the meantime, please don’t panic. The entire hotel is not sold out. You can book rooms if you don’t include Sunday night in your request.

More news as and when I get it.