OK. Back from the Miyako.
First of all, a quick note on the dates, from the San Francisco perspective: The weekends of April 15 and 22 are going to be nightmarish and close to impossible to book in San Francisco, because it's the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The Miyako, of course, is twenty feet from the centre of those festivities: it's in the heart of Japantown.
Jessica, I was taken on a tour of the hotel and shown the mix of rooms we'd be booking: I asked to see and was shown the rooms with two twin beds and the rooms with two double beds. All have the Japanese design: deep soaking tubs inside the glassed room, screens, tansu chests. All the rooms have dedicated internet access lines and port, but the hotel isn't full DSL yet. That may change by next year. So the internet access is there in every room, but it isn't the hot wireless.
I was also shown the completely ADA-compliant rooms in the Garden wing, and erika's prospective room had me drooling. Everything is done with wheelchair access in mind, right down to the marble shower with benches and hand-held multi-spray fixtures. Major yum.
I think all the rooms are at least mostly Japanese in flavour, and I think we can request that.
The hospitality suite/room for prom is the Osaka Room. It's in the basement, at the garden level; I'd say it holds 50 people comfortably. I was given the tour by the assistant manager, but the person I need to speak to, Lili, is up to her ears today, so we'll be talking tomorrow. I explained about the deal at the New Orleans hotel - comped suite if the minimum number of room bookings was met - and he said they offer that kind of contract all the time. A fridge, with our own food and drink, didn't appear to faze them at all; they can also provide the requisite AV equipment and a fridge. There are tables in there; they can provide a PA for Prom, if needed, but then, so can we; I spend half my time tripping over Fender amps and Studiomaster heads these days.
The hotel had a refurbishing after the Radisson chain bought it, but it's still the rock and roll hangout of choice, apparently - Margaret's office is plastered with signed photos from everyone from Megadeth on up. She says they get all the bookings for the Fillmore and the Boom Boom Room (see next post).
I'll do the immediate area localities in the next post.
Now for some details:
I handed Margaret, their events coordinator, three sample dates, and got the following firm numbers. This was based on a block booking of 25 rooms, but she understands it could be as low as twenty and as high as thirty. The dates I'm giving are the Thursday-Sunday morning block; extending that through Sunday night on an individual basis is an option.
6-9 April: $99 per night
11-14 May: $99 per night
18-21 May: $109 per night.
These are, alas, not inclusive of San Francisco's wretched hotel tax of 14%. But those are the prices. Once we narrow down, I can get firmer figures. Also, will get the final best they can do on the Osaka room.
Parking: Hotel valet service, with full in and out privileges, $20 a day. That's a stellar rate for San Francisco. Also, there's the Japantown Garage, two minutes away; full-day rate is $13 (that includes overnight), but I think no in and out privileges.
To be continued.