No Construction Happening During Saboten! (Final Update)

August 16, 2019

Views 2.71k

UPDATE

Date – 8/19 5:24pm

We got to ask Jon Erickson a few questions about the weekend of Saboten just to make certain the information we have was correct.

Per your questions below, both the Link Café and District restaurant on the first floor will be fully open and operating for the entire Saboten conference. Once the renovation is complete next year, Sheraton Phoenix Downtown will feature renovated rooms and a new lobby.

Thank you, and we look forward to hosting the Saboten conference!

– Jon Erickson, the Director of Sales & Marketing for the Sheraton

Welp! There you have it! Our journey began with a simple notification on the Sheraton website about construction and finished with the Director of Sales & Marketing reaching out to us to help provide concrete clarification.

We really appreciate everyone for supporting us in finding out the details of what convention goers can expect during Saboten weekend! We want to thank Saboten and the Sheraton for taking the time to reach out and provide information to help alleviate the concerns of so many. Just to ensure this is clearly communicated to our readers, we updated the title of this article and will be making a new article about our findings.

9:43am

Jon Erickson, the Director of Sales & Marketing for the Sheraton reached out to us to assist with answering our questions. He states in his initial email to us that “In anticipation of any questions you may have, ALL first floor hotel amenities will be open when Saboten is going on over Labor Day weekend.” We’re sending him our remaining questions just to be sure proper expectations are set!

Looks like Saboten convention attendees will be able to have access to the entire first floor!

Date – 8/18

Saboten has reached out to us providing a screenshot from the Sheraton Event Manager advising that the renovations would begin early morning of 9/3/2019. Due to a disclaimer placed at the bottom of their email it states we can not disclose, copy, distribute, or use it.

Date – 8/16

Saboten has reached out to us directly after we published the initial article below, to correct information given by the Sheraton Downtown Phoenix. The Sheraton claims that the hotel will in fact be under construction during the con, and the entire lobby will be closed. As of now, Saboten insists there will be NO construction during their event which takes place Labor Day weekend.

We here at the Geek Lyfe pride ourselves on reporting the most accurate information, and we made a valid attempt to reach out to all parties, only to receive a reply from the Sheraton themselves. A Saboten representative informed us they had made a deal with the hotel to halt construction during the con weekend. Unfortunately, upon writing this article, we were unaware as our attempts to reach Monkey Paw Entertainment went unanswered until this morning.

Nevertheless, a member of our staff, as well as concerned convention attendees, called the Sheraton to find out for themselves after the post made by Saboten Con this morning. Still, the hotel stands firm that construction is currently happening to the hotel, and it will specifically affect the lobby starting September 1st. Saboten is famous for having their convention on Labor Day, and so we hope that this will truly begin after the holiday and after the event ends.

We were comforted that they did say they are getting an official statement from the Sheraton. In the meantime, Saboten has posted an official statement that addresses the topic of construction at their event. It can be found here!

Unfortunately false information is being published that the entire first floor of the hotel will be under construction during Saboten Con. The hotel has agreed to not do any construction on the first floor during our event as we are one of their largest events and they didn’t want to impact us.

If you were concerned with this information, please know we would have alerted all our fans very early if this were true. So sit back, relax, and know that all the fun on the 1st floor is still going to happen, the bar will be open, the restaurant will be serving food, and all our registration will still be on the first floor.

With only two paragraphs and no official statement from the hotel as of Friday night, The Geek Lyfe was still questioning the validity of Saboten Con’s statement, specifically:“So sit back, relax, and know that all the fun on the 1st floor is still going to happen, the bar will be open, the restaurant will be serving food, and all our registration will still be on the first floor.” With that being said, the Sheraton was telling a different story.

So, just in case, The Geek Lyfe went ahead and called the hotel again in an attempt to get further clarification and to confirm what Saboten released. You can listen to the conversation, or read the transcript below.

This portion of the article was removed due to our mistake of not announcing that we were a media outlet to the representative. Had we known this was a requirement, we absolutely would have done it.

The hotel suggests there will be aspects of the first floor that will not be available, but the lobby will be accessible until the first of September.

The reason for writing this article was to inform our readers of what is happening at their favorite conventions.

We do want to take a moment to say that we really do enjoy Monkey Paw Entertainment events. Many, if not all, of our local staff go to Saboten every single year, and look forward to having a great time. We want to keep our readers informed, and set proper expectations for everyone who spends their hard-earned cash on passes. We’ve all had bad experiences at conventions and had difficult situations sprung on us during numerous Arizona events. If there is anything that may hinder the experience of a buyer, then they should be informed so they can make a conscious decision whether to invest in that event or not.

We will provide any additional information as it comes forward, and will be more than happy to update our article.

ORIGINAL

If you are a fan of our local Anime convention, Saboten, then you no doubt have started looking for hotels. Specifically at the Sheraton in Downtown Phoenix where the convention is held. A number of users have found this to greet them:

We were first notified by our own staff member and decided to reach out to both Saboten and the Sheraton. Saboten has not responded to our emails at this time. However, upon calling the Sheraton, they informed us that a majority, if not all, of the first floor will be unavailable. The lobby’s construction will hold off until 9/1. After the article was published, Saboten reached out. This information is listed in the above Update section.

That means cafe area, and potentially the dining areas will be potentially unavailable during the weekend of Saboten. This no doubt raises a few eyebrows because a huge appeal of Saboten is not actually the anime theme, panels, or vendor hall but the fact that the convention, your room, and the bar are all in the same building. That is what makes it so unique and fun but now that this aspect of the event is going to be unavailable, this dulls the luster of the event just a bit.

Nothing makes a convention better than drinking until you cant feel the pain in your tired feet and getting that boost of liquid courage to gush to your favorite vendors about how amazing they are. With the first floor becoming unavailable, folks are more likely to leave the convention to seek these good times. In an effort to help out the homies, here are a few of our favorite spots around Downtown when they are finished browsing the vendor hall and attending panels:

Crescent Ballroom

Cobra Arcade

Make sure to stay safe, drink water, eat food, and don’t spend too much money this year at Saboten! Have fun and we’ll see you there!