Hotelpocalypse: San Diego Comic-Con 2023 Hotel Size Guide

Hotelpocalypse is almost upon us, but as we announced on social media, you don’t have to wait to start planning your strategy. The list and price of this year’s hotel options for the General Hotel Sale have been released, even as we still wait for news of an official date and to see if anything has changed in the process.

So, for fun (and to keep you more informed), we’ve broken down the numbers on hotel rooms at all of the hotels in the Comic-Con hotel block. It’s important to note that these are total number of rooms, and at most if not all the hotels, a certain percentage of rooms is left out of the room block – though those rooms not in the hotel block often go for insane rates (looking at you, Hilton Bayfront). Even if we knew what that percentage of non-room-block rooms was at one hotel, there’s no guarantee it’s the same at each hotel – so we’re just going to suggest you subtract at least somewhere around 10% from these numbers, and take all of this with a grain of salt. But, it’s an interesting experiment anyway.

And what it also means for you is that as you plan which hotels to choose in Hotelpocalypse (last year, you could select anywhere from one and up to 12 hotels), you may want to choose a hotel with more rooms available.

For downtown hotels only, there are 12,375 rooms total (up from 11,823 in 2019) – with the Manchester Grand Hyatt (1,625 rooms), the San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina (1,360 rooms), and the Hilton San Diego Bayfront (1,190 rooms) being the only hotels to feature over 1,000 rooms. The Hard Rock Hotel has 420 rooms and the Omni San Diego Hotel has 511 rooms – meaning it’s not hard to imagine both the why and how of why those rooms get snatched up so quickly.

Here’s a look at the breakdown by hotel:

Area Hotel Name # of Rooms
Downtown Andaz San Diego 159
Downtown Best Western Plus Bayside Inn 122
Downtown Carte Hotel 246
Downtown Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Downtown 235
Downtown Courtyard San Diego Gaslamp/Convention Center 90
Downtown Doubletree San Diego Downtown 333
Downtown Embassy Suites San Diego Bay 341
Downtown Four Points by Sheraton San Diego Downtown – Little Italy 220
Downtown Hampton Inn San Diego Downtown 177
Downtown Hard Rock Hotel San Diego 420
Downtown Hilton Garden Inn SD Downtown/Bayside 204
Downtown Hilton San Diego Bayfront 1,190
Downtown Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter 283
Downtown Hotel Indigo 210
Downtown Hotel Republic 258
Downtown InterContinental San Diego 400
Downtown Kimpton Alma Hotel 211
Downtown Manchester Grand Hyatt 1,625
Downtown Margaritaville Hotel 235
Downtown Marriott Marquis and Marina 1,360
Downtown Moxy San Diego Downtown/Gaslamp 126
Downtown Omni San Diego Hotel 511
Downtown Residence Inn Downtown/Bayfront 121
Downtown Residence Inn Gaslamp Quarter 240
Downtown San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter 306
Downtown Springhill Suites San Diego Downtown/Bayfront 400
Downtown The Guild Hotel San Diego 162
Downtown The Sofia Hotel 211
Downtown The US Grant San Diego 270
Downtown The Westgate Hotel 223
Downtown The Westin Gaslamp Quarter Quarter 450
Downtown Westin San Diego Bayside 436
Downtown Wyndham Bayside 600
  TOTALS 12,375

We’ve combined all the other areas (Airport, Coronado Island, Mission Valley, and Shelter Island) into one list. Of those, only the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina offers over 1,000 rooms (1,053 to be precise) – though Town & Country comes in close with 940.

There are 6,766 rooms total in 2023 (up from 6,009 rooms total in 2022) at these non-downtown hotels – which we’ll be honest, we were a bit surprised to see is less than the number of rooms downtown. However, these are only rooms in the hotel block negotiated by CCI, meaning there are any endless number of both hotels and rooms available outside the system.

Here’s a look at the breakdown by room:

Area Hotel Name # of Rooms
Airport Courtyard SD Airport/Liberty Station 197
Airport Hilton San Diego Airport Harbor Island 211
Airport Holiday Inn San Diego Bayside 237
Airport Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina 1,053
Coronado Island Coronado Island Marriott Resort 300
Coronado Island Hotel del Coronado 757
Mission Valley Courtyard San Diego Mission Valley 317
Mission Valley Days Inn San Diego Hotel Circle South 280
Mission Valley Doubletree by Hilton SD Hotel Circle 219
Mission Valley Doubletree by Hilton Mission Valley 300
Mission Valley Handlery Hotel San Diego 217
Mission Valley Hilton San Diego Mission Valley 350
Mission Valley San Diego Marriott Mission Valley 350
Mission Valley Sheraton San Diego Hotel Mission Valley 260
Mission Valley Springhill Suites by Marriott Mission Valley 135
Mission Valley Town and Country Resort 940
Shelter Island Bay Club Hotel and Marina 105
Shelter Island Best Western Plus Island Palms Hotel and Marina 227
Shelter Island Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn and Suites 182
Shelter Island Kona Kai Resort Spa and Marina 129
  TOTALS 6,766

Even assuming that most folks in town for San Diego Comic-Con are going to be rooming with other attendees, and that some get their rooms outside the system, there are only 19,141 total rooms available in the hotel sale (and that’s best case scenario, if every single room at each of those hotels was made available to attendees – and we’re very sure that’s not the case). There are well over 130,000 attendees, and while 19,141 isn’t a lot to squeeze them into, it becomes even more difficult when most of them want to stay downtown. That’s why every year after the cancellation deadline, there are still hotels available in Mission Valley and the Airport. It’s not that attendees can’t find somewhere to stay, it’s that it’s just not downtown.

Math is hard, but it’s not hard to see why Hotelpocalypse has become the monster that it has: Supply and demand, baby.

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