Hotelpocalypse 2016: San Diego Comic-Con Hotel Size Guide

Convention Center Hilton Bayfront Hotel Coronado Bridge Traffic Street ViewFor better or for worse, what hotels you chose yesterday and what placement the Comic-Con Gods decided to randomly place you in are going to determine your fate this year. And come Friday when hotel confirmations will likely go out, thousands of attendees will be scratching their heads, wondering, “How did I end up at that hotel?”

So, for fun, 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.

For downtown hotels only, there are 11,058 rooms total – 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.

Theoretically, for yesterday’s sale, this means you can maybe feel a bit better if your number in the waiting room was around 9,000 or less (as again, we don’t know what percentage of rooms isn’t in the hotel sale, and we don’t know how many were let in initially before we even saw numbers, and we also don’t know how many had two waiting room sessions open in that section and closed one). It will be interesting to compare on Friday.

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 Courtyard San Diego Downtown 235
Downtown Courtyard San Diego Gaslamp 90
Downtown Doubletree Downtown San Diego 333
Downtown Embassy Suites San Diego Bay 341
Downtown Four Points by Sheraton 207
Downtown Hampton Inn San Diego Downtown 177
Downtown Hard Rock Hotel 420
Downtown Hilton San Diego Bayfront 1,190
Downtown Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter 283
Downtown Horton Grand Hotel 132
Downtown Hotel Indigo 210
Downtown Hotel Palomar 211
Downtown Hotel Salomar 235
Downtown Manchester Grand Hyatt 1,625
Downtown Omni San Diego Hotel 511
Downtown Residence Inn Downtown San Diego 121
Downtown Residence Inn Gaslamp Quarter 240
Downtown San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter 306
Downtown San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina 1,360
Downtown The Bristol Hotel 102
Downtown The Sofia Hotel 211
Downtown The US Grant San Diego 270
Downtown The Westgate Hotel 223
Downtown Renaissance San Diego Hotel 258
Downtown Westin Gaslamp Quarter 450
Downtown Westin San Diego 436
Downtown Wyndham Bayside 600
TOTALS 11,058

We’ve combined all the other areas (Airport, Coronado Island, Mission Bay, Mission Valley, Old Town, 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 8,429 rooms total 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 679
Mission Bay The Dana on Mission Bay 271
Mission Valley Best Western Seven Seas 307
Mission Valley Comfort Inn and Suites Zoo Seaworld 200
Mission Valley Courtyard San Diego Mission Valley 317
Mission Valley Crowne Plaza San Diego 416
Mission Valley Days Inn San Diego Hotel Circle South 280
Mission Valley Doubletree by Hilton San Diego Mission Valley 300
Mission Valley Doubletree by Hilton SD Hotel Circle 219
Mission Valley Hampton Inn San Diego Mission Valley 182
Mission Valley Handlery Hotel San Diego 217
Mission Valley Hilton San Diego Mission Valley 350
Mission Valley La Quinta Inn Mission Valley 166
Mission Valley San Diego Marriott Mission Valley 350
Mission Valley Sheraton San Diego – Mission Valley 260
Mission Valley Spring Hill Suites by Marriott Mission Valley 135
Mission Valley Town and Country Resort 940
Old Town BW Plus Hacienda Hotel Old Town SD 199
Shelter Island Bay Club Hotel and Marina 105
Shelter Island BW 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 8,429

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 19,487 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 19,487 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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