That sound you hear might just be thousands of general attendees, suddenly very anxious now that Comic-Con International has finally given us some more information about the dreaded hotel sale, taking place on April 26 at 9AM PT.
Just like last year, the General Hotel Sale will utilize a randomized waiting room, similar to the EXPO Logic Waiting Room process for badges.
Attendees will be e-mailed a link to onPeak’s system on April 21, and then be able to enter the room at 8AM PT on Wednesday, April 26, at which point they will be randomly sorted and then let through to fill out the form for their hotel preferences. You’ll also be able to call at 1-877-55-COMIC.
Once you get through, you’ll see the form – which is similar to last year’s form – but has changed to allow selecting Downtown and Non-Downtown separately. You’ll rank up to six hotels in each of the two tiers. However, this year you will only need to select one hotel to submit the form. Requests will then be processed based on the order you receive access to the form.
onPeak will be emailing notifications on both May 1 and May 8 which hotel you’ve been placed at, and you’ll have 72 hours to confirm your reservation with a 2-night deposit. Deposits are fully refundable for cancellations before May 15.
Last year’s hotel sale was met with a lot of confusion and the “tossing” of “duplicate submissions” – though we attempted to clear some of it up with onPeak and Comic-Con International after the sale. We confirmed with onPeak that last year, duplicate submissions were based on three factors: phone number, e-mail address, or a unique identifier associated with the user’s queue/waiting room session (likely the QueueID at the bottom of the waiting room). So if you have multiple roommates working together to try to secure a room, make sure you’re using unique information.
Hotel rates include an $8.00 per night reimbursement to Comic-Con to help defray shuttle and convention costs (this charge is subject to change).
The General Hotel Sale is the biggest hotel sale for San Diego Comic-Con, because it’s when the hotels closest to the action (the Gaslamp District downtown, as well as several hotels by the airport and in Mission Valley that are on the shuttle list) become available to attendees at a special, discounted con rate (ranging from $180/night for one person at the Handlery Hotel, up to $352/night for the Hotel del Coronado). You can view the entire list of all 50+ hotels, including prices, by clicking here.
If you’re still considering booking an Early Bird hotel room, you have until May 1 to do so. You can check out our comparison of the two hotel sales here.
You can find more information on Comic-Con International’s site.
We also highly recommend reading our interview from last year with CCI and onPeak, to get a better understanding of what went wrong in 2016 – and hopefully how to avoid some of those problems this year.
Will you be trying to get a hotel? Let us know in the comments
