I Didn't Get A Hotel Room - Now What? - San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog

I Didn’t Get A Hotel Room – Now What?

Many of you have heard about your San Diego Comic-Con 2018 hotel placement fate. Many of you… still haven’t, and onPeak has announced that round two e-mails are finished.

Here’s the good news: Comic-Con said that you would be alerted “no later” than April 23 about hotel waitlist options – and there’s always options on the waitlist.

However, if you’re already concerned that you’re going to have to sleep on the ground at Comic-Con (and not by choice) – fear not. You have other options.

So what are your next moves?

Wait for More E-mails: As we said above, CCI promised that attendees would be alerted “no later” than April 23 if their hotel placement request was rejected. That means we may still get more hotel room e-mails between now and next Monday.
Room Trade: One of the positive things about onPeak is that attendees have the option of changing the names on their hotel reservation, and it’s relatively painless. We recommend having the original owner of the reservation call if at all possible. But assuming you get through to a willing customer service rep (which is about 90% of them – usually if you get one unfamiliar with the process, just hang up, call back, and speak to someone else), this means that you can both give and receive any unwanted room reservations to someone who does want it, making two people happy. There are room swaps all over, but the biggest and most trusted is over at the Friends of CC forum. Don’t pay someone to “buy” their hotel room reservation from them, though. Ever.
Cancellations: Some hotels will go back on sale. Deposits for these Round Two hotels are due by Thursday, April 19 at 11:59PM PT. Hotels (yes, even downtown hotels!) will be returned, as often, each roommate in a room will try for a hotel, and then if the group receives multiples, they can cancel the rest. Most of these will be Mission Valley options, but it’s a hotel, and it certainly beats sleeping on the sidewalk. Some of these cancellations may be e-mailed out next Monday with the rejection e-mails, and if not – there’s the Waitlist.
Pray for Waitlist: For at least the last few years, onPeak/Travel Planners has opened up some returned downtown hotels to those who were on the waitlist, or who simply didn’t receive their top hotel picks. This will likely open up sometime on or after April 23
Go Outside the System: So you didn’t get a hotel. You have other options that aren’t the Hall H line, we promise. Although downtown hotels basically want attendees’ first born in exchange for a room (the Hilton Bayfront has rooms starting at just $1500 a night, kids!), with a quick search we were able to find several motels in San Diego for under $300 a night. You won’t be spending much time there anyway. However, we strongly urge you to use caution if considering a room sharing system like Airbnb or VRBO — you can read the good, the bad, and the ugly of using Airbnb during SDCC over here.
Accept Your Fate: If all else fails, if you at least have somewhere to stay — make the most of it. So maybe you’re in Mission Valley instead of the Gaslamp District. There are plenty of Comic-Con shuttles that run 24 hours, or you can even look into renting a car and buying parking. You now have a quiet hotel room to go back to, twice the dining options, and you can still hang around downtown as much or as little as you want. Getting that perfect downtown hotel isn’t the be-all/end-all of the Comic-Con experience, and it only means you won’t have a good time if you let it mean that. Now start planning the fun stuff.