Early Bird hotel sale is REALLY early this year

 6 NOVEMBER 2023

I know you all remember last year's hotel sale. It was especially tough IMO - so perhaps that's why CCI has served up the Early Bird hotel sale so soon for SDCC 2024. They want to get these rooms booked while the frustration of last spring's hotel sale is still fresh (or at least present) in our minds. Or maybe they're trying to be responsive to the complaints of, why can't we just book our rooms right after getting our badge like other Cons?

If you've not done Early Bird before, it's an opportunity to serenely book the non-downtown hotel room of your choosing, albeit for an upfront and nonrefundable payment. Is it worth it?

That's your decision to make.

Full disclosure: this summer I paid upfront for a downtown (non-CCI) backup hotel for next summer and I hated doing it. And my room is fully refundable up to July something. It's just not fun to hand over $1K-2K a year in advance. So I frankly can't imagine paying up front for some Mission Valley room now when you know that money will never come back even if you need to cancel. 

And let's be honest: after the hotel lottery, there will be the usual deluded tweets that say "Looking to trade Town and Country for Hilton Bayfront." Lots of people who get Mission Valley rooms dump them back in the pool. It's just not that tough to cough up a distant room, so I'm not sure why people will plunk down their cold hard cash so far in advance.... but I'm sure some of them will.

As always, my pick for this is Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. It's a quick shuttle ride from the Con and you won't feel as stranded in terms of coming home from a late night or going home from the Con and then coming back to the Gaslamp for dinner. That's honestly the only hotel I think is worth it if you really want to escape the agony of the 2024 hotel sale.

Which, speaking of, might be a little early as well next year? We can only guess. CCI is a wily minx that keeps their cards close to their chest - so for now, we'll just focus on getting through Open Registration.