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.

It's time to be practical and pick an Early Bird room

22 JANUARY 2020

The Early Bird sale is live! Most of you already know what that is and how you feel about it; this blog post is for the rest of you.

Tender young first-timers have no idea of how grim the SDCC hotel lottery really is. All of the special luck and positive karma you normally have will fail you during that lottery, even if you lead a charmed life otherwise. A very few people wind up with downtown cream of the crop rooms; most get a distant room or nothing at all. There's the waitlist, there's the wrangling and trading and dealing of rooms that go on between attendees, but by and large it's just a horrendous and devastating process.

But then there's Early Bird. This opportunity - unsung, unloved but immensely useful - lets you book a room now. You need to pay up front and it's nonrefundable. The room won't be downtown but it will be on the shuttle route. You can book it and settle back, serene and secure from now until July, while the rest of us crawl over broken glass through hell. Just be aware: the Early Bird option will only stay live for a few weeks and then shut down before the lottery. So you can't wait and see how you do, then grab a room. You have to choose now. It's a quintessential Comic-Con dilemma, isn't it?

My hotel pick for Early Bird is once again Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. It's a very quick shuttle ride up Harbor (just 3 miles so any Ubering isn't going to kill your wallet either) and you'll still feel reasonably close to the action. This hotel is better than what many of you will get in the lottery - so please consider it.

You can book your Early Bird room here.

Be realistic about your SDCC downtown hotel dreams

6 FEBRUARY 2019

 

Hey, hey, it's almost Valentine's Day. And if you're calculating just how much to splash out on your latest paramour, remember that another expense is looming in your future - the deposit on your San Diego Comic-Con hotel room.

Early Bird's been running for a few weeks now, but most of the hotels - even the best one, Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina - are still available. That tells me that hope still springs eternal among Comic-Con attendees, who year after year prefer to gamble on the hotel sale lottery and its dismal odds, rather than choose the sure thing that is an Early Bird room.

(In case you're a first-timer who doesn't know what Early Bird is: You can book a room now, paying all nights up front. The lodgings aren't lux but they are definitely yours and you can skip the existential horror that is the SDCC hotel sale. Read the details here.)

Most of you are familiar with the terrible SDCC hotel lottery. If you're not, know that it's actually worse than the badge sale in some ways. A very tiny number of people squeak into good downtown hotel rooms; everyone else either thinks they did well but winds up with a motel by Sea World, or they think they'll get a Sea World motel and wind up with nothing. Somehow the assignment email always manages to surprise and devastate.

Even worse, it's an anxiety that lingers. You find out about Hotel Day and get nervous; it comes and goes; you wait for the first batch of hotel assignments, wait another week for the next batch, wait for the wait list to go live. Etc. It's torturous and it just goes on and on.

So why am I bringing this up now? Because I just tried steering a first-timer toward Early Bird and she got insulted and informed me she was deciding between the Marriott or Hilton Bayfront. Okay then! That's kind of like deciding between an invite to the EW party and a private dinner with Jason Momoa, in that neither is going to happen for 99.7% of us. And I'm not saying that to be mean; I just want to manage expectations, because Hotel Day is rough.

What you can do now:

• Book an Early Bird room. (Again, the Sheraton is closer than a lot of the hotels you could get in the lottery - just saying.)
• Start making back-up plans for a hostel, time share, family friend's sofa, etc.
• Team up with roommates to afford an egregiously priced downtown room outside the CCI sale.

Most likely you'll roll the dice on Hotel Day. I know that. But before you sail into those waters and get dashed upon the rocks, consider steering your ship into the safe and welcoming harbor that is the Early Bird sale. Most of the hotels are on the shuttle route, you'll save money and you can spare yourself the anguish of waiting for that email that never says what you want it to.

Like this one:



Or this one:

Just think about it. Early Bird - you can settle your hotel business now and skip the gut-wrenching anxiety storm soon to descend on the rest of us.



ETA: I should clarify a few deposit facts. I know some of you are new to SDCC and you're probably baffled and maybe a little panicked about the hotel rates you're seeing online. So here are your options:

Early Bird: If you book a room this way, through CCI, your rates are quite reasonable but you have to pay your entire bill now.



The hotel lottery: This is also through CCI. While you are not guaranteed a room, any room you do get will be significantly discounted over what you'd pay otherwise. (Usually.) The lottery works like this: you jump into a waiting room (sound familiar?) and wait to get picked for a session. Once you're picked, you enter your personal information and your top choices for downtown and non-downtown rooms. Later you get an email with an assigned hotel (which often is not one of your choices) or you get an email saying you got nothing. (See above.) If you're assigned a room, you'll be asked to pay a 2 night deposit. So if you get a room that's about $300 a night, you'll need to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 plus taxes and fees. It's refundable for a while.



Random hotel rooms you find online: You can prowl around the websites for Marriott Marquis, Omni, Manchester Grand Hyatt, Horton, Hilton Gaslamp and other downtown hotels but you'll usually get a "no rooms available during those dates" message. If you are allowed to book a room during SDCC, the rates will be astronomical. Don't let despair drive you to this level unless you can truly afford it.


FWIW, I have a safety room at the Gaslamp Comfort Inn, half a mile from the convention center, $550 a night, no deposit, cancellable til 3 July. Not my ideal, but I know I have a downtown roof over my head no matter what. If you are as risk-averse as I am, calculate what you are willing to spend in a worse case scenario and see if you can arrange a back-up. It'll make the hotel sale a lot less stressful.

Did you get your SDCC hotel room yet?

14 FEBRUARY 2018

Happy Valentine's Day! If you were a normal person, your thoughts tonight would be on romance and gifts and the highway robbery that is the price of a fancy dinner reservation - but because you're a San Diego Comic-Con devotee, you're probably just thinking about hotel rooms. And not for Valentine reasons.

We are in traditional SDCC hotel room season. You know how these weeks feel. Early Bird rooms are available and you can't decide if you should be practical and resign yourself to a lot of shuttle rides or gamble on Hotel Day. You want the actual sale to happen but you dread it too. There's never a perfect answer where you can get a reasonably priced room that's refundable and downtown and a sure thing. Your options are pretty much:

• Pay an obscene rate to book a downtown room of your own accord
• Pay a cheap rate for an Early Bird room that is ... not downtown
• Pray to the SDCC gods to get lucky in the Hotel Day sale

You know it's brutal if you've survived the last few sales. It really does seem to get more hopeless each year. And it's not just the sheer bad odds of it all; there's always some kind of unforeseen glitch that gives you the wrong form, boots you out entirely, freezes you, erroneously cancels your room because someone else has the same last name, etc. Hotel Day has become far more stressful than the badge sales for most of us - and let's be honest, this year won't be any better.

On that cheerful note, let's talk about two things - the Early Bird Sale and the hotel sale date.

The Early Bird Sale is still live. However, the best hotel in my opinion - Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina - is sold out and so are 4 others. 6 hotels still have rooms, including the reliable Town and Country. One reason you should pursue this option: because chances are high that you won't do any better during the actual hotel sale. That includes those of you who are lucky and special and sympatico with Fate. I used to always score too - something I chalked up to my glowing Comic-Con karma, and then one day I got this:

Another year I landed at Town and Country. Last year I zipped right into the sale in moments and wound up "downtown" at Bayside - still involving a shuttle ride. If you're well connected, you might feel confident about landing a trade. But there are increasingly more people wanting to trade than willing to make a trade. And a weirdly deluded group who think someone's going to give them their Omni room in exchange for La Quinta Inn.

I know you're probably going to bet the farm on Hotel Day. That's just the kind of risk-takers we are. But remember that it's one or the other - Early Bird shuts off before the sale.


Speaking of, we still don't know the date of Hotel Day. CCI has created a tradition of emailing me my worst results while I'm at Emerald City Comicon - so maybe Feb. 28 (2 weeks from today) will be the magic day. I cancelled an Oregon hiking trip on this day and 3% of my reason was the impending hotel sale. But it's just as likely that the first 2 weeks of March will be the time, and slightly less likely that the latter 2 will. Given how unpredictable CCI has been with sale dates, who really knows. They love to surprise us.

Most of the good backup rooms have been snapped up if you're looking to book on your own. But you should still look and work whatever San Diego connections you have to see who has a condo, guest room or timeshare they might loan out. Lots of attendees are open to finding roommates.  If you're the type who just wants a pillow, a couch and a shower, consider teaming up with a larger group. You'll have more options at a cheaper rate.

The point is that you can take control of your fate - sort of - by amassing a few options, which will make Hotel Day feel a lot less fatal. Because it's coming and we all know it'll be gruesome. Do what you can now to build yourself a safety net.

Snap up your Early Bird room right now

7 NOVEMBER 2017

What exactly is CCI intending to spring on us in the first 6 months of 2018? At the rate they're going, we'll have Open Reg after Thanksgiving, the hotel sale in early December and the parking sale right after Christmas. They are on a roll.

Today they announced that the Early Bird hotel sale is live. Which means this post is for those of you who romantically believe in your CCI destiny. I used to be one of you. I loved Comic-Con, I was devoted to it, surely the gods of lodging and nerddom would gift me with a decent hotel room, right? Then I got one of these:

If you've gotten locked out of the hotel sale, you know what a kick in the teeth it is. You battled the badge sale odds and won, and now you have no place to stay! And it's not getting better - the hotel sale gets tougher each year for some reasons we understand and some we don't, but what it boils down to is that you cannot count on getting a downtown room - or a room at all - in the hotel sale.

But you can lock down a hotel room in the Early Bird sale easily and peacefully, and you can do so right now. No, the rooms aren't downtown, but most of the hotel sale rooms aren't either. My Early Bird choice remains the Sheraton, a mere 3 miles down the road and just a quick shuttle ride away. But that's me - your choice depends on your personal criteria.

Pros of Early Bird

You have more control over your hotel choice.

You really don't have jack to worry about for the next 8 months.

You can save money by paying (contextually) reasonable rates.

Cons of Early Bird

You have to pony up now for the entire stay.

It's nonrefundable.

You won't be downtown.

Again, though, on the downtown issue - last year out of a sample group of 30, only one person (me) got a downtown hotel - and it was Wyndham Bayside, the farthest-away downtown hotel you can get. It's not quite 2 miles from the Con where the Sheraton, available from Early Bird, is 3 miles. So - you're literally talking about the difference of just over a mile, and one was easily procurable and one was obtained through sheer, unlikely luck in a blood battle. 

Just something to put your odds in context. As someone whose luck died hard in a Carribean casino this weekend, I know that sometimes it's better to err on the side of prudence. Especially when it comes to having a comfortable Comic-Con.

I will admit that I am not doing Early Bird, but that's because I already have a downtown safety hotel booked. If you don't, and you lack the kind of San Diego connections that could help you find a couch to crash on, you should really consider this. When Hotel Day results roll around and all your friends are crying and homeless, you'll be glad you put a roof over your head the pragmatic way.

You can start your Early Bird journey here.

There are no more CCI hotels left

2 JULY 2017
 

Depending on your balance of luck and organizational skills, you may or may not have had to hunt for a SDCC hotel room in July before. Usually at this point, everyone has their lodgings locked down. And for those who don't, people previously have been able to do 1 of 3 things:

1) Take a room from someone who has to cancel their Comic-Con plans
2) Book their own room at an area hotel, since some of those reservations are cancelled as well
3) Reserve one of the few remaining hotels in the CCI/Travel Planners/OnPeak system

This year is different. There are no remaining hotels in the CCI system. Before we've usually had a few stragglers left - not the hotels you wanted to book, but places that still put a roof over your head. People coped and moved on. This year we'll probably see a few more rooms flicker in and out of existence but there's no sure thing for anyone to bank on.

Hopefully all of you have somewhere to stay by now. If not, you should keep checking Gaslamp hotels; they will have more cancellations over the next few weeks but they won't stay on the shelf long so be diligent. There are also more distant hotels with rooms available.

But overall, the gruesome experience that was the SDCC2017 hotel hunt just underscores two moves to think about for 2018:

• Go through Early Bird to book your hotel. This year more than ever showed how unlikely it is that you'll get a downtown room. You may as well go for the sure thing, even if it's not in the Gaslamp. Look at it this way; I got into the hotel sale by 9:01 this year, earlier than most people, and wound up getting the Wyndham Bayside. (I gave it away.) That's considered a downtown hotel. Early Bird offers the Sheraton just a short distance down the road. If you're going to be riding the shuttle either way, what's the difference?

• Book a safety room. I know this seems expensive but if you can come up with the extra $$$ and find something refundable, it's the way to go. Rooms are already available for SDCC 2018 (I have a refundable room at the Keating booked) and they range from the Hyatt at $850 a night to the Dolphin Motel for $320. Keep looking and try to find a deal. You'll breathe so much easier once you get your badge.

I know right now everyone is glad to be done with the badge and hotel sale madness, and people just want to focus on announcements. But as with all things Comic-Con, it pays to prepare. If you feel fairly committed to going to San Diego Comic-Con next year, even if you only pull down a Sunday badge, create a safety net now. The 2018 hotel sale isn't going to be any prettier.

Reminder: the Early Bird sale won't last forever

17 APRIL 2017

I speak to you today in a spirit of pragmatic pessimism. You know that the official San Diego Comic-Con hotel sale is just around the corner. And if you're like most attendees, you're hoping to score a downtown room.

But if you lived through the last few Hotel Days, then you know how unlikely that is. Landing a discounted room for Comic-Con has gotten tougher and tougher, and the sale itself - bizarre glitches, an inexplicably high rate of failure, the frustrating lack of control - sends up an annual outcry from attendees.

(First-timers who think I'm exaggerating, Exhibit A and B and C.)



With that in mind, you may want to consider the Early Bird sale. Rooms are already selling out but there are still some hotels left (including my recommendation Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina). I know these aren't your dream hotels, but this process at least offers you some control, unlike the hotel sale proper. Shuttle service is always available, so you can still party till all hours and make it back to your room safely - for free. And if you're a Hall H camper or any kind of overnight-line person, does it even matter where you stay?

Just something to consider. Early Bird will close when the real hotel sale happens, so you won't be able to crawl back to this as a safety option should you not get a room in the sale. If you want to book a room without drama, if you want to avoid the below email - seriously, consider Early Bird.





And one final suggestion: if you're looking for a roommate, don't wait for the sale. Start asking around now so you can team up together during Hotel Day.

Early Bird Hotel Sale is on

23 MARCH 2017

If you scored a badge in Returning Registration and you want to spare yourself from entering the hellmouth that is the SDCC hotel sale - then you'll be happy to hear the Early Bird sale is on.

What it is: your chance to book a room now at the hotel of your choosing. The catch: the hotels are not downtown. Most are on the shuttle route and they tend to be reasonably priced, though, so this is a good option if you're not aiming for the Hilton Bayfront. The other catch: you have to pay upfront and it's non-refundable.

As always, I have to recommend the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. It's a quick shuttle ride to the Con (3 miles or so) so you don't have that same stranded feeling you can get out on Hotel Circle. I stayed there in 2005; it didn't impede my social life at all.

I know a lot of you don't have a badge yet, or you're hoping to upgrade in Open Reg - so you don't know if you should jump on this or not. One option is to split the reservation with someone and book just the weekend or Weds/Thurs; then you can still come down, do the outside events if you don't get a badge, and not waste a lot of money. If you do get a full badge, you can look for a downtown hotel for the other days. Or you can book all 4 days and find someone to take over your reservation for you if you get lucky elsewhere.

We all know the hotel sale has become increasingly hellish each year - so don't write this off. I know we all want to stay at the Marriott Marquis, but it's an option for only a tiny percentage of us. If you don't have the stomach for the horror of Hotel Day - Early Bird is your best bet.

ETA: Early Bird typically lasts a few weeks. With Open Reg in early April, it'll probably still be live then, end shortly after the badge sale and be followed by Hotel Day a week or so later. Just my theory.

Time is running out for Early Bird

21 MARCH 2016



Happy Spring Equinox! Just a reminder that the weeks are passing and it'll be April before you know it - so if you were thinking of taking advantage of the Early Bird Sale, as many smart attendees will, don't wait much longer. It cuts off on 5 April.

If you're one of those mostly-offline attendees and are saying, "Early Bird what?" - here's a rehash on why you should consider it.

Everyone else: get ready for what last year was easily the most stressful sale of the Con. Yes, I'm talking about Hotel Day.

The Early Bird Sale is live - Hotel Day in April

3 MARCH 2016





Right now CCI is making an offer many attendees shouldn't refuse: the opportunity to book a hotel room for San Diego Comic-Con without any guesswork, melodrama or digital meltdowns. The Early Bird Sale is live again and ready to put a roof over your head this July.

What the Early Bird Sale is

Certain hotels are now letting you book rooms at discounted rates for Comic-Con. Generally speaking, these are among the cheapest rooms you will find - cheaper even than Motel 6 in high season.  There's no lottery, no mystery, no tech snafus (usually.) You can just leisurely enter the sale, view your options and book a room.

Why it's a good option


This is the most non-stressful sale you can experience with Comic-Con (other than buying a Toucan t-shirt or something.) You can control which hotel you stay at, something not possible with Hotel Day. The prices are very reasonable, especially if you're splitting 3-4 ways. The free CCI shuttle runs to these hotels - you won't need to pony up for cab fare and you'll walk less than if you were staying downtown. Plus - and this is going to sound like I'm just putting a brave face on it but it's true - escaping the Comic-Con circus at night can be a godsend. And the shuttles run 24/7 so you can still come back downtown for a 1 a.m. assignation with that Doctor Strange cosplayer you met in the Starbucks line.

Why lots of attendees ignore Early Bird anyhow

Because they want to stay downtown. There was a time in my Con-going life when more attendees cared about saving money and actually wanted to stay out on Hotel Circle. I drew gasps of horror one year when I said I was staying at the Marriott Marquis (before the "Marquis") because it was so expensive - these days saying you have a room at the Marriott is more likely to draw an envious reaction. Did we all get richer or just more willing to shell out for high-priced rooms? I don't know, but I rarely hear anyone mention money these days when it comes to snapping up downtown rooms.

The real obstacle here is availability. There just aren't enough downtown rooms to go around. Don't forget you're competing both with other attendees and the vendors, pros, celebrities and staff that also descend on Comic-Con. There are a lot of them and they generally outrank you when it comes to booking rooms. But everyone thinks they'll be the lucky exception so they generally ignore Early Bird and gamble the farm on Hotel Day.

One drawback worth mentioning is that Early Bird asks you to pay for all your nights upfront - nonrefundably. This is something a lot of hotels ask for anyhow if you book on your own; and with Hotel Day, you'll be asked to make a 2-night deposit that's refundable for a short time. But the prospect of paying 4 nights upfront and being trapped into it for all eternity makes attendees squeamish.

One good compromise you can make

The Sheraton on Harbor Island Drive is only 3 miles up the road from the Con and just a quick shuttle ride away. I stayed there around …. 2005? And not only was the shuttle timely and quick (even accounting for Con traffic) but the breakfast buffet was killer.  Nothing against the other hotels in the Early Bird Sale, I'm sure they're fine. But I would recommend the Sheraton as a reasonably close and reasonably-priced hotel that you can book without a lot of fuss. You'll be able to come and go from the Con pretty easily if you want to drop off bags of stuff or just take a mid-day shower or disco nap.


Every year people ignore the Early Bird Sale, then howl with outrage when they go through Hotel Day and wind up at a distant Best Western anyhow. So before you write it off, really consider it. Remember, if you do take the sensible path here, you get to feel smug a few weeks down the road when the other attendees are suffering through Hotel Day.

ETA: Oh, and I guess I buried the lede here - it looks like Hotel Day will be in early April, based on Early Bird shutting down on 5 April. In other words, it looks like CCI will manage to again sully Emerald City Comicon week with SDCC hotel stress. Go figure.


ETA II: A few people have asked for my thoughts on how Hotel Day will differ with a new vendor in the mix. If there's one thing I'm terrible at, it's predicting CCI's decision-making process - so I'll just say I have no idea. Maybe it'll be the same as always; maybe it will be radically different. What won't change is the intense competition for a limited number of rooms, so I'm still heartily recommending Early Bird.

First-timers, if you're thinking to yourself, "How bad could the regular hotel sale be?".... Pretty bad is the truthful answer you probably won't believe anyhow.

Prepping now for San Diego Comic-Con

29 FEBRUARY 2016



Now that Open Registration furor has cooled, those of you who got a badge for San Diego Comic-Con have probably shifted from disbelief and joy to more practical concerns like...

1) How much money will you need?
2) When will the hotel sale happen?
3) Is there anything special you should start doing now?


So let's go over that.

Think about hotels.

I outlined this previously, but here it is again - Early Bird Sale I expect to happen shortly, followed by Hotel Day. Right now you need to decide whether you want to opt for certainty and economy by doing the Early Bird Sale, or gamble your fate on Hotel Day. More details on that as they get announced.


Tithe your income to SDCC.

Unless you're a member of the Comic-Con 1%, you need to start a special SDCC fund now. Why? Because over the following months you'll see parties, comedy shows and concerts advertised with online ticket sales. You'll try to get into a Nerd HQ panel. You'll want to do an exclusive pre-sale. And when you arrive at the Con, all those vows you made to rein in the spending will go out the window. You'll run into an old friend and go out for drinks somewhere swank, you'll see the rare action figure of your dreams, you'll feel tired and take cabs instead of walking. Save money now.

Sell your nerd stuff now, not later.

For some reason, first-timers often think that SDCC is the best place to sell off their collectibles. It's not. I don't know if it's the worst, but it's not ideal. Other than a few lightning strikes where you and a vendor turn out to be soulmates, most booths are trying to unload as much merchandise as possible. Many operate on a thin profit margin besides and are very nervous about making back their money, as opposed to feeling generous. Collect all those back issues and figures now and sell them however you can - Ebay, OfferUp, your local retailer - and pocket that cash. You'll get to enjoy a newly spacious house before you fill it up again in August.

Plan your marketing game.

Maybe you're just going to network; maybe you're going to participate in Portfolio Review or Comic Creator Connection; maybe you're going to stalk a certain agent and dazzle them with your brilliance. (That last one is not recommended, actually.) Start thinking now about how to put your best commercial foot forward and the materials involved - business cards, a prettier landing page, sample work, a new domain. I know it seems like you have months to get it done but the next 5 months will fly by.

Build up your stamina.

You don't have to be super-buff to get through Comic-Con - but if you're severely out of shape or just not used to walking, you're going to be sore after 1 day. You'll stand in line quite a bit. You'll sit in uncomfortable positions in hallways. You'll walk hither and yon all day and night. Your mind will want to go a Friday night cosplay party, but your feet will beg you to stay in your hotel bed. Be kind to your future self and start walking or biking daily now.

Get to know the SDCC community.

You will always, always, always, find out the most valuable information - which secret concert is happening, how to get a certain autograph ticket - by befriending other attendees. Read the blogs and forums, ask who's going in your other digital communities and fandoms, and get connected. You'll pick up countless tips that will serve you well later.

Start thinking about your costume.

Yes, I said "start." I'm not talking to you cosplay fanatics who pay monthly storage fees to house all your props and costumes and staging. Attendees who are new to cosplay but think they'd like to try it often leave this to the last second. Don't. This isn't like a Halloween party where everyone's costume is terrible and you're all drunk after 2 hours anyhow so who cares. At SDCC, you'll care. You don't have to be professionally polished - but you will want to make sure your cosplay fits comfortably, can hold up while moving in a crowd, won't suffocate you or make you sweat too much and isn't too itchy. Spend time in it, make sure you're not flashing anyone when you move a certain way, and ask your friends for suggestions. That last is really helpful when you're doing conceptual cosplay.

First-timers - be aware that the majority of attendees wear street clothes, not cosplay. There's a general impression that everyone dresses up, but no, it's quite optional.


Overall, you can expect this schedule between now and Comic-Con. Other than the hotel sale, the next two months will be quiet. Around May, you'll begin hearing about events and a few exclusives and releases, and then in June the pace will pick up. By July, monitoring SDCC developments will be a full-time job. Expect your productivity at work to drop and all your unbadged friends to tell you to stop talking about Comic-Con. Your mind will be a circus of all the screenings, parties, panels, tournaments and toys you're anticipating and then finally - you'll be walking through the doors of the convention center.

In other words, enjoy this lull while you have it.

What you need to know about SDCC hotels

22 FEBRUARY 2016

If you scored a badge to San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, your thoughts have probably turned to hotels. There are 2 top truths you should know right off the bat:

1. Yes, you can easily get a hotel room for Comic-Con.
2. No, you probably won't get your dream hotel room for Comic-Con.


If your hotel situation knowledge comes from the Twitterverse, you probably think it's a bloodbath where there are only a few rooms to satisfy the hordes of attendees, who are scratching and clawing their way into anything with 2 pillows and a minibar. That's not true. It's just that most of us want to land at one of the closest hotels - the Hilton Bayfront, the Marriott Marquis - and those rooms are in very short supply.

However, you can get a good hotel room at a reasonable price and get free shuttle service to boot. I feel like this gets overlooked every year, but it's true. So here are your 3 main options:


#1. Participate in the Early Bird sale.

CCI offers a bunch of hotels at discount rates via the Early Bird Sale. These rooms go slowly because they're not downtown - they involve a ride on the free Comic-Con shuttle. They are some of the lowest-priced SDCC hotel rooms you'll find. The drawback: you have to pay for all the nights upfront and it's nonrefundable. However, if you're definitely committed to going to SDCC (and I'm pretty sure you are) that shouldn't be much of an obstacle since you generally have to put some kind of deposit down no matter how you book. Early Bird is a peaceful, budget-friendly option compared to the next two, and I really recommend it.

When to expect it: very soon.

#2. Participate in Hotel Day.

If you thought Saturday's badge sale was stressful, Hotel Day is worse. It's first come, first serve, a principle torn asunder on last year's Hotel Day by hang-ups, weird pages that shapeshifted into alternate forms and of course that SDCC classic, getting the digital boot. It was really quite stunning to witness. I'm going to assume CCI has somewhat patched up the system (and it's possible they scrapped it and came up with more of a lottery one) and that it will go more smoothly this year. You might be asking yourself: why would anyone put up with this? The answer: for a shot at a downtown room. The fact that it's somewhat reliant on skill/speed and not just luck makes many people positive they'll prevail.

However, there is still an element of chance. Not just in accessing the system, always a gamble, but also in that you'll be asked to pick 6 hotels from a list. A few days later you'll get an email telling you where you've been assigned. Yes, that's actually how it works. You might read something great like the Omni, you might read a hotel you've never heard of like Humphrey's Half Moon Inn, or you might read - as I did last year - that all hotels were assigned by the time I submitted my form. (180 seconds from the sale going live, FWIW.)

After you live through that, the system opens back up and you can dig around and see what rooms are available. They generally aren't that great. Last year there was a side option where you could book those top-shelf rooms at the Marriott and Hyatt and Hilton but without the CCI discount. Not only that but last year - this actually happened - the official page never went live at the advertised time, leaving most attendees waiting and waiting. In the meantime, other scrappy attendees fished out an old link, found it worked, and went in and started booking rooms.

Seriously - do Early Bird if you can.

When to expect it: this will happen after Early Bird, probably in the latter part of March.

#3. Book your own room.

It's an option. There are some hotels that don't participate in CCI's plan and others that do but keep a few rooms for the public. Most are booked by now. Still it doesn't hurt to call around and see what you can get. My first-timers booked a downtown hostel for a very cheap price last year at a very late date. And there's Airbnb but of course be careful with how you handle that.


I'll get more detailed on the nuances of SDCC hotels as we go on but in the meantime, you should be thinking about these options right now. Early Bird will probably happen very soon so stay alert and be ready to make a decision on your hotel choice.

Are you nervous about Open Registration?

10 FEBRUARY 2016



Because it'll be here soon, ruining your Saturday morning and possibly your entire year, or filling you with anticipatory bliss for the next 6 months.

As many of you know, the double-punch of Open Reg and subsequent Hotel Day is in many ways the most stressful part of San Diego Comic-Con. The upside is that once you get those locked down, you can breathe easier and let yourself get excited when the announcements start rolling out; the other, less-appreciated upside is that once you know for sure you are not going to SDCC, you can make plans for other Cons this year. You'll have to move through the 7 stages of SDCC grief first, but you will get there eventually.

If you're an old hand at SDCC, you can disregard the rest of this. First-timers, this is what you can expect over the new few months.

Open Registration

If you haven't yet gotten a Member ID, do that now. At some point relatively soon, you'll get an email telling you the date and link for the Open Registration badge sale. This is an online sale in which you are competing with a gazillion people for a limited number of badges. The process itself isn't that complicated but is still an emotionally grueling experience for most of us. As we get closer, I'll post more info on navigating the sale. For now, just make sure you've got your Member ID locked down, that your comrades can say the same, and be sure you have enough space on your credit cards to pay for badges. Also look into joining a buying group; see me if you don't know anyone to join up with.

Early Bird Hotel Sale

Either right before or right after Open Reg - probably after - we'll have the Early Bird Hotel Sale. Here you can pick a hotel and book a room without going through the mind-scrambling horror of Hotel Day. (See below.) The drawbacks: you have to pay up front and the hotels are not downtown. But with downtown rooms in such limited supply anyhow, this is a great option for pragmatists and people who want to save money.

Hotel Day

CCI's very special hotel sale offers discounted rooms at all of the hotels they have a deal with - but these rooms have been increasingly hard to get in recent years. (This isn't their fault; in fact CCI has put serious effort into keeping rooms available and affordable for attendees.) Last year's Hotel Day was a circus that you had to see to believe, with people getting hung up (like me) and other people getting shapeshifting pages and a dozen other weirdnesses. I got in and timestamped three minutes into the sale and got nothing. Then when reservations opened back up, in addition to the discount rates, there were rooms available at insane prices like a thousand dollars a night. Want to sidestep this chaos? I recommend the Early Bird sale for those of you who aren't set on staying downtown. Shuttle rides just aren't that bad. For the rest of you, be ready.

Those are the 3 big events to anticipate over the next few months. (The parking sale is also a humdinger but that affects a smaller number of attendees.) So if you haven't already, watch the tutorials on YouTube, start saving money, start making friends online and get ready. Once all this gets underway, you'll be riding a psychological rollercoaster.

Booking safety hotels for SDCC 2016

27 JULY 2015

Today I did something I haven't done in several years: I booked a fully refundable downtown safety
room for San Diego Comic-Con 2016. It was a bit of a rush, to be honest - something I thought was lost forever. Years ago I would book the Horton Grand or some other not-first-choice hotel as a backup and then let go of it when I scored on Hotel Day. (And I always scored, until this year.) Then everything started getting non-refundable and I just released the whole concept of backups.

Thanks to "Ace," the best attendee in the world and my very own Winston Wolf - he also got me my room at the Hard Rock and my Conan tickets - that just changed. I have a backup, a good one. Since you're probably curious, it's Hotel Z at 6th and Island - a new hotel, close to the convention center. They're now reserving rooms for next July. With only 96 rooms and reasonable rates, it's selling out fast. (Be aware that I'm working other hotel room angles so I'll probably let go of this room at some point; check back with me in the spring if you fail to get a room on Hotel Day.)

If you're still licking your wounds from last Hotel Day, you might be considering your own safety room action. A few things to consider:

• Start now and be tenacious. I visited my top 2 hotels in person at the Con to see if I could charm or cajole anyone into an advanced booking. Was I successful? Not at all. But a nice man did give me a date to start checking and a specific person to contact, rather than just letting me go through general reservations. Lesson here: even though it's still too early for most hotels to book SDCC 2016 rooms, you should find out all you can. Sometimes you'll get the right person on the phone, play to someone's sympathetic side or discover a side door. On that note...

• Do call on the phone instead of going through the site reservation app. Possibly you hate making phone calls; I do too but a human will sometimes do for you what an algorithm can't. Get names, make any personal connection you can, and see if you can find out who to call back a few months from now. Run through all your special discounts and memberships and see if the hotel makes an exception for any of them.

• Don't just contact hotels on the Travel Planners grid. There are quite a few other hotels in the area, even downtown. Commenter Ferd swears by the Comfort Inn Gaslamp, an easy walk to the convention center; do your research and you'll come up with a list of options.

• There was a whole bizarre mix up last year involving lost Omni reservations through Hotwire. It all worked out fine in the end, but it does bear a lesson: if something seems to be too easy or perfect, it probably is. Do your due diligence on any opportunity you find. And check back on any reservations you make.

• Before you panic and invest 2-3K in a non-refundable, distant room, remember Early Bird.  I realize these rooms are a shuttle's ride away but they are a sure thing (again, I recommend the Sheraton just 3 miles from the Con) and reasonably priced. And you don't have to make a decision until 2016, after you'll actually know whether or not you have a badge.

• If you've never been to SDCC but are gunning for next summer with fire in your eyes, you're probably determined to get your room now and worry about a badge later. To which I would say... slow down, maybe. Odds are not in your favor of getting a badge. It would be a shame for you to spend thousands on a hotel room and airfare and then realize you can't even get into the convention center. Yes, there's a lot to do around the Con but it's crowded and insane and just one ginormous outdoor madhouse, if you want to know the truth. Slow your roll and go through the normal channels of the badge and hotel sales.

Good luck. And remember, it's never too early to start thinking about your next Comic-Con.

Reminder: these are the final days of Early Bird

21 MARCH 2015



By now you've probably poured over the list of official SDCC hotels and thought about all the places you'd like to stay. If, however, the element of chance is too much for you - or you aren't sure you can hit the sale exactly when you need to Tuesday morning -consider the Early Bird sale.

I really thought this would come closer to selling out this year, but most hotels are still available. I think people have forgotten how awful it was last year when the hotel reservation system opened back up - not Hotel Day, but the day later on when you could finally go into the system on your own and see what kind of trading you could do. It was mayhem. So let's hope the system's been upgraded this year.

At any rate, Early Bird lets you skip all that for a nonrefundable fee at a non-downtown hotel. These aren't bad hotels by any means and not nearly as far away as some hotels you could end up at on Hotel Day, so give them a look and decide if this is a good option for you - and act fast if it is, because Monday is the last day you can go this route.

Reminder: Early Bird Hotel Sale ends in 3 weeks

4 MARCH 2015




Just a reminder that Early Bird ends on 24 March. That's Hotel Day; the annual legendary day when we all flood into the system and fight for the hotel room of our dreams. Right now, though, Early Bird is giving you the opportunity to skip the bloodbath and book a reasonably priced room of your choosing.

Virtually every first-timer I've talked to - and there are a lot of them this year - have ignored Early Bird. "We want to stay where the parties are." That's valid as long as you recognize that so do over a hundred thousand other people. And there just aren't enough downtown hotel rooms to go around. Remember that the top hotels like Marriott Marquis, Hyatt and Hilton Bayfront are going to be housing the other half of SDCC: celebrities, producers, famous artists and writers and all their friends. So if you want to go ahead and bet the farm on getting one of those rooms, go ahead - but know it's a gamble.

Again, you don't pick your room on Hotel Day. You go into the system and submit your top 6 choices. The system then chooses your hotel based on first come/first serve and the kind of room you requested. And you can land anywhere. It's a risk, which is why Early Bird is a budget-friendly option for those of you who would prefer to have more control over your room and save some money.

Below are the available Early Bird hotels, including their distance from the convention center and nightly rates. Each one is on the shuttle route. (And yes, these prices are as cheap as it gets for hotel rooms during San Diego Comic-Con. You won't find a better bargain. Even the Motel 6 out on Hotel Circle goes up to 242/night for the Con.)


Best Western Seven Seas: 6.4 miles - 168/night for a 4 night minimum stay.

Courtyard by Marriott Mission Valley: 6 miles - 204/night for a 4 night minimum.

Crowne Plaza San Diego: 5.8 miles - 186/night for 4 nights; 197/night for 3 nights; 208/night for 2 nights.

DoubleTree San Diego Mission Valley: 5.6 miles - 203/night for a 4 night minimum stay.

DoubleTree SD Hotel Circle: 7 miles - 204/night for a 4 night minimum stay.

Hilton San Diego Mission Valley: 5 miles - 189/night for 4 night stay; 194/night for 3 nights.

San Diego Marriott Mission Valley: 6.5 miles - 195/night for a 4 night stay; 205/night for 3 nights.

Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina: 3 miles - 210/night for a 4 night minimum.

Sheraton Mission Valley: 5.2 miles - 185/night for a 4 night minimum.

Town and Country: 5.6 miles - 185/night for a 3 or 4 night minimum.


If your badge type doesn't require the 3 or 4 night minimum, consider staying an extra day and taking advantage of the outside events. My pick is the Sheraton Hotel & Marina simply because it's close and a fast shuttle ride, or inexpensive cab ride if you don't want to wait for a shuttle. The Town & Country is convenient if you're going there Wednesday to get your badge.

But really, any hotel at SDCC is just a place to crash at night; you're not going to be spending much time there. I've seen many people pay outrageous prices for an independently-booked room at the Hilton Bayfront, say, because they were certain they'd be chatting up Nathan Fillion in the elevator or eating breakfast next to John Barrowman. Then none of that happened and they realized it was identical to staying at a Holiday Inn, except closer and more expensive.

The Early Bird system shuts down on 24 March, so you have just under 3 weeks to get moving on this.

Early Bird Hotel Sale is live

25 FEBRUARY 2015



A few weeks back I mentioned the Early Bird Hotel Sale. As of today, it's live.

To summarize for all you first-timers, the Early Bird Hotel Sale is your chance to reserve a room at a discounted rate without suffering through the hell of Hotel Day. Here are the two choices broken down:


Early Bird. You can choose from a limited selection of hotels. They are not downtown near the convention center but closer to the airport and Mission Valley. (And they're significantly cheaper than downtown hotels, too.) You will have to pay nonrefundable rates up front.

Hotel Day. This involves a much wider selection of hotels, including those super-close ones like Hilton Bayfront, Manchester Hyatt, Marriott Marquis, Omni, etc. How it works is like this: it's another nerve-wracking event where we all plunge into the system at the same time and choose our top 6 hotels. A few days later we find out where we were assigned. It could be a hotel we listed or it could be a completely different hotel, including the same ones available right now in Early Bird.

In other words, Early Bird lets you book one of the cheaper hotels, selected by you, with all element of chance removed. If you're wondering why everyone doesn't go for this option, it's because many people want to be as close as they can be to the convention center. If you're wondering why anyone would go for this option, be aware that Early Bird hotels have shuttle service, are moderately priced compared to the Marriott, Hilton and their ilk - and finally, it can be a relief to get away at night from the nonstop circus that is SDCC.

Earlier I predicted that Early Bird would sell out this year before its 24 March deadline. I feel this is a possibility because even though Hotel Day was smooth last year, the day the reservations opened back up (for changes and cancellations and new reservations) all hell broke loose and the system crashed from so many people flooding in. So I think we'll have more anxious attendees than usual this year who aren't willing to bet on Hotel Day - plus, we've already have Open Reg so a lot more people feel confident about booking a nonrefundable room. In other words: get the jump on this if you're interested. 

For what it's worth, my Early Bird Hotel pick is the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. It's not far from the Con at all, and it's a decent hotel.

Some clarity (& guesswork) on registration & hotels

8 FEBRUARY 2015



Apparently I sent a few people into a tizzy last week by posting about Creative Pro Reg and Early Bird. I've gotten a few emails asking how I know these things, what's happening when, did they miss an email and so on. The anxiety is strong with our kind.

To put it in simple terms: I don't know any dates. The below is all deduction and guesswork, but fairly reliable all the same.

• Creative Professional Registration is for creative professionals only. If you're eligible for this, you got an email about it. If not, don't worry about it. This is not for attendees.
• Open Registration is for attendees and no, I don't know the date. I predict late February possibly but early-mid March is more likely. If you have a Member ID, you will get an email telling you when it is.
• Early Bird Hotel Sale will probably kick off in a few weeks.
• Hotel Day has been reported as being in late March.
• The Ace Parking Sale will probably be in April or May. If you remember what a hot mess it was last year, you might speculate that they've overhauled the process. So I find it hard to call this one.

If you're still anxious about missing something, just make sure your Member ID has the right email address and that you've opted in for email notifications. Make sure you have a credit card with enough room on it for badge-buying. If you want to team up with others for the sale, start asking around.

But overall you just need to stay attentive. The next 2 months will be probably busy with the sales we loathe/anticipate so much, and after that will be 2 months of hearing all the media announcements about events and promotions and exclusives and panels - and then will come those final weeks of packing and obsessing over Comic-Con.

See? Nothing to be anxious about at all.

Early Bird Hotel Sale looms in the near future

3 FEBRUARY 2015




Just a half-reminder, half-estimate that the Early Bird Hotel Sale will probably kick off in the next few weeks.

If you don't know what that is, here's the deal. You have 3 ways to book a hotel room for SDCC.

• You can book one on your own (not easy as many rooms are already blocked off).
• You can participate in Early Bird. This offers everyone the opportunity to book a hotel room at one of the more distant, second-tier hotels. You have to pay up front and the room is non-refundable. If you already have a badge and don't mind staying a few (or more) miles away from the Con, this is a peaceful way to guarantee a room. You also get to pick your hotel.
• You can participate in Hotel Day, which you'll see referred to online as Hoteloween and other charming nicknames. This is a brutally swift contest in which you submit your top choices and then wait for 2-3 days to find out where you landed. Sometimes you get a hotel on your list, sometimes you get a hotel that makes you shudder, and sometimes you don't get a hotel at all. Although that last part is rare.

Basically, booking hotels for San Diego Comic-Con is kind of like the Con version of the good-fast-cheap conundrum. You can definitely book a top-tier hotel, you can have a discount on your room, and you can have a stress-free booking experience - but you can't have all 3.

Back to Early Bird. Traditionally this sale has lasted for several weeks to a month, and there have always been rooms left over by the time actual Hotel Day launched. However, I think there's a good chance that Early Bird could sell out this year. Here's why: last year we had a smooth Early Bird sale, then a smooth Hotel Day, then reservations shut down for a few days like always... and when they went live again, the system crashed spectacularly. I suspect people who suffered through that experience may be more anxious to lock down a room this year and not gamble on their Comic-Con fate.

Then again, I feel like most SDCC attendees are gamblers and optimists at heart, so maybe I'm wrong. We'll see. Sometimes Comic-Con reminds me of how my friends talk about childbirth - you scream in agony and swear you're never doing this again, and then a special fog erases that memory and there you are trying to get knocked up again.

In any case, if you're intrigued by the Early Bird sale, keep an open mind - it really is a calm alternative to Hotel Day and you can save some decent cash if you're disciplined about waiting for shuttles and not splurging on cabs. And some people enjoy getting away from the Con each night.

I expect this to be announced over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.


ETA: Hotel tip from commenter Ferd: He booked a room at the Comfort Inn Gaslamp on his own for  $489 a night. It's 6 blocks (walking distance) from the convention center and it's not part of Hotel Day - so if you're looking to lock something down now on your own, and want to stay downtown , consider this as an option. Yes, it's more expensive than the Comic Con hotels (which range from about 180-300 a night, depending on how close you stay to the Con) but you can skip the stress of Hotel Day and you'll choose your own hotel instead of letting Travel Planners assign one to you.

Updated: please read if you have an Omni reservation

14 JANUARY 2015





Update: Hotwire is aware of the situation and refunding monies as appropriate. Also - Kerry from SDCC Unofficial Blog broke this story and she and the people involved like Transmute Jun deserve a lot of credit for preventing an epic hotel room horrorshow.



Two quick hotel updates... one kind of disturbing.

SDCC Unofficial Blog has uncovered a weird story of people who booked rooms at the Omni for SDCC 2015 through Hotwire - or so they thought. Omni had no record of the reservation and these people are now getting conflicting information about whether or not it's legitimate. So if this is you - do what you have to do to make sure you get a room this summer. You may have thought you could skip Hotel Day but that may not be the case. Everyone else: I know we all love the idea of finding that semi-secret backdoor deal, but they almost always turn out to be shady. Whether it's a hotel room or a badge or anything else, confirm arrangements as much as possible - as these people were fortunately smart enough to do.

On a brighter note, they've also confirmed (kind of) that Hotel Day will be on March 24. Yep, another Tuesday. That means of course that sometime over the next 9 weeks we'll have:

• The Early Bird Hotel Sale
• Open Registration

A word on Early Bird - I predicted last year that this would sell out this year for the first time. Why? Because after Hotel Day, when hotel reservations went live again (they always shut down for a bit after Hotel Day), it was the hottest mess ever. Worse than a badge sale. I suspect that experience will spur a number of people to play it safe with Early Bird. We'll see if I'm right.

As for timeframes, I'm guessing Early Bird will go live somewhere from late January to mid-February and Open Registration anytime from early February-early March. Emphasis on "guess."