Apparently we'll be homeless for SDCC

26 MARCH 2015

So far every person I know has been rejected from the hotel sale. Self included. I got my submission in at 9:03 a.m. A friend who submitted at 9:02 got rejected. What is going on?

Sorry, but given the long delays other people experienced, and the huge number of people who got the bad form, I refuse to believe that all hotel rooms were gone by 9:03 a.m. I participate in this sale every year and I know what timeframe gets a room. Travel Planners has either screwed this up on a biblical level, or the sale was crashed by tons of outsiders.

How did everyone else do?

ETA 4:45 pm PST:  Okay. I had hoped this was something like TP accidentally sending a rejection email to everyone (at this point, nothing would surprise me.) However, I did just hear from someone who got a hotel - a downtown one. He doesn't know exactly when he got in but thinks it was about 5-6 minutes in. In other words, after me and another friend.

So my feeling is is that something is algorithmically, numerically, formulaically wrong. It could be an error that was already lurking in the system, or it could be that in their panic to help the people who got shafted on Tuesday, TP somehow reswizzled the whole queue. But that still wouldn't explain why so many of us are getting rejected across the board. I just cannot believe that every single hotel is full - on Hotel Circle, on Coronado, out by the airport, every hotel room. Remember, CCI added more hotel rooms this year, but the number of attendees stays the same. So something is rotten in Denmark.

I'm still hoping this is an email misfire.  Let's all keep each other posted.

ETA: 6:57 pm PST. All of the news I've collected so far has mostly been more of the same; a few people got hotels, but the majority got nothing.

If this is your first rodeo, you should know that this is somewhat unprecedented. Yes, there have always been people who failed to get the rooms they wanted, but by and large, most people got something. I've always maintained that everyone gets a room eventually because every year there are a few hotels with all 4 nights available long after hotel reservations open back up. I myself have always landed at one of my picks - and while it's true that I've led a somewhat charmed Comic-Con life in that I always somehow manage to get a Preview Night badge, I didn't get into the hotel sale significantly later than I have in  the last few years when I landed at the Marriott Marquis or Hyatt or Omni.

So what happened this year? I'm thinking we have three options:
1) A lot of outsiders flooded the system. Anyone with the link could have gotten in; that's why I didn't post the link on here. But I did see it shared online and anyone who wants to go to NerdHQ or just come down and take in the sights could have seized the opportunity for a discounted hotel room during Comic-Con.
2) There could be a bunch of people - randos, vendors, professionals - with one or two nights already in the system, blocking people looking for all 4 nights. Some companies might have extra people staying just through Thursday or Friday to help them set up. Others might have blocked rooms just for the weekend if they're sponsoring or attending a party. I am seeing a lot of people with Preview Night or 4-day badges who got nothing.
3) Travel Planners somehow severely effed up the process, either from the beginning or in trying to add in the people with the bad form who manually submitted their picks.

Unfortunately I don't see much of an easy fix. It's not like Travel Planners can cancel existing reservations or discern the badged peoples' reservations from the interlopers. Right now this is looking like one of the worst sale disasters ever - because unlike the days when an online sale simply crashed, there isn't going to be a do-over for this one.