Hotel assignments + my theory

 17 APRIL 2023

So the final day of reckoning for San Diego Comic-Con 2023 has come and gone. You either got a room assignment email or a "Due to high demand and your placement in the queue...." rejection.

Here's what I think most of us expected. We knew this was the only round and so we expected all assignments to go out. And we're told they did. 

But - were all hotels assigned? Today started out with the big downtown catches - Marriott Marquis (yours truly), Hilton Bayfront, Hard Rock, Hyatt, Hilton Gaslamp, Omni, etc. Then it spread out toward Residence Inn and Westin and Embassy Suites and Sheraton.

But what we didn't see much of were Town and Country, Humphrey's Half Moon Inn, La Quinta, etc. There were a few.  I'm wondering if CCI eliminated the second round since traditionally, many of those assignments went out to people who didn't want the distant room they got and canceled it, finding a roommate elsewhere or something on the waitlist. Maybe CCI figured it wasn't worth it and everyone can just scramble for themselves when reservations open back up. Just a theory. 

Lots of bitter attendees think the date mess is to blame. Depending on how their team applied a fix, that could have shrunk down the number of assignments they could send out. 

At any rate - today was pretty rough. I spoke to people from 4 groups and all of them got only 1 hotel room or none at all. (These are groups of 9 to roughly 20 people.) My group got 3 rooms and only 1 (mine) was a first choice.

But this isn't anything new. I've been shut out completely before, lots of us have. And we're never going to get the behind the scenes details.

So! OnPeak will open reservations back up on Tuesday morning, April 25. I predict it will crash at first as everyone rushes in. But - I would try to get in right away. It's true that rooms will keep appearing and you will find options of varying attractiveness as time goes on. But with such a competitive playing field, I'd try to lock something down now.