Hotel Day is less than 48 hours away

 10 APRIL 2023

We knew the hotel lottery was lurking in our new future - but did anyone have Wednesday the 12th as the most likely date? Today news of the impending sale, announced with less than 48 hours to go, spread over the Internet like wildfire. And predictably, people began to freak out.

As you probably know, there have been a few changes over the last few years - and the same is true this year. If you haven't been around lately, here's the deal.

• You can request 12 hotels from anywhere - not just 6, and not just 6 downtown and 6 elsewhere.

• We will find out our room assignments - or lack thereof - all at once on the 17th. You won't have to prolong the agony by waiting for a 2nd batch of emails a week later.

• The form now asks for your Member ID "class." Volunteer, press, pro, etc.

• There are a bunch of fees listed that you may want to check. I honestly can't remember if these were there before but some looked new. 

• I didn't see any mention of logging into our Member ID accounts to access the sale - just a link. But I assume we will again have the little walking dude who tells us our ETA for getting picked.

• I've heard a lot of talk about whether the links are unique and can we share them. Most think they aren't. I haven't checked mine for a unique hash. 

ALSO - remember the people who had their badges cancelled because they copied another person's waiting room session URL. Essentially, people who had only a few minutes to go shared those waiting room URLs (not the original link) and people successfully got in and bought a badge, only to have that badge revoked. I don't know if that would apply to this hotel sale but I wouldn't risk it.

My advice remains the same as always: study the form, note where your favorite hotels are on the list, and try not to lose your mind. Even if you don't get the email of your dreams next week, there is still the wait list. And lots of us have safety rooms reserved, which we'll release if/when we get a room in the lottery. The hotel room swirl is always a stressful few weeks but most people do eventually claim a room they're satisfied to call their own.

Good luck. I will live blog Wednesday morning.