Hotel Day is tomorrow, April 9. You need a Member ID to score a room.

 8 APRIL 2025

I think I put all the salient information in the title of this post, but let's explore tomorrow anyhow. Because a few things have changed. 

But first - what hasn't changed.

It will be super competitive. 

You will mostly follow the same process as before - 8 am PT waiting room, 9 am live, waiting to get picked, having your hopes lifted or dashed in the first 180 seconds.

You don't need a credit card or to make any lasting decisions. If you get a room, once you log into your reservation, you'll be able to change dates, roommate names, etc. So don't go into a spin worrying about how you're not sure who's rooming with who and if you might leave a day early.

Like every other year, you'll have to wait to find out what (if anything) you were assigned. If you don't get into the form very quickly, you probably aren't landing at the Hard Rock. But if you do get in quickly, you can still fail to do as well as you hoped.

On that cheery note...

Here is what is a little different this year.

It's downtown only. I think this is practical since the people who wind up assigned a Mission Valley room often drop those reservations; this approach probably saves the team some effort while cutting to the chase for attendees. Non-downtown rooms will now be available when they open up the general hotel options where you can review available choices and pick one.  

You can only book 2 rooms at a time - it used to be 5, which enraged people who would hear about a superattendee scoring 5 Hilton Bayfront rooms while they got zero. I haven't heard much commentary about this but I feel it will be annoying or pleasing depending on how well connected you are.

And most importantly, you must have a Member ID! This does seem to answer some attendee prayers but since CCI encouraged readers to go make Member IDs in the same breath, it won't really keep outsiders out of our rooms. Well, maybe some.

A word for you renegades who prefer to operate outside the system. If you're opting out of hotel sale stress in favor of an Airbnb - and I can't blame you for wanting to dodge the anxiety - I will suggest participating anyhow. It's a lottery. If you don't score, you've lost nothing. But if you get lucky and score a wonderful room, you'll be better off booking a room through CCI's system in my opinion. There are too many horror stories of cancelled Airbnb rooms after the owner realizes they could score more $$$$ from panicked attendees at the last minute. 

I'll live blog the sale, but really there won't be much to say if it goes smoothly. If there's a classic Hotel Day fail or bizarre tech glitch - well, let's just hope there isn't. But I'll be here to bear witness to your tragedy if there is.

Good luck tomorrow - and remember, you WILL get a room somehow. It might not be your first choice hotel, but who cares? You're going to Comic-Con.