I ve attended Comic-Con for almost a decade. In all my years of trying to get a hotel room, this wa

With some single day and four-day badges for this year s Comic-Con selling out months ago, it should come as no surprise that Comic-Con ancient egypt tour has announced all badges for the 2010 Convention are now sold out.  That means 125,000 people have already purchased their badges!  Of course, if you waited to buy a badge and are now freaking out there is always eBay.  But for a non-profit convention that takes place at the end of July, the fact that on March 31 it s already sold out tells you something.
While many don t want to see the convention move out of San Diego (myself included), it s clear something needs to happen to let more fans attend geek nirvana.  Cities ancient egypt tour such as Anaheim, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco have made it clear they d love to land convention and many of those cities can offer what San Diego always struggles with: hotel rooms.
I ve attended Comic-Con for almost a decade.  In all my years of trying to get a hotel room, this was easily the biggest cluster fuck I ve ever seen.  The new system promised an easy way to get the hotel you wanted with the promise of rewarding those that filled out the application first.   When they announced the new system, I actually believed ancient egypt tour it was going to work and they d finally figured out a way to deal with thousands of requests every second.
From what I ve put together, if you submitted your application between 9:00-9:07, you made the mistake of trying to follow the instructions.  Because almost everyone I spoke with got a hotel miles away from the convention and one that wasn t on your list (I got one 3 miles away).  But if you submitted your form from about 9:10-9:30, there was a good chance you got a top three pick and a hotel right next to the convention.  Bet you didn t know that.
When I spoke to someone from the company that sells the hotel rooms for Comic-Con, they tried to tell me it s possible thousands of people got their application in before me and that s why I got a hotel 3 miles away.  But they didn t give me a real answer as to why someone who went at 9:15 got the Hilton next door except to say they know there were problems with the hotel reservation system.
The individual also told me they recorded every complaint and they are very aware of how badly the system failed.  They also said they were going to post an update/statement on the Comic-Con website which has still yet to appear.
Look, there is no way to fix this year s hotel disaster.  If you got a room next to the Convention, consider yourself lucky.  But I m already thinking about next year and this hotel room issue is not going away.  When you have 60 to 100 thousand people looking for a place to stay and you don t have enough rooms to accommodate your guests, you have a problem.  That s why there is serious talk for moving away from San Diego to another city that can offer more space.
Also, every year the lines to get into Hall H and Ballroom 20 seem to get longer and longer.  And don t get me started on trying to walk the convention floor. ancient egypt tour  Last year s usually quiet Preview Night was so crowded you couldn t move.  It was like the worst Saturday I have ever seen.
Again, I love Comic-Con.  I love it in San Diego.  But it s clear the Convention is a victim of its own success and things need to be fixed.  Either they have to sell less badges to make it a better experience for everyone that attends, or they need to expand the convention into more of the surrounding hotels for panels. ancient egypt tour Also, perhaps they need to expand into area hotels for more dealers to sell their products.   Maybe offer a big discount to move to the Hilton or whatever hotel can accommodate  5,000 people.  They could have specific segments of the dealer room move.  While this is just a random ancient egypt tour idea that came to me while writing this article, it s clear if the Convention wants to stay in San Diego, radical ideas must be put on the table because the system right now is broken.
Finally, I want to know about your hotel room experience and what you got and at what time you submitted.  If you don t mind leave it in the comments.  Also, if you have an idea on how to fix Comic-Con leave it in the comments as I am sure people are going to read them .
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I ve never been to Comic Con before but my best friend Julie and her sister are going to San Diego this July. Julie is going to Comic Con. She bought her pass when they went on sale. They were supposed to go with two other friends who both cancelled out which meant the price of the room went to a 2 way split instead of a 4 way. I said I d come along but I m fingers crossed that when they re-sell cancelled passes in June, I can get one. Regardless the farthest west I ve been is Fargo, so San Diego will be a treat either way. Still, I d really love to get in at least one day, and try and meet some TV personalities or something. Casts of Fringe and Chuck come to mind.
I ve been going to Comic-Con for the past 8 years. Every year, I ve stayed at a hotel within walking distance. Sure the old system was a pain in the ass, but I always got a room even if it was a few months later when people canceled.
This year, I had my list submitted 6 minutes after it went up (would have been quicker but, the Grand Hyatt wasn t on the list forcing me to pick another last option). I waited several hours and, yes, was placed in a hotel 3 miles away. Unacceptable. I filled out another form a few hours later but it was never dealt with.
So, I figured I would just lock up the reservation as a back up, keep checking the Comic-Con hotel website, grab a room when it opened and cancel my original reservation before the May 14 deadline. No luck. Comic Con took down that option from their website. So unless there s a miracle in the making, I ll be staying 3 miles away and trying to deal with parking. Something we ve never had to do.
Being a long time attendee, I know to buy a badge in advance. Last year, I bought my badge AT the convention. Why can t they set up some sort of system where people who buy their full four day badges early can get a first crack at hotesl? Same with press. If someone plans on attending a year in advance, why should those people have to wait to book their room? Open the rooms up earlier or based on when you purchased your badge.
I know that people I m friends with, who booked after I did, got hotels closer AND NOT EVEN FOR THE WHOLE EVENT. They booked ancient egypt tour like Friday and Saturday nights and are at the Hilton Bayfront. I m staying Wednesday ancient egypt tour through Sunday. How come I didn t get that room?
You can add me to the list of angry comiconers who submitted their list between 9:00 and 9:07 (I think I sent mine around 9:05) and got a room 3 miles away (Sheraton Marina). I m happy to have a room and be on the shuttle route but it s gonna be impossible to not feel a little bit of rage every time i see the Omni and Hard Rock signs coming out of the convention center after spending hours in line in front of Hall H Where is the petition to move the con to a better suited city?
One thing I noticed you didn t mention is the issue with the Manchester Grand Hyatt. It was on the main SDCC hotel list, but on reservation day, it wasn t listed. I never saw it confirmed, but I read somewhere that Comic Con didn t complete their contract with that particular hotel.
Meanwhile, that same weekend, the Manchester Grand Hyatt is hosting another convention for the American Hospital Association and Al Gore and Newt Gingrich are to be in attendance. So, there were a whole lot of rooms not available because they had already been blocked by another conference.
I can see the logistical concerns and why moving to a larger space would be a great idea. However, it appears they want more space not to make it comfortable for their 250,000 ancient egypt tour attendees, ancient egypt tour but so they can squeeze in even more people. So would a bigger space be roomy for all of us or would it just be an even bigger crowd?
I have been lucky enough ancient egypt tour to stay with my sister a few blocks away for the last few years, but this year I had to get a room. I was on right at 9:00am and I hit the send button around 9:05am. So consider me shocked that I am at the Omni across the street. I have a lot of friends that did not get rooms as a result of the craziness this year, looks like I will have to give up some floor space.
Your explanation about the hotel disaster completely jibes with my experience. My wife and I got our requests in at 9:07 and 9:08 respectively, and we got rooms that weren t on either of our lists 6.5 and 8 miles away. Luckily my sainted wife Sherry got on the internet and found a hotel that wasn t on the list for 250 a night (normally 90 bucks) that s only (!) a mile away. By way of comparison, that s what we paid for a much nicer hotel last year that was NEXT DOOR to the con. Here s an idea: Why don t they let you get your hotel room when you buy your pass for next year at Comic-con? That way they reward the true die hards, and it isn t left up to the luck of the draw, or even worse the complete failure of the system to work as advertised.
Good! This will finally teach a lesson to all these nerds. Enough already. When is enough enough of collecting useless junk?! Also, this event is just a corporate commercial now, they might as well call it Corporate-Con. Hopefully ancient egypt tour this thing will just end finally, despite the crying of the nerds.
I had my submission in by about 9:06 as well. Like others had said, it took me longer than expected to submit because the Hyatt