SDCC 2014's Hotel Registration: Another Hurdle Completed, The Wait Begins

Arrrgh. San Diego Comic-Con Hotel Lottery = Even More Stressful Than Pre or Open Registration.

Just over an hour ago at 9 AM PST, there was a whole lot of nerves when the Travel Planners online registration portal for downtown hotel bookings was finally opened.

For the week leading up to the hotel registration, Red Dot Diva was busy hunting down those (very very) rare male virgins for blood sacrifices to the SDCC gods. Also, with @eserei27 at the helm, Red Dot Diva collaborated with her convention roomies by discussing on their strategies, agreeing on the 6 hotels they desired, and got familiarized with the layout of the booking form.

The irony is that most of her roomies are already planning on camping out on Hall H or Ballroom 20 lines, but felt that staying in the downtown hotels would be "more convenient". Strange, but true.

SDCC 2012: The Battle For Hotel Rooms - Round 2 Is Coming

When SDCC hotel bookings became centralized via Travel Planners (TP) last year, there was already a sense of panic about the limited available rooms for that one weekend in July.

And things didn't let up this year either.

Even though Red Dot Diva and her frenemy @eserei27 managed to get SDCC passes last year, they were not able to secure a room even as early as August 2011. None of the downtown hotels would entertain any advanced booking request!

In order to get a hotel downtown or somewhere nearby a trolley or shuttle route, one had little choice but to be ridiculously famous, able to hack into a downtown hotel computer system, or wait for SDCC hotel bookings to open up on 29 March at 9am PST.  Reading the booking instructions which were sent a few days before and waiting for registrations to open were almost causing Red Dot Diva a minor nervous breakdown.

SDCC and NYCC - Hotel Registrations

Already one of the lucky buggers who got a SDCC 2011 ticket?

Soon, it will be time to figure out where one will be staying during that weekend! And start gathering your choice roomies!

Comic Con's online hotel registration opens on March 9th at 9 am PST. One can read the information and instructions here at Comic Con's website. The organizer is also offering a sneak peak of the hotel list and the special room rates on the same link.

Unlike last year, Red Dot Diva noted that one can now attempt to reserve up to 20 hotels for the weekend. Also, once the reservation is confirmed, one has to foot a deposit for at least one night's room + tax for each room booked.