Last year I made out really well in the annual online application for hotel rooms for Comic-Con, getting my second choice hotel downtown. This year, while the application process went as smoothly and I had my 20 hotels chosen and the application sent within 6 minutes of the site going live, not so good. Didn’t get any of my chosen hotels, but I did at least get a room, in Mission Valley, about 5.5 miles from the convention center. It’s on the free Con shuttle route at least, and shuttle travel time is listed as 15-20 minutes, so I guess I can live with that (even if, as I would expect, actual travel times are longer). And the room rate is about $100 less per night than most downtown hotels. I’ll give it a try, and see how I like staying a few miles out of town. I know I’m going to miss the chance for a quick hotel crash before dinner, but otherwise it may be fine. Sure would like to know who got all the downtown rooms. They can’t all be going to vendors and exhibitors, can they? I’m guessing the so-called time-stamp system of processing orders isn’t really working, seems more like a pure lottery from what I’ve been reading from others. Some got good rooms, some got none. So, could be worse. I then booked my airline flights, and that cost as much as a room in Mission Valley for 5 nights. I could have saved a hundred or two by flying at inconvenient times, but that’s not worth it to me either.

I will be at the Con this year, assuming I get my Pro badge. If you’re going, perhaps I’ll see you there.