Comic-Con International announced today that this year’s San Diego Comic-Con Hotel Sale, also known by SDCC attendees as Hotelpocalypse, will take place on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 at 9:00 am PDT. Yep, that’s just two days’ notice!
If you are a badge holder for San Diego Comic-Con 2023, you should have received an email from Comic-Con International this afternoon (Monday, April 10) with info about the Hotel Sale and a link to the onPeak hotel reservation waiting room.
This year’s Hotel Sale will operate much like last year’s Hotel Sale, and similarly to SDCC badge sales, where you enter a waiting room before the sale begins, and are put into random order at the start of the sale regardless of what time you got into the waiting room. You can enter the waiting room via the link in your email as early as 8:00am PT on April 12, though the sale does not start until 9:00am PT. Click here to make sure your browser settings are compatible.
Once you are randomly selected for a registration session, you will fill out a registration form, in which you may make up to 12 different hotel and room type selections. However, you are only required to make one selection in order to submit the form.
Forms will be processed based on the time which you are granted access to the form, rather than the time that you submit the form, so don’t feel like you have to rush through it. You can click here to a look at a sample form so that you can see ahead of time what you’ll be dealing with. Additionally, the SDCC Unofficial Blog has a great visual guide to the Hotel Sale.
You also have the option of submitting your request over the phone starting at 9:00am PT by calling 1-877-55-COMIC (1-877-552-6642) or 1-312-527-7300.
If you’ve been placed at a hotel, you’ll get an email notifying you of your placement on Monday, April 17, 2023. You then have until Thursday, April 20 at 9:59pm PDT to make a deposit for 2 nights plus tax. Otherwise, your reservation will be canceled. Additionally, there will be a non-refundable service and technology fee equal to 3% of each hotel deposit. This is a little different from last year’s hotel sale and previous years, which had two rounds of notifications.
If you make the deposit, but need to cancel your reservation, you’ll have to do so on or before May 1, 2023 at 9:59pm PDT if you want a full refund, minus the 3% credit card service fee. If you cancel on Tuesday, May 2, through Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 9:59pm PDT, a cancellation fee of one night’s room rate and tax will be deducted from your refund. After that, your deposit is non-refundable.
In the event onPeak is unable to place you at a hotel, you’ll be notified no later than April 18. What happens if you don’t get placed? In the past, there used to be an option on the form to indicate that you wanted to be placed on the Waitlist, but that does not appear to be an option on this year’s sample form. Instead, there is an option to be notified when the General Sale goes live. Presumably, at that time, you’ll have another chance to reserve a room from any hotel inventory that is returned. Most of these are usually non-downtown rooms that people were placed in but didn’t want, but sometimes downtown hotels pop up from time to time, so keep an eye out!
The prices for downtown hotels range from $229/night (1 adult/1 bed at Best Western Plus Bayside Inn) to $414/night (San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter – Concierge Level), while non-downtown hotels start at $191/night (Days Inn San Diego Hotel Circle) and run as much as $383 + $35 Resort Fee per night (Hotel del Coronado). Click here for the list of hotels and prices, and additional hotel information.
For more info about the San Diego Comic-Con 2023 Hotel Sale, check out Comic-Con’s Hotels FAQ page.
Also at the time of publication of this article, the Early Bird Hotel Sale was still active. These hotel rooms are non-downtown hotels, and the rooms are non-refundable, but it can give you peace of mind if you don’t care about staying downtown and don’t want to go through the stress of Hotelpocalypse. The Early Bird Hotel Sale typically closes shortly before Hotelpocalypse begins, so if you’re interested in this option, you’ll need to act fast. Click here to see the Early Bird Hotel Sale options.
