Author Topic: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??  (Read 15525 times)

Offline bfett9

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Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« on: January 26, 2012, 05:11:14 PM »
Anyone know of the best prices you've encountered for hotels near the convention center? I would really like to score one nearby with a shuttle to the center. The best price I could find was at Days Inn Sea World-Airport. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I was hoping to find something in the range of $160-180 a night.

I also was considering using the priceline name your own price, but to my knowledge there's no way of picking the hotel you send your price directly to, it is just a general area and there's no guarantee it will be one with a shuttle. Let me know if you have any tips or places you know of. Thanks.

(trying to go for  full conv. Jul 12 -15, but if someone can find it close by for a little more i may just not go the 12th.)

Offline Khaaaaaaanh!!!

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2012, 09:32:16 AM »
I've found the deals through Travel Planners to be the most reasonable.  Everyone else jacks up their prices considerably since they know the rooms will get booked.

Some other things to factor into where you stay is the proximity to a grocery store so you can stock up on food supplies, if you will need to park a car and what you plan to do during your stay.  There are enough hotels on the shuttle routes that you can always walk to a nearby hotel that is on the route if yours doesn't offer one.  The one thing with the shuttle times though is that if you're trying to get in line early, you're gonna have to walk as the schedule indicates that the shuttles won't start running until 7am.

BTW, check out the post from CCI today. It looks like there are some rooms in the price range you mentioned.

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #2 on: Today at 10:17:02 PM »

Offline AnnaD

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2012, 01:29:56 PM »
I checked out 500 West Hotels.

They're filling up though, so if you want to book with them, be sure to hurry!

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Offline Devorah

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2012, 12:53:23 PM »
How easy is it to get a room through Travel Planners?  How does it work?  Is it crazy like the badge sales?  Sorry, I'm a newbie, and I just don't want to skip Early Bird only to not get a room through Travel Planners later.  Thoughts?  Thanks!!

Offline Kaz

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2012, 03:08:15 PM »
What is this travel planners and can someone please explain it and also post a link to it lol

Offline Trev

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2012, 03:30:39 PM »
Travel planners is the agent for sdcc hotels. They're the only way to get a room at con rates and handle all the booking.

Like all things sdcc it's good to be prepared. Last year you basically logged in, set your top 20 hotels and then waited to see what room you got. They do everything based on timestamp of submission so you need to know your top 20 before the date to submit so that it's basically about how fast you can fill out the form and submit. They take a deposit of first night when they allocate you a room.

Offline joyful_314

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2012, 10:19:58 PM »
So will the remaining of the cost of the room be charged upon arrival?

Offline Trev

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2012, 05:49:49 AM »
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So will the remaining of the cost of the room be charged upon arrival?

On checkout just like a regular hotel. There are a set of dates for cancellation that either gives you back your whole deposit, half of your deposit, or none. I think if you cancel less than 30 days out, you forfeit your deposit.

Offline AnnaD

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #8 on: March 05, 2012, 08:23:55 AM »
Last year's policy for Travel Planners

Hotel Cancellation Policy:
All reservations require a one night room and tax deposit within 5 business days to avoid automatic cancellation of this reservation. This deposit is fully refundable for cancellations processed by May 10, 2011. A $100.00 cancellation fee will be deducted from the deposit for reservations that are canceled between May 11, 2011 through June 8, 2011. The deposit is NON-REFUNDABLE for any reservation canceled on June 9, 2011 or later. Departures prior to the departure date confirmed by the hotel at check-in may result in additional fees.

Travel Planners Cancellation Policy
For your reservation(s) to be considered canceled, you must obtain a cancellation number from either Travel Planners or your hotel for each canceled room. We advise you to cancel your reservation online or directly with our call center to acquire a cancellation number immediately. If you request your cancellation via email, fax or voicemail please be sure to allow time for processing.

Are there penalties for late cancellations?
If your reservation is not canceled by the timeframe in the Hotel Cancellation Policy you will be charged the amount mentioned in the policy (if any).

Offline mr.rob201

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #9 on: March 05, 2012, 01:18:27 PM »
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Travel planners is the agent for sdcc hotels. They're the only way to get a room at con rates and handle all the booking.

Like all things sdcc it's good to be prepared. Last year you basically logged in, set your top 20 hotels and then waited to see what room you got. They do everything based on timestamp of submission so you need to know your top 20 before the date to submit so that it's basically about how fast you can fill out the form and submit. They take a deposit of first night when they allocate you a room.

You said that you had to be prepared with your top 20 hotels. How do you know which ones are available? What I mean is, where is the list from which you will pick out the top 20? Because how can I pick my favorites if I have no idea what's out there? Also, where would the Travel Planners page be on? would it be on the hotel page in the CCI web page? or will they send out a link like they did with the badges?

(sorry first timer here, so I'm clueless)
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Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #10 on: March 05, 2012, 01:41:49 PM »
CCI will post a list of hotels and rates before the hotel rooms go on sale. This will give you your chance to pick your top 20.

Offline simplyskyy

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2012, 08:00:00 AM »
Do you have to pick 20 hotel rooms? Honestly there is only about 4 I want and if I don't get in one of those I'll just stay with a friend.


Offline alyssa

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2012, 11:28:21 AM »
it's my understanding you can pick as many or few as you want.  most people pick a lot because they don't have the fall back option of a friend and they'd like some control.
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Offline Trev

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #13 on: March 08, 2012, 12:43:42 PM »
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it's my understanding you can pick as many or few as you want.  most people pick a lot because they don't have the fall back option of a friend and they'd like some control.

I think the max is 20 -- picking more makes it more likely that you will get any hotel, but it may be a good strategy to only pick hotels you absolutely want and submit as quickly as poss. If you don't have a back up though, I think it's a pretty big risk bec. finding a hotel after they allocate rooms will be pretty tough.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Best Hotel Deals for SDCC 2012??
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2012, 02:35:13 PM »
Just to be fair, it's not *impossible* to get a room after they are allocated through the hotel sale. Last year my friend and I tried to go through the hotel sale. We picked only downtown hotels and my friend got allocated the Doubletree in Mission Valley. I got nothing.

But, because we had participated in the attempt, we were on the mailing list for hotel resales. A day or two after the first deposit deadline had come and gone (early May) I got an email telling me that the 'cancelled' hotel rooms had gone back up for sale... and ALL of the hotels were there. I was able to jump in and snag the room I wanted. Awesome! But it was pure luck. I happened to be online and saw the email the moment it arrived and was ready to jump. I could just have easily have missed it.

Interestingly, after those resale rooms had been up for a few days and only the 'dregs' were left, they started the hotel room/badge sale.