If you thought getting a badge to San Diego Comic-Con was tough, BUCKLE UP.
On Thursday, April 28, attendees will try for a coveted hotel, and just like with badge sales (2+ years ago!!!) some attendees will walk away disappointed.
Returning is our least favorite words: “randomized waiting room” Yup, the hotel sale will utilize a randomized waiting room again this year – which means that speed is no longer a determining factor, which stinks for those of us who made it our lifes practice to fill out the form as fast as humanly possible
“Beginning at 9:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on Thursday, April 28, 2022, all users within the online waiting room will be assigned a random place in line. Guests will then be moved from the waiting room to the request form based on this order. The order in which requests are processed will be based on the time a guest was granted access to the form. No further randomization will take place throughout the process.”
So how does all of this work?
With prices ranging from $187/night for one person, up to $390/night. Most attendees will be trying for a downtown Gaslamp hotel, but the General Hotel Sale also includes hotels at both the airport and in Mission Valley.
New this year, OnPeak lets you submit up to twelve downtown hotel choices. Previously, you could only select up to six downtown and six non-downtown — but this year it appears you can select all twelve wherever you want.
These submissions are then ranked, in order of preference. You select a minimum of 1 hotel in either section, up to 12.
Research, research research…
Research which hotels you’re interested in before the sale begins, Trust me, youll not want to make the mstake of getting a hotel youre excited about (having never been) only to find it’s a run of the mill joint that doesn’t compare to how you built it up.
Youll be required to enter some info
Your list of hotels for each section, in order of preference (write the name exactly as it appears on the Comic-Con hotel list)
The amount of people staying in your room
The names of any roommates who are staying with you
You should have received an e-mail with a link to onPeak’s SDCC site on Tuesday, April 26,
Just like last year, that link will take you directly to the onPeak Waiting Room. You can enter anytime between 8AM-9AM PT, though there’s no advantage to arriving early. At 9AM PT, you’ll be sorted into a random order. (we think)
When it’s your turn, you’ll be taken to the form. Here’s how the form will look:
You’ll need to select the Click Here to Start Your Request button on bottom. You’ll then be taken to the hotel request form. It begins with a useless list of hotels we already had so simply skip past all this by clicking “Skip to the Form”
you’ll then begin filling in your information, including your first and last name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. GET THIS RIGHT!! I cant stress this enough
The next step is filling out the information about the kind of accommodations you’ll be needing. You’ll select the number of total rooms you’re requesting, and then for each room, the amount of beds/people. You can choose between Single (One person with one bed), Double (Two people, one bed), Twin (Two people, two beds), Triple (Three people, two beds), or Quad (Four people, two beds).
Once you’ve selected this, you’ll be prompted to enter in the first and last name for each occupant. In years past, you’ve even been able to make changes to the names and amount of occupants in a room even after paying a deposit, but there is no guarantee it will be the same this year. You’ll also need to enter your arrival and departure date. You can arrive as early as Sunday, July 17 and depart as late as Tuesday, July 26.
After that, you’ll then be able to enter your hotel choices, with a drop-down menu. Put them in your order of preference. So if the Hard Rock Hotel is your first choice, select that hotel first.
Once you’ve entered all of your hotels, you’ll have to choose the worst case scenario: If none of your hotel choices are available, what would you like to happen? You have four options:
Book me at a hotel that is closest to the convention center, regardless of rate and shuttle availability.
Book me at a hotel with the lowest available rate, regardless of location.
Book me at any hotel that is on the shuttle route, regardless of rate or location.
If none of my preferred hotel choices are available, disregard my request completely.
Choose the option that makes the most sense to you, but it is worth mentioning that typically, some downtown hotels do open up after cancellations, though there’s no guarantee that will happen. You can also choose whether or not you’d like to be placed on the waitlist, if a better hotel opens up down the road:
Finally, you’ll need to checkmark all five boxes at the bottom of the screen:
Click Submit
All reservation requests last year were processed in order of the timestamp that you gained access to the form.
Confirmation emails will go out in two groups on May 3 and May 10. If you choose to accept the hotel, you’ll need to pay a full two nights’ deposit plus tax before the following deadlines:
For reservations confirmed on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, the required deposit must be provided by Friday, May 6, 2022, at 9:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)/11:59 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT).
For reservations confirmed on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, the required deposit must be provided by Friday, May 13, 2022, at 9:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)/11:59 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT).
Reservations without a deposit will be cancelled and will not be re-instated for any reason.
After the hotel sale, some hotels do open back up as there are cancellations. Those on the waiting list are placed first – and these usually don’t include many downtown options, but there’s always some hotels in Mission Valley or by the airport, and every year, some report being waitlisted to downtown hotels.
Also be sure to read all of Comic-Con International’s FAQ.
And the most important thing you can do? Use the sample form.