Here’s the 4th and final chapter in my hotel selection advice series to get you prepped for Hotel Registration Day. You can’t really pick one hotel and expect to get it, but it’s nice to know what your options sort of are… right?
Which hotels are overpriced? Which have the best deals?
Let’s look at it this way: Every hotel in San Diego, from Orange County to Tijuana, knows why you’re in town that week. They know rooms are hard to get. So you have to know that they are going to milk you for everything you’ve got. Grab a room at the same hotel the week before or after San Diego Comic-Con and it will be one half if not one third the price you’re paying. There’s a Comfort Inn downtown that isn’t involved in the official Comic-Con block of hotels and it has charged $400 a night in previous years. That’s a hotel that doesn’t normally charge over $100 a night any other time of the year. But they still sell out because we need the rooms and they know it.
Of course, the further you go away from the convention center, the cheaper it will be. The closer and fancier the hotel chain, the more expensive. Pretty much all of the hotels downtown are working with Comic-Con keep their rates BELOW the maximum allowable rate for the sake of the attendees, which is why the official hotel registration day is so important for most who don’t want to pay top dollar. The official block of participating hotels have agreed to charge no more than $300 per night for the rooms (though most never get within $100 of that top amount). But there are some folks so desperate for a room that they’ll pay top dollar months in advance just so they won’t have the hassle. Of course, when you’re “illegally” splitting the room between 8 people (4 in beds and 4 on the floor), that might not have such a big impact on the individual wallet.
If you’re staying outside the city, if at all possible, stick with a recognizable chain, even if it’s cheap, like Motel 6. As a franchised chain, they often have to keep up a certain level of standards to retain the name, which despite it’s often cheesy, low-rent reputation, are actually pretty great for the price. I’ve stayed in 2 over the past year (one in San Diego and one in Las Vegas) and was happy with both stays. But that’s just one example. There are plenty of other chains that offer quality for a low price well outside the confines of San Diego. That’s not to say that they won’t be jacking up their prices just a little bit, but it won’t be anything compared to downtown. If you can get a room in Old Town San Diego, you’ll be able to grab the trolley easily, which will drop you off right outside the convention center and pick you up when the day is through (but it doesn’t go all night).
When picking a hotel outside the city, it’s important to think about your transportation options, how many are traveling, the size of your vehicle, and the amount of precious swag you’ll be acquiring throughout the day. In the less reputable areas, you will often have to leave your belongings in your hotel room, stacked in a corner or a closet for 18 out of the 24 hours in each day that you’re at the show, vulnerable to anyone hoping to make a quick buck. Although I’m sure most thieves wouldn’t know what to do with an oversized Galactus action figure if they got their hands on one.
If I was going to recommend against any certain type of “hotel”, I would say stay away from the hostels. They’re already usually packed with people down on their luck and on their last buck, so the availability is usually limited and the living conditions unenviable. Let them have it. You have a home. Don’t take theirs from them, even if it is for only a few days. Sure, for some, that kind of experience is fine. I just don’t want to share showers with filthy, disgusting strangers again, even if they are nerds like me. And most of those places were rarely clean before we got there. My hotel room has to have it’s own bathroom. But I’m just picky that way. Plus, I think I got infected with an alien virus there back in 2004, my first year at Comic-Con, when I got a room in May for only $90 a night and had no idea what “European Style Hotel” meant (it meant gross hostel). But if you can handle something like that and it falls within your price range, go for it. That just leaves more good (more expensive) hotels for the rest of us. Just note that no hostels are listed in the block of official Comic-Con hotels, even if some are 2 or 3 blocks from the convention center. There’s a reason for that.
Oh, and by the way, avoid Tijuana. Free advice that might save your life. Sorry, Mexico, you’re no longer our friendly donkey-showing amigo to the south.
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