Rooms and Lodging

[jester47]

I have a question about prepping for Gen Con. I am preparing early!

At what point do the con block rooms go on sale? Are these cheaper than regular rooms?

Just wondering.

Aaron.

 

[Old One]

According the Gencon Indy website, the badge resistration opens at 12 Noon PST on February 14th. Under the accomodations info, it seems to indicate the room registration will open at the same time.

No idea about discounts, but that is typical for conventions of any size.

~ Old One

 

[Hand of Evil]

It is never early to get ready for GENCON.

Last year on-line registration and and hotel request happened at the same time, so know what you want. There is a discount but you really do not know what it is until the con, but you may be able to find the information in the GENCON forums in travel and housing, plus a lot of other information.

 

[kenobi65]

The past few years, here's how it's worked.

- You pre-register for your convention badge, and, as part of that process, you are given a password to access the hotel reservation system. This means that you *can't* access the con's hotel block without pre-registering; it also means you can't reserve a hotel room via the convention's hotel block until the day pre-registration opens.

- Using that password, you then pick which hotel you want to be at, and what kind of room (1 bed or 2).

IME, the con rates are pretty good (the last two years, we've been at the Westin, which is a really nice hotel, for $120 a night). Fortunately, there's a ton of hotels within a few blocks of the convention center (some of them actually connected to the center), in various price ranges.

Also, count on pre-registration (a) not really going live until sometime after 12 noon PST, and (b) being slow as molasses on that day, once it does go live. Every year it's promised that it'll be better, every year it's not.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

No idea about discounts, but that is typical for conventions of any size.

It's actually not. Here's how it works:

When a hotel knows a convention is going to be in town (one from which they can expect substantial business), they jack up their prices by, say, 30 percent. Then they offer a "discount" for pre-booked convention attendees of, oh, 15 percent or so.

So the "discount" is actually a price-jack of 10 percent or more.

For verification of this, call a major hotel in Indy during a non-event weekend and check their rates. Then ask about the weekend of GenCon.

It's a pretty sweet scam.

To answer the original question: in the past, housing has been offered starting as early as February and as late as May. Now that the new owner of the con is hitting his stride, I expect them to be pretty efficient this year. Look for March or April. You can sign up to be notified at www.gencon.com, BTW.