TOPIC: GENCON Hotel Block Times

Hey Everyone!

Did you strike gold with your Lottery time? Mine is 2:53 PM, which is earlier than I've gotten in past years, but I suspect still late enough that Embassy Suites and other desirable hotel rooms might be gone. I've got a backup room just in case, but I'd love to get a cheaper room from the block.

Good luck, everyone!!
Mike

I travel with a sizeable group. We need 3 rooms. This is the best luck we've had that I can remember. 3 best times are 12:14, 12:36 and 12:37.

Not sure what to make of this yet. There's a Fans of Gen Con poll on Facebook, where people are indicating their hotel lottery time. So far, 224 people have responded. 134 have times between noon and 1:59pm. 90 have times between 2:00pm and 3:59pm. No one has reported a time later than that.

Either they only sent out earlier hotel times last night, did not sell as many badges as they expected, or are cramming more people into each time slot. Maybe there are other alternatives, those are just off the top of my head.

My feeling is that they are cramming more people into each time slot. Badge sales are probably a liittle down, but are they seriously down that much? In the past I've gotten several times later than 6pm. I'm still hearing back from our group of about 20 people, but so far 4 people have times before 2pm and the 5th person's time is 2:01pm. That's never happened before.

Edit: Speculation in the comments. Timeslots are only a minute apart, which is shorter than in the past. Is that true? I don't remember. Someone thinks they are trying to speed things up so people can still watch the Super Bowl. Two conclusions thus far: Either more people have been front loaded and based on current distribution, 12:45pm equates to 2:00pm in the past. Or badge sales are down and there will be plenty of rooms for everyone.

I would not be surprised if ticket sales are down a lot. 2 years is enough time to break a habit and money is tight for a lot of people. This is the first year in a decade I am able to go to gencon but am not likely to attend. Maybe next year maybe not, I dont know how I'll feel.

Still I wish everyone luck in the lotto.

I got 12:17 Eastern out of 4 of us trying in our group. Everyone else got after 2pm. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Spud

Picc wrote: I would not be surprised if ticket sales are down a lot. 2 years is enough time to break a habit and money is tight for a lot of people. This is the first year in a decade I am able to go to gencon but am not likely to attend. Maybe next year maybe not, I dont know how I'll feel.

Still I wish everyone luck in the lotto.

I'm thinking it's a combination of factors. I do believe sales are down. How much? I really couldn't say. It does appear as if the time slot intervals are also shorter and more people are crammed into an earlier time. Where this all falls is really hard to say. It seems like a best case scenario is that times are similar to what they were in the past and the worst case scenario is that they're really 3 times worse than in the past (i.e. a 1pm time now is like 3pm in the past, 2pm like 6pm, etc.). I'm guessing things will fall somewhere in the middle of that.

Regardless, a lot of really happy people this morning may be in for a rude shock tomorrow. I suspect there will be some angry people, but then that's probably nothing new.

It sounds like my time might be towards the end of the time slots, I'm not optimistic there will be an Embassy Suites room there.

Maybe attendance will be way down. I just found out one of my best friends and his wife won't be attending because of the mask mandate. He's been to every pre-COVID GENCON since 2004. Ironically they got an awesome time slot. And I'd guess there will still be people not attending because of COVID concerns. And like PICC said, with a 2 year break in attendance, a lot of people might just not ever return.

There are likely some people out there who are waiting to see if they lift vaccine and mask requirements.

Good luck everyone! I hope you get the hotel you want. See you in August!

Jeff Martin wrote: Good luck everyone! I hope you get the hotel you want. See you in August!

the big boss forgot to add ....If you don't get what you want remember we still need volunteers. grab 3 friends all volunteer and get free Room, badge and sweet swag

Dave wrote: There are likely some people out there who are waiting to see if they lift vaccine and mask requirements.

If they did that after announcing they would require it before ticket sales started, I suspect they would have to be ready to offer refunds. I've spoken to plenty of people who have stated that's the only reason they're returning this year (myself and multiple friends I normally attend with among them).

NightGod wrote:

Dave wrote: There are likely some people out there who are waiting to see if they lift vaccine and mask requirements.

If they did that after announcing they would require it before ticket sales started, I suspect they would have to be ready to offer refunds. I've spoken to plenty of people who have stated that's the only reason they're returning this year (myself and multiple friends I normally attend with among them).

yuuuuuup