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How quickly do all the downtown rooms get taken on Sunday?

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How quickly do all the downtown rooms get taken on Sunday?

Posted by kbeal2k 6 years agoon 1/24/2019 at 11:14 PM

In other words any thoughts to what the cutoff point is for a hotel lottery time to be considered "bad"? Around what time did they start vanishing last year?

Posted by gib_rebeg 6 years agoon 1/24/2019 at 11:44 PM

Depends on the year. Usually 3 hours within the start time is a good chance.

But I've seen years where they were gone within the first hour, and some odd years they have lasted up to 5 hours. But if you get something within the first 3 hours, you should stand a good shot at one.

Posted by lmengsol 6 years agoon 1/25/2019 at 12:09 AM

I would concur with gib on this with one caveat. If you're looking for a room with one bed (i.e. a king) those tend to last a bit longer. If you need two beds in a room...you're always taking a chance with the Gen Con housing lottery.

Posted by del_grande gib_rebeg 6 years agoon 1/25/2019 at 1:44 AM

 gib_rebeg wrote:Depends on the year. Usually 3 hours within the start time is a good chance.
But I've seen years where they were gone within the first hour, and some odd years they have lasted up to 5 hours. But if you get something within the first 3 hours, you should stand a good shot at one.

IIRC, the one hour (more like 90 minutes) one was when the slots were packed into something like 1-minute intervals (i.e. some people got noon slots, some got 12:01, some got 12:02, and so on). Now, they are more spread out, which is why it takes longer for them to fill.

Note that this forum and the Fans of GenCon page on Faebook usually keep an up-to-date list on what downtown hotels still have 2-queen and 1-king rooms available as the day progresses.

Posted by austicke 6 years agoon 1/25/2019 at 2:06 AM

Last year, downtown rooms sold out at 3:55pm. Access times were much more spread out last year compared to prior years though. I'm not sure if they'll again change the spread this year.

_____________________________________
Alec Usticke, Fans of Gen Con Facebook Group

Posted by funny-shaped dice 6 years agoon 1/25/2019 at 3:16 AM

Also, as other threads like this say elsewhere on this forum - and every year - Gen Con is a fantastic experience whether your hotel is downtown or not. If you don't get a downtown hotel, don't let that sour you on Gen Con.

Demand *far* outstrips supply for downtown hotels.

Posted by andrewj.rager 6 years agoon 1/25/2019 at 2:11 PM

If I could play devil's advocate for a minute...

You shouldn't even bother if you don't get a DT room. I mean do you REALLY want to put up with all that extra effort to get back and forth from the outskirts of town? And then if you are in a group its even worse! I mean everyone who doesn't get a DT room should just stay home. You only go to Gen Con to be in DT Indy anyway.

(waits to see if reverse psychology works)

Posted by chadrea 6 years agoon 1/26/2019 at 5:15 AM

I got 1:13pm, that's a decent time isn't it?

Posted by quinla34@msu.edu 6 years agoon 1/26/2019 at 5:21 AM

yes 1:13 is a solid time, if the times are spread out like they were last year, as downtown rooms did not sell out till around 4:00pm if however the times are closer together they have sold out as quickly as 1:00pm in the past. but even then I believe generally 1:30pm is when they would sell out.