TOURISM: During Comic-Con, no room at the inn

Big convention pushing up prices, occupancy rates

By BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer | Saturday, June 28, 2008 5:12 PM PDT ∞

Visitors be warned: San Diego County's hotels and motels will be bulging at the seams next month when the huge annual Comic-Con convention is open.

Even if you're staying as far north as Oceanside, you won't escape the scarcity and greater expense of rooms during the July 24-27 event, held at the San Diego Convention Center. You may wind up paying double the regular rate.

That's if you can find a room at all.

Rodeway Inn in Rancho Bernardo is completely booked from July 25-27, according to its Web site. Likewise, there's no room at the Days Inn Oceanside at the Coast during that time.

On the other hand, the Holiday Inn in Rancho Bernardo is a comparative bargain, offering rooms starting from $180 per night during that period. But if you can wait a week, the cost drops to $136 a night.

At least, that's the case now. As the convention approaches, the few rooms now available are likely to vanish.

Steven Johnson, a spokesman for the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, laughed when asked him if rooms would be scarce during Comic-Com.

"It's our single highest occupancy in the entire year for hotels in San Diego County," Johnson said. "The fact is, you can't find a room in San Diego County."

A 98 percent or greater room occupancy rate for the entire county is expected during the convention, expected to draw about 125,000, Johnson said.

Founded 39 years ago, Comic-Con was originally devoted to hard-core comic book fans. In recent years, it has become a far broader showcase for entertainment such as movies and video games. That attracts not only fans but exhibitors such as Carlsbad's Upper Deck. The memorabilia card and game company is hosting three panel discussions in addition to showcasing new products, such as its fantasy game Huntik: Secrets & Seekers.

Comi-Con attendees are legendary in their willingness to accept less-than-ideal rooming situations, especially to save money, said Brian Gaughan, a Pasadena resident who's been going to Comic-Com for about 30 years.

"I have a lot of friends who are that way," Gaughan said. "What they do is get a room for four or five of them, sometimes six, And they end up sleeping in the bathtub and on top of each other."

Gaughan said he used to stay with a friend who lives in Rancho Santa Fe, but he had to get up too early for his taste to find parking in downtown San Diego. This year, a friend helped him find a room at a hotel near the San Diego Zoo.

"If you work it out, you don't even have to go to sleep in your room," Gaughan said. "I know people who just go to the Hyatt and they have all-night movies. If I was too tired to drive, or I didn't want to drive at night, I would go to wherever the main hotel was, and there was always a room that would have movies."

Nearly at capacity

A check last week of several Web sites of North County hotels and motels showed rates were frequently raised by 50 percent or more during the convention for whatever rooms were left.

Here's a comparison of per-night rates for July 25-26 during the convention's height, with rates one week later:

-- $249 and $270 respectively at Econo Lodge in Encinitas, $115 and $120 one week later.

-- $181 at Best Western in Escondido, $121 one week later.

-- $199 at Ramada Carlsbad-by-the-Sea, $159 one week later.

To be fair, with diligence and luck, visitors who act quickly might be able to find better rates. The rule of thumb is that farther north you go, the lower the rates. That is, of course, assuming any rooms are still available.

Johnson said that's simply the economics of supply and demand. Most of the year, San Diego County has enough hotel rooms. Summer is the high season for tourism, and that puts a strain on capacity. Add to that the biggest convention of the year, and capacity is exceeded, Johnson said.

Comic-Con's blog, "Staying in San Diego," reported frustrations this year with its online room reservation system:

"Travel Planners (Comic-Con's travel agency) told us that in the first five seconds of the site going live (in February), they experienced three times the number of people requesting rooms as they had last year.

"Also in the first five seconds, the site had the same number of people requesting a room as there were rooms available. So, while we were prepared for more people, we were not prepared for three times as many people and were certainly not prepared for as many people to call/log on as there were rooms available."

Loyal fans

The San Diego Convention Center itself will be used nearly to capacity for this Comic-Com, Johnson said. Most conventions are nearer in size to the Biotechnology Industrial Organization convention earlier this month, which drew about 20,000. Comic-Com is not only much larger than the usual convention, it takes place in San Diego every year.

From 2002-06, the countywide occupancy rate averaged about 98 percent on the convention's two biggest days, Friday and Saturday, Johnson said, referring to a survey done with Comic-Con. The rate was 97.9 percent on Fridays. On Saturdays occupancy was 98.2 percent.

But tracking the lodging habits of the conventioneers is hard, Johnson said.

"A lot of the people who come to Comic-Com come every year," Johnson said. "They have their own hotel or housing accommodations," Johnson said. "They typically don't go through a hotel room block that's set aside for them. . . They've got their hotel down pat. They book it years in advance, and they don't go through us to book the room."

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.