SAN DIEGO _ Now that Comic-Con attendees have survived the competition for getting a badge to the July convention, the next hurdle is nabbing a coveted hotel reservation.
Starting Wednesday morning, attendees can access a website for booking a room at one of more than 55 hotels that are part of a special convention room block that offers firm rates just for Comic-Con International.
While the nightly rates are still relatively high _ many are in the $300 range _ they would be higher still were it not for agreements binding downtown San Diego and other area properties to specific rates.
Published rates for the room-block hotels range from a low of $178 for a Days Inn to $392 for the Hotel del Coronado, which does not include its resort fee. There are just a half-dozen that are charging rates below $200 a night.
Comic-Con runs from July 20-23, with preview night scheduled for July 19. Badges, as usual, sold out quickly when they went on sale earlier this month.
The summer months in San Diego are the county's busiest, which already gives hotels more latitude to raise rates. But given the much higher demand for lodging during Comic-Con, outlying hotels that are not in the convention room block can reap the benefits of high demand by boosting room rates more than they normally would.
All those who have purchased Comic-Con badges should already have received an email alerting them how to access the reservations website that is operated by the firm onPeak.
Rates at the convention-block hotels are currently at the heart of negotiations to extend Comic-Con's contract to keep the gathering here through 2021. The current agreement will expire after next year's convention.
The major condition for a new deal, as it has been for previous contracts, is securing a cap on room rates. San Diego Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi says Comic-Con has agreed in principle to negotiating a three-year deal.
He hopes to complete negotiations before the start of this year's four-day show.
Terzi said previously that Comic-Con would like to cap room rate increases at 4 percent over a three-year period. Individual agreements would be sought from the hotels that participate in the discounted room block.
In order to consummate the existing contract, hotel operators had to agree to not increase their rates over 2016 levels.
