Gen Con is going to be insane... the housing portal usually starts to show a lot extra rooms about now. As people give them up. But now... even the furthest out of the way hotels have all been booked instead. Twice now I've checked the portal and ZERO rooms were available. Right now only 2~4 of the farther out hotels have rooms again.70,000+? Will we even be able to walk around? Is parking going to become the new hotel rush?

Maybe they'll start dropping rooms after the events open. I'm doubly glad I booked early for our room!

We always get a hotel further away (like a 15 min drive). Parking hasn't been an issue, though we park at 9am and don't go back to the car until we're ready to go back to the hotel at the end of the day. Hopefully, parking will be decent again this year, though a bit pricey. 

I haven't been in years and so I was a bit surprised myself. I had to book through Expedia for an outlying hotel since the ones that had been left in the block were equally as far out but about 50% more expensive. Hoping I can manage with taxi, bus and uber while I'm there.

Ugh. I'm already starting to get grumpy about the possibility of even more people this year. 

Makes me glad I was able to go outside the block.

The housing portal shows me availability in:

Hilton Downtown - 3 blocks from the con!

Also: 3 other hotels on the outskirts.

Maybe you are trying to book a combination of days that is not permitted - some of the hotels required a multi night stay in order to book Friday or Saturday.

That Downtown Hilton room is a very recent development - within the last hour or so, I think.

Yeah, there are more opening up now that the events have passed. I guess some people are canceling if they didn't get the events they wanted.

Last year parking was crazy.  I almost bought a parking spot downtown for the month of August.  Decided not to spend 200 bucks that way.  

The past three years I make room reservations a couple days after the end of Gencon that year. Been working very well! :-)

Every time I've tried going that route, the hotel websites say "No rooms are available for this time period" or something like that.

after 2014, we booked in august for 2015. After 2015, we couldn't get a room in the same hotel ("no rooms available for this period") and couldn't grab a non-block room until October. No me gusta.

I was lucky, I found a room at the Embassy Suites downtown for cheaper than the Gen Con rate with hot breakfast and WiFi.  However, in order to get the room I had to book it Saturday - Sunday.  We use Gen Con as a family vacation and come in and go to the zoo, Childrens museums and other things prior.

The real part where "people got wise" is that attendees started to realize this, and actively monitor when the various hotel chains open up their booking.  Since we know when GenCon is going to be for the next X years, we can book the day the hotels open and not wait until the day GenCon opens their block.  My wife and I have had our LaQuinta rooms booked since 1 year before this coming GenCon since they open booking a year ahead of the date you want to book for.  Other hotels have other dates (but it's usually either 1 year or 9 months).

This year LaQuinta, which is still not part of the block at all, was completely booked up either the day they opened for bookings, or the next day.  And that has nothing to do with the block.

I am not so sure, I check all the time and often, in fact almost daily after Gen Con ends.  A few hotels do have openings, such as the La Quinta as they are not part of the Gen Con room block and off of most people radar as it is a bit of a walk.  But nearly everything that is in the block downtown shows no openings and never showed openings (I check nearly everyday).  I was able to get a La Quinta reservation back in September but gave it up for the Embassy reservation. 

Another example - The Embassy was showing no openings when I was looking.  However, if I stretched my stay out to 8 days they magically had openings.  Many hotels will start showing openings as we get closer but for exorbitant prices.  I remember the Fairfield having rooms for something like $600/night last year or the year before.