That was a good choice. Always keep checking for rooms to open up, but do not count that a bunch of rooms with being made available, they might not.

For those still seeking a room, there are, at current count, 9 hotels with available rooms for Thursday - Saturday (Sunday check-out). All of those rooms are outside the downtown area, but downtown rooms are starting to show up with some regularity. The Columbia had a King room available for a couple hours before it was mentioned on the Fans of Gen Con Facebook page. Keep checking!

Speaking of which, I was able to get a Skywalk King, just now.

I managed to snag a room 6 blocks away a couple days ago.  I'm pretty happy with that, but I'll still keep an eye out for the fabled skywalk hotels.

I've requested a room and hopefully we'll have a room.

Wow! The Gen Con Housing portal exploded with downtown hotels. Currently 8 different types of rooms at 6 downtown hotels open. www.genconhotels.com

Is anyone else finding themselves unable to edit their reservation?  I thought it was just some weird problem I was having (it kept saying my e-mail address was not valid after I entered my reservation code in "modify reservation") but someone just posted on Facebook with the same problem.

It's working fine for me.

Interesting.  That at least confirms whatever this problem is that it is not universal.

So, half of our friends who were coming can’t now (We are consolidating into 1, rather than 2 rooms now), and that leaves me holding a room @ the Towne Plaza suites downtown (W-Su).
Is there a way to transfer it/release it back into the block so that someone else can get it?
Avoiding a fee would be ideal/awesome, although I guess if I get charged the 1 day, I might as well keep it and sleep alone in it, free of my other 2 friends’ snoring for a night…

Four downtown hotels just popped up.  I wonder if four people just dropped theirs or the hotels freed up a few more for the housing lottery.

There are a few more downtown openings as well as a skywalk.  Get them while they are hot.

Should this thread be renamed?

Last night a friend of mine snagged the embassy and saw that the staybridge had an opening so even at this late date you can get downtown hotel rooms. He gave up the fairview so that might be available.

I've had a few hotel switches in the past couple weeks trying to get closer.  Finally (just today) got the exact hotel and room type I wanted.

Your friend got my Embassy Suites room from our own upgrading Tetris, haha.  To be fair we only gave up the Embassy because an even better downtown room was open!  In fact, I am about to release our other Embassy Suites room now that I confirmed we do not have any bonus stragglers coming.

The number of available rooms keep rising.  There are 40 rooms available right now, and about 13 are downtown.

I like staying at the extended stay hotels because 
1) “free” breakfast (like the cost isn’t rolled into the room price)
2) A pre-flight Costco haul and a kroger delivery order to the hotel and I’ve got healthy snacks and bev for my crew for the entire con; have a tight timeline and can’t spend an hour on lunch? on a budget and can’t do a full con of restaurant meals? hungry because you doubled your daily steps but don’t want a full meal? Behold…My Fridge!
3) Bonus Privacy and quiet. I’ve been lucky enough to get rooms with a bedroom and living room separated by a door. I’ve got an 8am while my guys aren’t up till 9…chuck my clothes and toiletries into the living room the night before and I’m not waking anyone up with my puttering.
4) We leave Monday, so Sunday night laundry at the in house laundromat means going home with clean clothes. 

I snagged a double double suite with a separate living room that just opened up at the Staybridge. It’s closer and bigger than my old room, and cheaper. Room Tetris success!

I am with you, TinaBear81, as yes even though obviously the free breakfast is rolled into the room price, I cannot possibly emphasize enough what a great time and mental energy-saver it is stuffing yourself silly at your hotel before heading out for the day.  The only year so far we stayed at a place where you had to pay for breakfast it resulted in our group going to Patachou instead, which, while amazing, also took like 2 hours instead of 30 minutes, which is a very real difference when you are trying to maximize four days, obviously.

Oh, but yeah, and the more years I go to Gen-Con the more snacks and drinks I bring with me.  Or sometimes order, but I have been having a lot of fun exploring the fancy organic aisles at grocery stores for snacks and drinks I have never heard of in hopes of finding new favorites.  Sometimes it even works!  Regardless, it helps me skip lunch, and the associated endless waiting in the heat at food trucks, to just carry something with me to power through to a normal dinner.

Good call about the laundry on Sunday night, too.  Definitely something to consider now that I am finally able to stay until Monday for the first time, uh, ever, in my years of going since 1997.