Going to San Diego Comic-Con Just Became Even More of a Nightmare

For most people, going to San Diego Comic-Con is a Herculean task long before they set foot in Southern California. It’s expensive, it’s hard to plan, and even if you manage to get a badge, you haven’t gotten to the worst part: the hotels . But don’t worry, it’s about to get worse. For Comic-Con 2026, the convention is changing its hotel reservation policy , which was already dubbed “Hotelpocalypse.” Now, even calling it something like “Hotelpocalypse 2: Beyond Armageddon” barely feels like enough.

As noticed by the fine folks at the SDCC Unofficial Blog , Comic-Con recently updated its hotel reservation policy for 2026. The system is pivoting from its previous randomized lottery system to a “live-sale format, allowing participants to make reservations in real time based on a rand