Ok, so came to my first 4-day GenCon this year and loved it. Definitely bypassing a full stay at Origins this year in order to return to Indy. We stayed at the Sheraton this year, which was great, but a bit far to walk.

We are planning next year's Con, and I wanted to be able to give the others in my party an idea of general costs. I was wondering if anyone can advise me on what general range the rates for the Hyatt and Crown Plaza are. Basically we want to stay in a connecting hotel this year. I know nobody can say for sure what the rates are, but just wanted to get a general idea.

 Thanks!!

It really depends on how you like to travel. Rates for the rooms you describe probably range $150-$200 a night depending on size and if you go through the housing block.

Budget between $600 to a grand for the room for 4 nights.  Budget another couple hundred for food and stuff.   Budget another couple hundred for things like badges, TD etc.

You cut costs by splitting the room.   All in all, save a thousand bucks and find a roomate or two commited enough to do the same and money shouldn't be a tremendous issue.  If you save $100 a month for the con, you'll be set.   

MikeB has an awesome budget guide floating around.   Read that, too.  I'm sure there are others who can pull it off for half what I claim.  At some point it comes down to what you value on vacation.

 See you next year 

I apologize if you already know this, but technically the Crowne Plaza does not connect, at least not now.

There is an uncovered walkway over the street to the convention center area, but that goes to the RCA Dome, which is about to be BLOOOWWWDDDD UUUPPP!

Ahem.  Sorry about the previous sentence, I just couldn't resist.

Anyway, with the construction, over the next year to two years, the Crowne Plaza will probably not even have that walkway open, so if a connected hotel is of vital importance to you, my suggestion would be, as you already mentioned, the Hyatt, but also the Marriott and the Westin.  The Canterbury is kind of/sort of connected, but that entrance is a real pain to use, goes through the Mall, which closes at 10 I think, and takes far longer than just directly walking.

Hope that helps.

Honestly, this year I wish I stayed at the Crowne, because almost all of my events were at either Union Station or the Omni. I don't think I had a single RPG scheduled in the convention center.

Slight aside, and maybe one more directed to the powers that be: does GenCon intend, for the next year or two, to hold most of its RPGs in either Union Station or the Omni? Or will it change depending on how many events there are? Just thought I'd ask, as I'd like to be as lazy as possible in getting to events.

A connected hotel would have done me zero good this year.

I agree on the $100 bucks a month, if you can swing it.  You need to find where you can save the most money.  A hotel is a must but you can reduce that with roommates.  You can bring food in to town, only buy items in the Dealer's Hall that are Con Exclusives or Early Releases and curb your tavern spending.

There are ways to keep things on the cheap but yeah, the downtown hotel is a must for me.

Thanks for the replies, I wondered about the Crowne, since I noticed it connected through RCA. I noticed that the walkways were not the most convenient. My group tends to be fairly night owlish, and when we tried to get back home as far as we could via the skywalks at 1am, noticed that in orderto enter any of the hotels you have to be staying at that particular one. So ya...

 Thanks for the responses though. We were debating between going ahead and getting a room at the Hampton, or waiting for the housing block to come available in Feb and doing that.

$100 a month sounds like a good plan, I know I spent about 1k this year, but that was largely because I  made a couple poor decisions in who I attended with and ended up covering most of the hotel and paying for the events for the entire group myself. Wont make that mistake again!!! ;)

 Thanks again, Im sure I will be seeing you around on the boards I am becoming a bit of a regular. :)

 Chris, let me know if you're looking for roommates at all for next year. I want a connected hotel, but I'm not coming in with a huge group from Boston. 

The Chronek:

Slight aside, and maybe one more directed to the powers that be: does GenCon intend, for the next year or two, to hold most of its RPGs in either Union Station or the Omni? Or will it change depending on how many events there are? Just thought I'd ask, as I'd like to be as lazy as possible in getting to events.

This is just simply an unanswerable question at this time, as it depends on the state of the Convention Center regarding construction, and the amount of RPGs submitted.

Umm, I'm pretty sure Derek replied that GenCon would indeed be holding those games outside of the the convention center next year.  As for 2010?  Stay-tuned.

NascragMan:

Umm, I'm pretty sure Derek replied that GenCon would indeed be holding those games outside of the the convention center next year.  As for 2010?  Stay-tuned.

I think it's LIKELY they will be outside of the Convention center, but there's simply no guarantees on where at this point.