Before The Con – We’ve Spotted Nerd-Sign

Tom & I got downtown on the Monday before the Con, so … Day -2? … if that’s a thing?

I’ve never done the “Can I Check In Early?” thing, but on a Monday the hotels aren’t usually busy, so “Can I Leave My Bags Until Check-In?” has pretty much the same effect. As I understand it, they take the approach that if an appropriate room is ready, why not just check the guest in & save everyone some time.
That said, it does depend on hotel group & on brand within that group, from what I can tell, but I don’t know whether that’s because of brand policy, individual hotel management, or just a consequence of the hotel systems; The JW seem like they keep a real-time track of room status, so they’re probably in a good position to know exactly what they have available. (I had multiple consecutive bookings one year, and as I took my stuff down to the lobby on one of the checkout days, the cleaning supervisor asked if I was checking out. Down at reception, a few minutes later, the lobby folk apologized that they couldn’t give me my old room back, because it was already in the full-change cleaning state, so they had to give me a different one)

I think the earliest I’ve ever got into my room was before 9am, but that was after I’d flown in from New Zealand, so probably looked & smelled like Death, so there may have been a degree of “If we give him access to a shower, perhaps he will use it” at play.

Got a top-floor room this time, with the option of Executive Lounge access.
Sadly, the system has changed since the last time I had this, a number of years back, and it’s no longer free.
Outside of the con, the lounge is nice, but not worth $50/day for ‘free’ soft drinks & coffee & snacks & breakfast buffet & a place to hang out.
During the con, it’s so crowded that it’s not worth Free.

Anyway.

Part of the fun of being downtown early is that you get to see the con taking shape, and that includes all the signs.

And an image from my hotel room, late at night.