I have been hyping Gen Con 2018 since last year as this year my wife will actually be able to attend (we bought her a badge last year, but she got a new job and couldn't go).

But thanks to the way that housing works, I am now 0 for 4 between our two accounts for downtown. Last year I HATED being so far out of the convention and missed a couple of events due to how hard we were going late at night and just the extra commute in time + parking. The worst part (for jealousy reasons admittedly) is I had a buddy get a time slot of 12:50, then he FORGOT ABOUT IT, logged in at 1:30 and snagged a downtown room for under a grand. 

Meanwhile I'm standing over the keyboard like a hawk with my wife's time at 4:14..... and nothing. Again. Damn man. I wanted to go all out and now I'm looking at $2300 for downtown and it's just like duuuuuuuuude come on.

I really wish they would save SOME rooms for the later blocks. That way the people that want them, that practically plan their whole day around being on in time for housing could have a shot or something. 

Now I've called Q Rooms, I've called the hotels, I've tried working my magic in every way possible and nada. The awful part is I'm Press so now in order to shoot the event/do some collab videos with other creators about Gen Con, and I've got to lug all my equipment around all day on any day I want to shoot. 

Any suggestions on how I can get a downtown room for under $1500? I'm willing to pay a healthy sum extra than my current $580, but I haven't had any luck anywhere. I mean I guess next year I should just buy 10 extra badges and refund them just to get a good lottery slot. #LessonLearned

Keep looking.  Sheraton has rooms right now.
 

You would have to buy badges under a different account, multiple badges under the same account don't get multiple room times.  Learned this the hard way.

Don't panic, but do check the housing block as often as you can.  

Leave your equipment in your buddy's downtown room.

For next year: join a hotel loyalty program and book using points. You can buy points if you don't have enough, cheaper than paying the inflated cash rate for the room.

Courtyard Indianapolis at the Capitol is available for 455 a night from Thursday to Sunday.

Before taxes, that's 1,365. You would have to check in Thursday, though.

You said under 1,500. 

Edit: It's 1,564 with tax.

Here is your map:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/320+N+Senate+Ave,+Indianapolis,+IN+46204/Indiana+Convention+Center,+South+Capitol+Avenue,+Indianapolis,+IN/@39.7683755,-86.1672392,16z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x886b50b849c2a5a9:0x65459ae8321d06c3!2m2!1d-86.1636511!2d39.7719516!1m5!1m1!1s0x886b50b01fa793eb:0xf9f4c9109116222c!2m2!1d-86.1641401!2d39.7645358

I've been doing this for 10 years with the downtown hotels. Believe me, before the lottery, sitting there at noon hitting refresh and hoping you hit it right and watching a countdown thing was agonizing. 

Take it from me, and check every single hotel that's downtown for out of block prices from Thurs-Sun. 

You will find many near 1,500.

The JW Marriott usually costs me 1,200 in block for Wed-Sun for comparison.

I would advise instead of getting really angry, you look at the reality that even in-block, downtown is going to cost you over 1,000 dollars, and it's actually a matter of 300-400 dollars difference to get downtown, and maybe checking in Thursday.

Wow..    455$ a NIGHT?!  That's frikken outrageous!

JW: Wed-Sun: ~1,200
Courtyard at the Capitol: Thurs-Sun: ~1,500

At the end of the day, we're talking checking in Thursday and 300 dollars difference.

You just park Thursday, check your luggage, go game. In the afternoon, check in.

It sucks but it's what you have

It may be what's available, but many of us don't have the capacity to pony up 300+ each day difference in cost for the con..

Comparing a three day booking to a four is kind of like apples and oranges. Here is three days:

$1560/4=$390
$828/4=$207

if you wanted the 4 days it would be:
$2128/4=$532
$1104/4=$276

The difference is more glaring when the days are made the same. I also might have the price wrong, I used $236, which seems to be about ballpark for a downtown, but some are much less. I also divided by four since I can't imagine you wouldn't be splitting the room.
 

Kind of apples and oranges, but this is more like making the best case scenario out of the worst case.

Sent you a message.

Thanks for all the remarks on this forum page.  I started a &*&^%$ storm over on Customer service about the same issue of getting a downtown room.  Had the same issues.  I have not been to the Con enough to have appropriate knowledge about how to get the best deal in the system.  
 

Keep checking. Last year was supposed to be this epic, "Everyone's going to GC50, we'll never get downtown rooms." I had the earliest booking time of 3pm of the 4 of us with separate accounts. We started with a hotel outside Indy at the airport, 13 miles out. Because we kept checking we slowly were able to get closer and closer to DT Indy and, finally on July 7th, booked connected rooms at the Courtyard by Marriott. That was after missing a room at the Alexander on the 27th of June. Rooms open up. Keep checking.

As everyone said, check back on a regular basis, especially as the final day to get badge refunds approaches.  Two years ago I was able to score a downtown hotel room a couple of months prior to the con by checking back on a regular basis.

If you haven't found an hotel by spring, start checking Airbnb regularly as well. Last summer I failed the lottery and resorted to an Airbnb in the Fletcher Place neighbourhood by Fountain Square [Indianapolis's 'Williamsburg']. That's still a bit of a walk to the convention [it was slightly less than a mile], but I was right next to the restaurants I tend to visit in Indy.  I've seen downtown Airbnbs for reasonable fees [ie $200 or less per night] as well.

There's possibly a downtown hotel opening right around when Gencon is. I don't think there's a set date when its supposed to be finished, but worth monitoring. 

You might try looking again around June 10th. The cut off day for hotel reservations is June 11th, it costs 50$ to cancel before the 11th, afterwards it costs a single nights stay to cancel so you may find a few people canceling around then.