UPDATE: Gallifrey One’s annual Hotel Reservations event for the Marriott Los Angeles Airport Hotel took place on Friday, May 12. As always, due to enormous demand for rooms at our host hotel, our convention discount block is sold out as of May 14, and there is extremely limited space left on rooms not on the convention block. There are, however, many hotels available in the immediate area, including quite a few that are only a short walk away (and all easily accessed via taxi/rideshare as well.)
For those who were unable to get into the hotel, we encourage everyone to keep checking back periodically over the days and weeks to come, as cancellations may come in. Also, select rooms may still be available at higher rack rates; you can access those by doing a general room search at the hotel without our group code. If you’re missing a night or more on your discount room reservation, make a separate one at rack rate so your stay is entirely at the Marriott.
For reference, the link to our convention discount block is here. Individual nights may become available after cancellations happen down the road.
How To Stay At or Near Gallifrey One
We know losing out on booking a room at the Marriott can be extremely disappointing, but we have a few tips to help you with this.
Check Back Often: Hotel rooms at the Marriott sometimes open up throughout the year due to cancellations, as well as when airline-contracted rooms are released back to the facility. We encourage you to check the Marriott LAX website in the months to come, as you may luck out!
Hotels Beyond the Marriott: Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get into the Marriott, as there are many hotels in the area of Los Angeles International Airport. There are plenty of places to stay, many of which are within a short 5-minute walk from the Marriott – very close by and easily accessed after a long day at the convention. Here’s a quick guide to available options in the immediate area, all of which should have rooms to let for the weekend of our convention.
Hotels within a 5-10 minute walk:
- Hilton Los Angeles Airport , to the east, across the Marriott LAX parking lot and beyond the airport parking (see note below)
- Four Points Sheraton LAX, immediately north of the Marriott, next to the Renaissance Hotel
- Renaissance LAX, north of the Marriott and just past the Sheraton
- Sonesta Hotel LAX, formerly the Crowne Plaza LAX, across Airport Blvd., to the west on Century, past the Hyatt Place
- Embassy Suites North – LAX, across Airport Blvd. and 1/2 block north
- Residence Inn LAX Century Blvd., across Airport Blvd. and around the corner
- Hyatt Place LAX Century Blvd., just past the Residence Inn LAX
Hotels at 10 or more minutes walking distance, or easily accessed via taxi or rideshare:
- Sheraton Gateway LAX, H Hotel LAX Curio Collection, Hyatt Regency LAX, Homewood Suites by Hilton LAX, Courtyard by Marriott LAX, all to the west on Century Blvd. past the Sonesta
- Westin Hotel LAX, Holiday Inn LAX, La Quinta Inn LAX, Wingate by Wyndham LAX, Motel 6 LAX, Best Western Plus Suites LAX, Quality Inn LAX, all to the east, near or next to the 405 freeway
There are many other local hotels in the LAX area as well, including south of the airport and in neighboring cities, especially in El Segundo to the immediate south of the airport. All of these hotels are easily accessible with taxis, Uber or Lyft… we’d encourage you to look at the online map sites and travel sites and choose your best option.
Use Local Transportation: If you’re in the local area, getting to the Marriott LAX is easy… taxis, Uber and Lyft all serve the local area. Parking for the convention can be a bit of a challenge; although the Marriott lot fills up very quickly, there are other parking options in the area (we have a Directions & Parking page on this site, but we will be updating it closer to the convention with current parking info!)
IMPORTANT regarding the HILTON LAX: We are not the only convention in the LAX area on Presidents’ Day Weekend; the Strategicon gaming convention OrcCon takes place at the Hilton next door, at the same time as Gallifrey One. If you are making reservations at the Hilton LAX, make absolutely certain you are not booking your room using Strategicon’s discount hotel block. The Hilton will void any reservations by Gallifrey One attendees that were made using the Strategicon discount block, and Gallifrey One fully supports their right to do so. Please help keep the peace between us by not imposing upon their event.
For Reference: Staying at the Marriott LAX
We are able to offer a vast majority of the rooms at the Marriott on the Gallifrey One discounted room block. Rooms on the convention block are $170.00 per night base rate. This base rate (which is a bit higher than in previous years, as we are operating on a new hotel contract as of 2024) is prior to additional fees charged along with the base rate on site, including state & local taxes, and the Hotel Worker Ordinance Fee (see below).
Only standard rooms are available on the block; suites at the Marriott LAX for our weekend are pre-booked and unavailable.
For all rooms at the Marriott LAX, you must guarantee your reservation with a valid credit card at the time of reservation. Your card will not be charged until arrival, but you will be charged a deposit (noted as a “pending charge”) for incidentals that cannot be waived, which will not be finalized if your bill is settled. DO NOT use a debit card as you will be hit with all of these charges up front, and the deposit can take several days after check out to be refunded to you.
Each room also receives an overnight parking rate of $20.00 for one car only. Please note that when making your reservation on the discount block, it won’t show the new parking rate but rather the full daily overnight rate; your reservation will be updated to include the discount parking rate when you check into the room.
The Marriott LAX now provides free in-room wi-fi to everyone as a courtesy to members of Marriott Bonvoy, their free rewards program. We encourage you to sign up for Bonvoy prior to your arrival, but you can also sign up on site.
As noted above, Gallifrey One works with the Marriott LAX Hotel to verify that all rooms reserved using the convention discount block correspond to convention attendees. Do NOT make a reservation on the discount block if you do not already have a ticket, as your reservation will be canceled.
Hotel Worker Ordinance Fee: During the summer of 2022, the City of Los Angeles passed the Hotel Workers’ Rights Ordinance, a legal statute assessed on hotel properties in the city “to ensure their workers’ safety and fair compensation.” Everyone staying at the hotel will face an additional surcharge per room (approximately $11 per night) to comply with the new ordinance. This surcharge is in addition to the base rate charged per night for your reservation and the applicable state and local taxes, and cannot be waived.
Additional Hotel Rooms (Not in the Discount Block)
Approximately 15% of the remaining rooms at the Marriott for our weekend also become available at the same time as the discount block or thereafter, but at standard (“rack”) rates determined by the Marriott; these usually start at $225 or even higher. Some of these rooms go on sale immediately, and others appear throughout the year after cancellations come in. The rest are held by the Marriott per their contracts with several airlines (as they provide crew accommodation throughout the year) and are released into the reservations system much closer to our weekend if the airlines do not need them.
Sorry, Gallifrey One cannot extend discount rooms to you that you don’t book through the website, nor can we help you get the discount rate for the night(s) you are unable to book a discount block room. All reservations questions should be referred to the Marriott. We also cannot extend the discounted parking benefit to anyone with a rack rate room, sorry.
Although the prices for rack rate rooms are considerably higher, if it is important for you to stay at the Marriott LAX during the convention, we encourage you to book one of these rooms and find someone to share with you. Our Facebook 2024 event page can also be used by attendees to find roommates throughout the year!
Cancellation Policy
Should you have to cancel your room for any reason (including if the convention is postponed due to the ongoing pandemic), the Marriott LAX allows cancellation up to 48 hours prior to arrival, for both the discount block rooms as well as standard hotel rooms. If you are unable to make the convention for any reason, we ask that you cancel your room as soon as possible and not keep the reservation throughout the year, because that prevents other people from being able to reserve a room, and ultimately impacts Gallifrey One’s hotel room commitments to the Marriott.
When Should I Arrive?
If you are getting a hotel room in the area, we encourage you to check into your hotel room on Thursday if possible (or before, if you are coming earlier; there are fans in the lobby usually as early as late Wednesday afternoon.) Pre-convention events will take place in the evening Thursday, with official events starting at 8:00pm but our social mixer in the hotel lobby (affectionately referred to as ‘lobby con’ by attendees) usually getting into full swing by 6-7pm; the convention proper begins Friday morning at 10am. Badge pickup for attendees will run Thursday 3pm-6pm and limited pickups from 8pm until the desk goes quiet, and resumes Friday morning at 9am. We’d encourage you to travel earlier rather than later to enjoy the full experience.
We know booking at the Marriott LAX is the one remaining piece of business surrounding Gallifrey One that is truly stressful for our attendees, and we hope you understand that all of this is done to make it as fair and equitable for all our attendees. Happy hunting!