hotel booking, parking and local food INFORMATION
POST-MAGFEST 2025 ASSISTANCE/NOTES:
If you are unsure if you got charged correctly for your parking at the Gaylord, please reach out to the Hotel Department at https://super.magfest.org/contact and we'll help you out. The front desk was initially giving out incorrect info that more than one key could have parking on it, and unfortunately, the system didn't have the $19 rate turned on until Thursday morning rather than Wednesday like they told us, which introduced confusion for a lot of staffers and attendees. They're committed to working with people to make it right, so please reach out if you have any questions or need assistance.
One important note that we are seeing - if you were in a MAGFest block room (which all were) and you charged your parking to your room, the parking rate was correctly charged at $19/day. Double check your folio/bill before reaching out, you're likely fine. If you need assistance, please let us know when you entered the lot, when you exited, and how you tried to pay for your parking - those details will help us assist you. Thank you!If you lost something during MAGFest and either it wasn’t turned in to Lost and Found, managed by FestSec, all those items were turned over to the Gaylord National. Please complete THIS FORM and it has been suggested to log/take a screen capture of your submission number.
Residence Inn —> Gaylord relocation information: Renovations at the Residence Inn unfortunately fell behind schedule so not all of their rooms were available over MAGFest’s weekend. Because of this delay, the Residence Inn had to relocate a number of rooms in advance to the Gaylord National. The group rate at the Gaylord National for MAGFest was fully committed when these rooms were relocated so the MAGFest Gaylord discounted rate was no longer available. The rate remained the same as the original rate booked at the Residence Inn vs. the prevailing rate at the Gaylord National.
Additional questions or concerns should be directed to the Residence Inn.
parking information
There are three options for parking in National Harbor, where Super MAGFest 2025 takes place:
STANDARD PARKING LOTS WITHIN NATIONAL HARBOR
UPDATE: Sunday, Jan 26 at 9:00am. There is good parking availability at all National Harbor lots for today, the last day of MAGFest.
UPDATE: Saturday, Jan 25 at 2:30pm. All National Harbor parking is full. We suggest (a) driving to the Huntington Metro Station Garage at 2701 Huntington Ave, Alexandria, VA 22303 and calling a rideshare or (b) going to the Oxon Hill Park & Ride at 6710 Oxon Hill Rd, Oxon Hill, MD and taking the NH2 bus to the Gaylord.
Parking at the Gaylord National
SUNDAY, JAN 26 REMINDER AT 7:15am: You cannot pay at the gate when exiting the parking lot. You need to either (a) scan the QR code on your ticket and pay by phone or (b) visit the parking desk in Hall E to purchase a voucher ticket to scan after you scan your entry ticket as payment.
FRIDAY, JAN 24 UPDATE AT 1:45pm: If you purchased a MAGIC voucher for multi-day parking, you will now need to show it to the parking attendant in the booth for entry/exit. Since the lot has reached capacity, there is no longer the ability to pull a ticket.
THURSDAY, JAN 23 UPDATE AT 4:15pm: Gaylord’s parking facilities have reached capacity. If you are staying at the Gaylord and are arriving today, please be prepared to show your reservation confirmation to the parking gate staff to enter the lot.
Parking is $19/day at the Gaylord from Wednesday, January 22 until Monday, January 27 and the system will be programmed with this rate - no vouchers needed.
A different system is in place for parking at the Gaylord this year, so the instructions have changed significantly from last year’s. Please read these instructions so that you are familiar with the new arrangements. Each gate machine also has a call button that will connect you to the parking staff in case you have a problem.
IMPORTANT: Parking at the Gaylord cannot be purchased or reserved through any external services, websites, or apps. Parking payment can ONLY be done on-site at the Gaylord during MAGFest. There is NO payment at the entrances to or exits from the Gaylord parking.
We expect that Gaylord parking will fill up Thursday or Friday. We will post parking updates on social media and there will be a message board outside the Gaylord parking lot with updates. There will be a parking space for anyone who pre-pays for multi-day parking as described below.
If you are staying in a room at the Gaylord and want to park there:
When you arrive at the Gaylord lot take a ticket at the gate to enter.
At hotel check-in you can put the daily parking charge of $19/day on your room. If you are the first guest to request that parking be included on your Gaylord room charges the Front Desk will take the ticket you pulled when you entered and add parking in/out privileges to your Gaylord keycard. IMPORTANT: Only ONE keycard per Gaylord room can have parking in/out privileges on it. We will refer to this card as the MAGIC card and the parking system knows the status of this card - if a car has exited on it, another one cannot exit until the first car re-enters.
If someone has already received the MAGIC card for your room and a different occupant in the same room wants to pre-pay their Gaylord parking for the duration of their MAGFest stay, they can go to the Parking Help Desk next to the Gaylord Front Desk, or at a parking kiosk. You will get a MAGIC voucher which will allow for in/out privileges over the weekend. You WILL have to pull a ticket each time you enter, then scan the QR code on that new ticket and the QR code on the MAGIC voucher when you leave. HINT: You can take a photograph of the QR code on the MAGIC voucher on your cell phone and use that to scan out each time you leave.
Whenever you leave Gaylord parking, first scan the QR code on the original ticket that you pulled, then scan the QR code on the MAGIC voucher. The gate should open.
Valet Parking is available in-front of the Gaylord at the main entrance for $64/day and has in/out priviledges.
EV charging capabilities at the Gaylord are wall sockets near the elevators on each level. Gaylord does not have rapid charging facilities at this time.
Reserved Parking within National Harbor
UPDATE: Southpointe lot is SOLD OUT. If you do not have a Southpointe reservation, park in one of the other lots below, listed under STANDARD PARKING LOTS WITHIN NATIONAL HARBOR. If you park in this lot, you will need to walk around the Gaylord National garage to enter the Gaylord on the side of the parking garage.
OVERVIEW:
Hotel rooms for Super MAGFest are managed via Maritz. Our initial wave of reservations took place on Wednesday, October 9. The Maritz portal for any available rooms across all of our hotels has closed.
Jan 17, 2025 update - the Passkey link - which is where any remaining Gaylord National rooms will be available to be reserved will open RIGHT HERE at 12:00 pm (noon) on Saturday, January 18. This link will remain open for any other cancellations, etc. up until the event. These rooms are only available online, not via any call center or by calling the Gaylord directly.
Jan 16, 2025 update - emails have gone out some attendees who had reservations at either the Residence Inn or the AC Hotel in National Harbor letting them know that their reservation has been moved to the Gaylord National. This email is legitimate and valid, and the following statement was published by MAGFest’s Venue Liaison on Discord with a brief explanation: “Now that the emails are out, I can confirm that everyone who had an existing reservation at the Residence Inn/AC Hotel in National Harbor who received an email letting you know that your reservation has been moved to the Gaylord National - this email is correct and legitimate.
As Venue Liaison, I have known about this for a little over a week now, and did not want to get ahead of the news before the hotels could let the impacted attendees know. It has not been fully explained to me why this is happening, but it is the primary reason for the delayed Passkey link. As all properties within the Marriott family, Gaylord, AC and Residence Inn will initially shift rooms to each other first as needs must.
I'm now going to go through and answer questions as best I can, there's a ton of messages now that this started hitting.”
Jan 12, 2025 update - A Passkey link for any available Gaylord rooms will not be available until Tuesday, January 14 at the earliest. Sorry for the delay. We will post here a day/time that the Passkey link will become available, and will give at least 18 hours notice here before it goes live. Do not contact the Gaylord National looking for rooms until this Passkey link is available.
Jan 5, 2025 update - it looks like some of the hotels are still working through the upload of their rooming lists from Maritz. Please give it a few more days, Maritz is pushing them to get this done quickly. Sorry for the heartburn!
Jan 3, 2025 update - A Passkey link for any available Gaylord rooms will not be available until January 13. There are no issues with any Maritz reservations, we’re working on a couple of other matters with them. Do not contact the Gaylord National looking for rooms until January 13, 2025.
Dec 21, 2024 update - The process of Maritz turning the rooming lists over to the various hotels has begun. Wait until Monday, January 6 to contact your hotel directly to make any changes you may need to your reservation. Some hotels have later “cut off” dates for reservations, so any availability for their hotels will show in the Maritz link above. Do not contact the Gaylord National looking for rooms until January 6, 2025. There won’t be any, as we have locked them down to give them plenty of time for them to upload/settle the Maritz and internal MAGFest lists before making any extra rooms available via Passkey (there may not be any - its not a guarantee).
important information:
Key Reservation info:
All hotels in National Harbor require a three-night minimum to book (Thurs-Sun).
A credit card valid until February, 2025 will be required to secure all reservations made. The card will not be charged when you make your reservation. A one-night refundable deposit will be charged any time from December 1, 2024 through to when you check in. As long as you cancel outside your hotel’s cancellation timeframe, this deposit will be refunded to you. The remainder of your stay will be charged when you check in for your stay.
MAGFest can only assist with reservations that are booked through our official process. We can’t help with rooms booked at other unaffiliated hotels, or even booked at one of our official hotels if reserved directly with them through their website or by calling. Maritz Global Events Customer Service can be reached at magfest@maritz.com from the registered email address (or by calling 469-513-9379).
Informational note: if a hotel “overbooks” itself and they cannot honor your reservation when you arrive, generally it is their responsibility to find you another room at a nearby property and assist with the expenses of shifting you to the other property. For attendee awareness – the Club Wyndham in National Harbor is not a traditional hotel and does not have this obligation. If they cancel your reservation, they do not have any responsibility to assist you with finding alternate accommodations.
gaylord is now cashless:
The Gaylord National no longer accepts cash at any of its sales points on property. This includes the front desk, bars, restaurants, etc. There is a “reverse ATM” at the front of the hotel, to the left as you walk in the main entrance before the registration desk where you can convert cash into a payment card that will work across the Gaylord. Credit cards, debit cards and this payment card can be used to pay for things.
IMPORTANT: This policy does not apply to MAGFest Marketplace Vendors. Additionally, cash is still king when leaving your housekeeping staff a tip in your hotel room.
ATTENDEE ROOM GROUPINGS:
The link to the form for requesting an attendee room grouping at the Gaylord National closed on September 25.
LARGE SUITE ALLOCATION:
The form for requesting one of the larger suites at the Gaylord has closed. There is no waiting list for larger suites.
ANYTHING ELSE FOR NOW?
If you still have a question about this process, please contact us, and at the bottom of that page, you can subscribe to MAGFest’s newsletter, which will keep you up-to-date with all this information!
DINING information
The Gaylord National has new food options, and here’s a link to some details. During MAGFest, Gaylord’s Potomac District Café & Market will be open 24 hours on Thursday-Friday-Saturday nights.
National Harbor has lots of food options, and you can access special discounts through their Show Your Badge program.
CHANGELOG
2025/01/28 - updated with post-event information, and link for lost and found
2025/01/25 - updated parking information
2025/01/24 - updated parking information
2025/01/23 - updated parking information and moved to top of page
2025/01/17 - updated to note when Passkey link will be released
2025/01/07 - Southpointe lot availability updated
2025/01/05 - updated to note delay in some hotels picking up the Maritz rooming lists
2025/01/03 - updated Maritz portal closing and date of availability of any Gaylord rooms
2025/01/01 - additional parking information and clarified Gaylord dining information
2024/12/21 - updated information about Maritz rooming list handover and Gaylord going cashless.
2024/12/07 - updated National Harbor parking info.
2024/11/07 - updated Gaylord parking info.
2024/11/01 - updated parking info to holding message while info finalized.
2024/10/03 - updated launch day information to focus attention
2024/09/27 - updated information post closing of Pre-Registered Advance Attendee Hotel Booking
2024/09/23 - updated pricing sheet to include executive suites
2024/09/18 - updated Housing Launch date to October 9
2024/09/17 - added link to pricing sheet
2024/09/11 - corrected deadline for hotel block request form
2024/09/11 - updated dates for 2025 process
2024/08/06 - more detailed process update
2024/07/19 - updated to initial 2025 information