First off, thank you for your patience this year as we expand the hotel lottery system. We have worked hard to include all of our partner hotels in the lottery process to make the process as fair and painless as possible for you, our staff and the partner hotels we work with.
This year, we are happy to announce the addition of two new partner hotels, the Hyatt Rosemont and the Loews Chicago O'hare. The Hyatt Rosemont is located about 1 mile north from the Hyatt Regency O'Hare and the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center on River Road, while the Loews Chicago O'hare is about 1/4 mile south of the venues, also on River Road. Shuttle transportation will also be provided between both hotels and the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.
Also, this year, we will be expanding the lottery to all of our partner hotels, including the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, Hyatt Rosemont, Aloft, Comfort Inn, Crowne Plaza, and Loews hotels. In addition, we will also be using this lottery for our suites at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare.
Entry in this year’s lottery will require a completed membership for the convention or a pending dealer application along with a credit card to put on file for the room. If you are selected for a room, this card will be charged a nonrefundable one night's stay at the hotel you are placed in. This automatic payment will occur a short time after you are awarded the room. For that reason, please try to use a credit card (verses a debit card) if possible and make sure to only select hotels and room types you are willing to stay in. These measures are the best way we can try to assure that the people requesting rooms at our hotels are actually intending to attend. It also prevents stuffing of multiple entries into the system by a single person. As we have done in previous years, if you find you are unable to attend last minute, convention registrations are refundable up until the close of preregistration in November.
As was the case last year, we ask that if you know you are going to room with certain people, please connect your lottery entries together. This makes it easier on our staff as we know who is rooming with whom, preventing multiple people in a intended group from winning rooms they won’t use and making sure we distribute the most rooms to the most people that will actually use them. As a bonus, when attaching three or four people to an entry, your odds do increase slightly in getting a room.
Finally, whether or not you are able to get a room in the lottery, we would like to remind everyone that there are additional rooming options available to our attendees. Besides our official partner hotels, there are also several other hotels in the area and many of these hotels are connected to the same walkway system that connects the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center and the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, which will provide easy access to all convention and social spaces. In fact, in good weather, these same hotels are mere steps away across River Road. Also, don't forget you can look to share a room as we partner with ConRoomies to allow attendees with room space to offer a central place to list their rooms. Finally, once the room lottery is completed, any available rooms due to cancellations will become immediately available, so keep checking back as rooms will periodically appear.
Thank you again and we look forward to celebrating our 20th convention with you!