Thanks for the feedback.

IMHO there is a lot of space between "48 hour guaranteed availability" and "no recognition of status" 11 months in advance for Hilton to recognize member loyalty.

People can request up to 6 rooms in the lottery. By way of example, instead of giving 6 rooms to someone with no status Hilton might want to give one to all members with status and then 4 or 5 rooms to others that requested 6. But maybe I have a distorted view of the world. And/or maybe with Hilton handing out status like candy at a parade, everyone has status....

There aren't rooms at Hotels.com but there are options. I was made a reservation at the Marriott Courtyard out by the airport. And there is a new Marriott opening this fall, but they aren't taking reservations for graduation weekend until next week but too early to tell if they let the standard systems manage the reservation process or, like Hilton, do something special because of the high demand.