The convention I'm talking about is the AHA (American Heart Assoc.) in the Morial convention center.
And yes, I am an exhibitor so it's important that I be within walking distance of the convention center.
And yes, I remember we once tried to book rooms for the next AHA right after we got back from the last one and the rooms were not available.
It's not that I don't want to pay the convention rate for the rooms. It's that the way the housing authority doles out the rooms is for sh*t. I will be paying $250 per room (give or take) and wanted to stay at the Hilton (on the river).
The housing authority has several forms to fill out for this convention, and all hotels it has deals with are numbered sequentially. Problem is, some hotels are "A" hotels, some are "B", and some are "C". It's not clear what the difference is because some A and B are equally far (and equally expensive) from the convention center. Anyways, they had separate forms for the A and B and C lists and we just put all our choices on the A list. When the housing authority got the list (of 6), they just removed all of our choices that were not B or C, which left us with 2 hotels which really were "A", one of which is (I think) a Wyndam that turns out will be closed during the convention because of termites. The other hotel was the Hilton riverside.
We end up getting the fairmont (Barrone / Canal) which is quite a hike from the convention center.
It just pisses me off that as a HH member (several of us are) we can't book a Hilton many months, if not a full year, ahead of these major conferences.
We're not a big exibitor, and I wonder if the BIG players (like Phizer, Merck, etc) can get the rooms they want for their exhibit staff regardless of this housing authority bullsh*t.