Just because I've seen this mentioned in a thread or two here, including indications that there is a separate GM block of rooms, I'd like to point out that, to the knowledge of myself and the rest of my group of judges, there is no separate GM Housing Block into which GMs can book rooms.

This was the reality many years ago. But as we have been told specifically by Gen Con, GMs still can get some housing reimbursement for games run, but the room has to be in the GC block (you cannot get reimbursement for an out-of-block room, regardless of how many games you run and proof of your hotel room stay), and you have to have gotten that room through the normal room lottery process.

Believe me, we looked into it. As far as we were told, there is no way for GMs to bypass the room lottery, there are no special 'GM Block Rooms' that GMs have access to. (This is not true, as I have learned: see edits below)

I do not know if exhibitors have their own block. But GMs don't seem to, unless we were given the wrong info.

Just wanted to post that clarification, as I've seen the opposite posted here.

EDITS WITH WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM KIND PEOPLE BELOW :)

So, as I have learned, here are the facts:

1. GC offers total room compensation for a GM or GMs who run 800 player-hours (one player-hour defined as one player playing a game for one hour). Multiples of 800 player-hours will qualify for multiple rooms.
   
2. Partial room compensation is available for a GM who hits, as I understand it, the 200 player-hour mark. Compensation there of 1/4 of the room cost, capped at $50/night. (from Event Host Policy and personal experience)
   
3. Room compensation, total or partial, only applies to rooms in the GenCon hotel block. Out-of-block rooms are not eligible for compensation of either kind.
   
4. GMs must therefore enter the room lottery (before game submission ends) and attempt to get an in-block room in order to be eligible for compensation of any kind.
   
5. There is a GM Block of rooms one can apply for (but there is no guarantee, as they may be filled up). This seems to be a group of hotel rooms one does not have to obtain first through the hotel lottery (as told to me by garhkal and suburbaknght below)
   
6. The GM Block of rooms can only be applied for by people who hit the 800 player-hour total compensation mark. People who qualify for partial compensation do not qualify for a GM Block room.
   

At least, that's how I've understood what people here have told me.

Thanks all :)

Not how i have seen it handled with groups.  BUT maybe groups are handled differently from independent gms..

Because we've been running games for years, and every year now, we are told that the process is the same: reg for a badge, submit events, try to get a hotel room, run your events, and then submit for hotel reimbursement after the Con.

In past years, for a while the process included being able to reg for a room from a distinctly separate GM room block, rooms set aside just for GMs. That, from what we have been told directly by GC, is not the case now.

Even when I was just a player, I was always a fan of GMs being able to have access to rooms a little easier. Without GMs, there are no games and a Gaming convention :) So that system, where some rooms were designated 'GM rooms', was appreciated.

If that still is the case and there is a separate GM block of roms, I guess I'll just be a little upset that a Premier Gaming Group has been told otherwise.

kinda same topic, maybe, but with how difficult it is to get downtown in block housing, might there be some way to waive the 'must-be-in-block' requirement to get hotel reimbursement? I could see that being a requirement way back when gen con had to be sure to fill the percentage of rooms but now...

First, there is a GM housing block.  I posted my response in the wrong thread (sorry on that) but you can see it here.

Second, I strongly suspect that part of Gen Con's contract with the hotels that provide the housing block prohibits them from reimbursing for out-of-block hotel rooms.  Remember, the reason the hotels agree to the housing block is that they will sell cheaper rooms in return for an increased probability of sales, and while downtown rooms are mostly guaranteed to sell out, the same cannot be said for remote rooms, many of which are owned by the same chains, and probably even some of the same owners.  As such, it's likely the hotels require that Gen Con do everything they can to steer people towards the housing block.  Reimbursing for out of block hotels is probably a breach of contract.

I'm with Braewe on the OOB thing too. I get them wanting to steer people towards block rooms, but the final effect is that a downtown property is renting me a room for *more money* than a block room. It's not a different property that otherwise might have gotten my business, but there are enough people who publically declare they aren't going without a downtown room that imo the hotels would be wiser to encourage those more expensive OOB rooms to sell as well. because for a given attendee, it might be OOB or no sale at all.

Back years ago, early Indy years, the requirements were very different, and I think there were years where you could get a block room even if you only got partial comp. But if you only get into the block when you A) request it and B) hit that 800 mark, that could explain why we haven't gotten word about the block still existing.

Thanks guys, I'll be looking into it some more. Not sure what our player hours are at this year.

The thing to remember about the reimbursment is that by keeping it in the block Gencon is able to control it's costs regarding this .
If you stay in the block they know that a room will cost x each night (lets say x is a variable about $ 150 ) so each person in that 4 person room has a reimburssement of approx $40. per night .
now lets say you book you own outside the block and stay at theConrad for Gencon at $640 pernight.
Gencon gets no discount there for a room block and reimburses each of you $160.00 per night. Not a good way for a company to operate .
and Yes we are leaving out all the contracted rates , occupancy discounts and such.It is still a bad practice to allow that . Very few real world companies allow their members to pick the hotels either , Most of any size have some level of contracts (room blocks) with certain hotels . You may not be aware but they do , if you travel for work check your allowed/preferred vendor list .
The GM rooms(in my experience ) are all part of the downtown block  . We have had our GM's be booked at different hotels when getting rooms through the GM program .
There are a number of criteria to be allowed to use this program -some of which I know and some I don't . The prime one being it takes 800 hours for a room (4 ppl each at 200 hours ).

If your group is not hitting this threshold you cannot get a room (as I understand it ). In which case if you are close join with another group who may have extra hours ( look at the GM forum for groups ,19 & One is a group that will work with you - Blatant advertising I am the EO for that group) 

Just to clarify It is not a specific GM block -it is room within the Gencon overall  Block and in various hotels - if your group has multiple rooms you might be spread out among variuos hotels .

Guys, 

Please, this is all clearly and simply explained in the EVENT HOST POLICY (EHP), which EVERY GM should read.  Yes, it's long, but there are parts you can skip over if they aren't applicable to you, but if you have any questions about how things work, most of it is covered in detail in this document:

https://files.gencon.com/genconeventhostpolicy.pdf

BrotherBock, I'd really like to know if someone from Gen Con specifically told you there was no GM hotel block, because that is not the case at all.  I think you are misunderstanding up the difference between being reimbursed for a room an being provided a room in the GM block.

And yes, as outlined in the EHP, when being reimbursed after the show for an in block hotel room, your cap is 1/4 of the room night cost or $50, whichever is less, for three, or four, if you are running early Thursday events, nights.

All of this is very clearly outlined in that document.  PLEASE read it.

Of course, if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask, but I don't really get the confusion on some things that are clearly laid out in that document. :)

Marian McBrine   
Event Coordinator   
Gen Con LLC

And also to point out, BROTHERBOCK, I did just do a quick check of your group's events, to help you out, and your group, as of now, has less than the 800 player hours of events submitted, in order to qualify for a complimentary room in the GM block.  You're a little over halfway there.  So that's probably why your group hasn't qualified for a room in the GM block, and you were given instructions for getting reimbursed post show.  

You're going to particularly want to focus on pages 16-21 of the Event Host Policy for all this information.

Marian McBrine    
Event Coordinator    
Gen Con LLC 

Yep, that is exactly what I've tried to say above in my most recent posts. I think there has been a miscommunication. I'm not EO, so I can only say there has been a miscommunication somewhere. Our takeaway was not what's been said here, but that's settled. I also indicated the hours for our group issue above as well, so that's also settled already. We have qualified and not qualified in the past, and there's been partial and whole comp rules on and off over the course of multiple companies running the Con, and we've been running so long and the rules have changed so often over the course of 20+ years that even some recent stability can be confusing when our game load has also changed a lot over the years. 

This was settled several posts ago, the last couple were just musing over OOB issues. 

And, just kindly asking, no need for all caps shouting pls. There's bold and all sorts of cool toys on these new digs. :) 

FYI, going to edit my OP with what I've learned here so people new to the thread can avoid confusion.

I want to offer a bit of clarification, and this is something we talked about in a thread in the Event Organizers forum, here:

http://www.gencon.com/forums/9-event-organizers-gms/topics/372-hotel-reimbursement

And here's the post by Derek that I particularly want to emphasize:

"Marian is correct: hotel reimbursement is always to individuals, and is for a maximum of 25%. We assume that you will have some roommates to cover the cost. If you choose not to, that's up to you.
Hotel reimbursement is provided to help make sure GMs can actually get responsable accomodation, economical at the show, not for necessarily for getting the best room, per se.
For rooms that are complimentary and completely covered by Gen Con ahead of time, we are not as strict in policing the number of guests per room, but that is in part because we haven't run out of GM block inventory in the past. We do place rooms based on names listed, though, so if a room is requested and only one or two names are listed, those requests are placed in single bed rooms instead of doubles, which are in much higher demand."

So in your number one, I'm concerned that it might imply that one single GM running 800 player hours of events might, alone, qualify for a complete room reimbursement, and I want to make sure people understand that is NOT the case. Any individual GM will only earn 25%, or $50, whichever is less, of room reimbursement, provided that they run 200 player hours of events, and provided they follow the rules in the EHP for requesting reimbursement, which includes submitting a hotel bill with their name on it post show.

You can certainly have a hotel room which 4 GMs share, and provided they each run at least 200 player hours, and each submit a bill post show with their name on it for that block hotel room, and in that sense, yes, they would essentially earn total room compensation, but that reimbursement is handled per person, individually, you cannot just submit one reimbursement request for everyone in the room.

A GM will NEVER personally qualify for reimbursement about the 25%/$50 rate.  One GM cannot earn one completely free hotel room.  They can earn reimbursement for their space in an in block hotel room, assuming 4 person occupancy.

Make sense? :)  Again, I encourage everyone to read the EHP, it's all pretty clear in there, but if anyone needs further clarification, just ask. 

Marian McBrine
Event Coordinator
Gen Con LLC

Ah, good to know. Also didn't get that from the Policy. 

So that leaves this question: can a single GM who runs 800+ hours but has three friends apply for a GM (non lottery)  room and get quarter compensation for it?

Or does the GM block require both 800+ hours and four + people?  

"Gaming groups that have a long-standing working relationship with Gen Con and qualify for hotel reimbursement based on event submissions can ask for pre-paid, complimentary rooms. One complimentary room (based on assumed 4-person occupancy) can be requested for every 800 player-hours of Active events the group is running."

So you must be a gaming group, although anyone can make a group, and you must have, basically, a history of running events at Gen Con.  A single GM cannot apply for a room in the GM block.

Further, if you read the sections about how to qualify and apply for a room in the GM block, you can see that this is a specific block of rooms that Gen Con assigns, and pays for the room.  This is not a different block that you can personally apply for a hotel room in, as you would for a regular attendee room, and then be reimbursed for. If your group qualifies, submits an application, and is accepted, based on your relationship wtih Gen Con and space available, your group will be given a hotel room in the block, you will not be requesting reimbursement for it.  I think that's the thing you didn't quite get.  If you are a GM, you either can get a room in the regular attendee block, just like every other attendee, and then request reimbursement after the show, OR, your group may request a room in the GM block, which, if you application is accepted, will be assigned to your group and for which you will not be charged.

Does that answer your question and make more sense?

Marian McBrine
Event Coordinator
Gen Con LLC

This would be just academic, but I wonder if there are in fact qualifications for being a group in good standing. If two GMs, say, run together 800+ PHs of games, and give themselves a name, and always do well and are in good standing, would they be able to be recognized as a group? And if so, could they, two people, apply for an entirely comped 800+ PH room? - (Again, not our situation, just a question of academic interest. My take would be that a single GM could not apply for being a group. But could two people? Or three? Or does the fully comped room requirement in effect mean that all groups must have at least 4 GMs?Okay, back to relevant issues: I do get the GM room situation. My confusion wasn't over the issue of comping vs reimbursment. My confusing was over what people eligible forpartial compensation could do--could they in effect get placed into a GM Block room for which they would pay partial rate and get partial reimbursement. This is my take away, based on in particular what Suburbaknght has told me here and in the other thread. 

• GMs can go through lottery, get room, and request reimbursement. This method can result in total reimbursement if A
  
• ) the group runs more than 800+ PHs and B) is a group, not a single GM. This method can also result in partial reimbursement if B is not met, or if a GM in the group totals at least 200 PHs. 
  
• Or, GMs can forego the lottery and get placed into a room later by GC. This room is in the GM Block--meaning that these are rooms GC has set aside for this purpose, and not rooms that were made available in the general lottery. This option is only available to A
  
• ) groups, for B) total reimbursement at 800+ PHs. 

In other words, a lone GM, or a group with a GM who would qualify for the 200+ partial reimbursement, cannot forego the lottery and get placed into a GM Block room which he/they would then pay 75% of.The question wasn't a matter of the kind of reimbursement/comping, but rather a question of room acquisition, if that makes sense. Our situation is that we do not have a downtown in-block room, but at the moment as we have planned, we will only be getting partial reimbursement (if we had an in-block room...which we don't). So the question for us was whether, in June, we could apply for one of those GM rooms that GC has been holding onto--not whether they would comp the whole room for us, but whether we could just get into one of those rooms in the first place in order to apply our partial reimbursement.Otherwise, if we stay in our OOB room, we get nothing, regardless of the 200+ PHs. Derek even said in the quote you gave above "we haven't run out of GM block inventory in the past." So if those rooms are going to be available, I wanted to know if we could get into one. Not have it completely comped, just get into it, and they pay 75% of the cost.But that seems out. What I'm getting is that, in order to even apply for one of those rooms GC is holding onto, you have to meet the 800+ PH threshold.This seems like one of those issues where talking in audible words would be far easier than typing about :)

-edit  Sorry. I had accidently deleted this, but luckily I had subcribed to this thread so I was able to recreate your post!