This year will be my fifth Gencon, but my group has run into a wrinkle. Previous years we've had a max of five people and managed to cram into one hotel room, this year it's looking to be closer to 7-9 people. We're taking two cars (the Genconvoy) but we'd still like to be close together, ideally in the same hotel.

To get the ability to book multiple hotel rooms simultaneously you have to buy 3 (or 4, sources vary and I'll have to check when they put out the newest housing rules revision) tickets on the same account, but you only get the one shot at the lottery.

My conundrum is how to balance likelihood of an early lottery time with the likelihood of getting multiple rooms in the same hotel. Should I get one person to buy 3 tickets then scattershot the rest? do three blocks of three if we get the full nine people? Or just have a nine person free-for-all and hope we get two early enough times?Thoughts?

IMO, the odds of your group getting rooms in the same hotel going through the lottery are slim--even if you have a big enough group to book 2 rooms at the same time, I think you still have to select each one individually--you can't book 2 at once (someone correct me if I'm wrong), meaning there's a chance the hotel you're booking may fill up in between booking room 1 and room 2. 

Were I in your shoes, I'd have everyone buy a ticket individually, and hope you get 2 or 3 that get an early enough lottery time to book somewhere in the downtown block.  If not everyone can swing putting the hotel deposit on their card, then I'd go with the three groups of 3 plan, and hope that one of you gets an early enough time to book two rooms in downtown, even if they might not be in the same hotel.

Just my 2 cents--you're kind of an edge case and the system is geared more towards single-room groups, but good luck! 

If you want downtown, 9 person free for all.   You'll need some luck to get everyone in the same hotel (at least for downtown).  If you stay outside downtown, you should be able to all get in the same place.

The new housing rules are already up:  https://www.gencon.com/attend/housing_travel

Some relevant points:MULTIPLE ROOM REQUESTSIf you have purchased sufficient badges to qualify for more than one hotel room, all of your “Request Rooms” links activate concurrently, but you must request multiple room assignments sequentially, one room at a time. After you complete one request, you can click another link within your account to begin the selection process for the next room request. 

 ROOM LIMITSBadge purchasers are allowed to request one hotel room for every 1-2 badges purchased.

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  • 1-2 badges = 1 room
    
  • 3-4 badges = 2 rooms
    
  • 5-6 badges = 3 rooms
    
  • 7+ badges = etc ...