The two days and the calendar behind them
The Midwest Multifamily Conference runs October 15 and October 16, 2026 in Hall H of the Indiana Convention Center at 100 South Capitol Avenue. The venue publishes a forecast attendance of 950. The organiser, the Indiana Apartment Association, publishes 3,000-plus association attendees on its own conference page. Ask the hotel which figure it will price against, because the gap changes the size of every block.
October 15 falls on a Thursday. October 16 falls on a Friday. No Saturday night sits inside the programme.
Two nights, two shapes
A Thursday arrival and a Friday release holds one night. A two-night stay needs a third day at one end.
Shape one adds Wednesday. Guests check in on October 14 and check out on October 16, so the block holds the Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Shape two adds Saturday. Guests check in on October 15 and check out on October 17, so the block holds the Thursday and Friday nights.
Neither shape puts a Saturday night in house. Ask each hotel to price both. The rate, the minimum hold and the attrition floor all move with the shape.
The night the exhibiting suppliers need
Exhibitor move-in opens Wednesday October 14 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. EDT, and continues Thursday from 7 a.m. to noon. The trade show runs Thursday 1:45 to 5 p.m. and Friday 12:45 to 3:30 p.m. Move-out runs Friday 3:30 to 8 p.m.
A supplier who exhibits holds the Wednesday night. The delegate programme does not need it. The hotel will price that night on its own, because the demand behind it comes from the trade-show floor.
Management company teams arrive for a Thursday start. Registration opens at 7:30 a.m. outside Hall H, the morning networking session runs 8 to 8:45 a.m., and the keynote runs 9 to 10 a.m. in the Sagamore Ballroom. The MMC Awards Dinner follows the Friday close in the Marriott Ballroom at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown.
The hotel will ask for a minimum hold on the block. The event's published material states no minimum block size and no minimum-night rule. Put the question to each property: how many rooms per night must be contracted, and which nights carry the hold?
The cut-off date
The association's own discounted-rate reservation at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown closed September 14, 2026. That date has passed. It governed the association block, so a new group block starts outside it.
The blocks.travel glossary states that hotel cut-off dates typically fall 21 to 30 days before the event. Ask for the cut-off as a calendar date in the contract, and confirm whether the date governs reservations, the rooming list, or both.
The groupRooms guide on cut-off dates and attrition states that the cut-off decides when unclaimed rooms return to the hotel's public inventory. Confirm in writing whether a released room still counts against the block's room-night commitment.
The attrition clause
Attrition is measured at the stay. The clause sets a pickup floor, and the group pays on the shortfall below it. The blocks.travel glossary states that hotels calculate attrition per night rather than in aggregate, and that the penalty on an unused room night is typically the full room rate.
The groupRooms guide places the attrition percentage at often 80 to 90 percent of room nights. Ask for the floor at the low end of that band.
Measurement is the trap. A two-night block measured per night gives each night its own floor, and overage on one night does not offset a shortfall on the other. Ask for cumulative measurement across both nights.
Ask for release dates at 90, 60 and 30 days, so the group can hand back rooms while the hotel can still sell them. Ask for the damages to carry credit on any room the hotel resells.
Where the rooms are
The convention center publishes 7,100 hotel rooms in downtown Indianapolis. It reports that 4,700 rooms connect by skywalk, that 200 restaurants sit within walking distance, and that the airport is 15 minutes away.
The skywalk matters for a supplier with a booth on the Friday move-out, which finishes at 8 p.m. The venue calls skywalk and facility hours event-dependent, with lock down around 11 p.m. and reopening around 6 a.m. as a rule of thumb.
Where the leverage sits
No weekend night is available to trade. The group holds two midweek nights of value instead.
Ask for a rolling release schedule. Ask for a resell credit. Ask for the comp ratio to accrue on cumulative room nights. Each term costs the hotel less than a rate cut, and each one reduces the group's exposure.
Ask the hotel to price the two nights separately. One night carries more local demand than the other, and one blended rate hides which one.
Rooming lists and billing
A two-night block on a Thursday needs a rooming list before arrival. Ask when the hotel wants the names and how it treats an unnamed room the group has guaranteed. The blocks.travel glossary defines a guaranteed room without a name as a TBD room, and states that the hotel still holds it.
Settle the billing route in the same conversation. State which charges sit on the master account and which sit on the guest. Confirm the credit terms and the right to review the final folio before payment.
Booking a block for the conference
groupRooms.org takes requests for 10 or more rooms. The platform publishes 103,857-plus hotels across 46 states, a free submission, and a 24-to-72-hour response window. Its Indianapolis directory lists 273 hotels. Those are the platform's own figures and they are unaudited.
A request that names both shapes, both cut-off arrangements and a cumulative attrition floor will draw comparable bids. A request that names one shape draws bids the group has to renegotiate later.
