The show week
Do it Best Corp. runs its Fall Market at the Indiana Convention Center from September 25 to September 28, 2026. The venue forecasts 12,000 attendees. Independent hardware and building-supply retailers travel to this show in buying groups.
The venue lists its address as 100 South Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis. The market publishes its floor hours as Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Monday 7 a.m. to noon.
Downtown room supply
The convention center publishes the downtown inventory on its attendee pages. Downtown Indianapolis holds 7,100 hotel rooms. More than half of them sit within blocks of the convention center, per the venue.
The venue reports 4,700 rooms connected to the convention center by skywalk. It also lists 200 downtown restaurants within walking distance and 15 minutes to the Indianapolis International Airport.
groupRooms.org lists 273 hotels in its Indianapolis directory. That figure comes from the platform directory page.
The skywalk system closes at night. The venue states the schedule is event-dependent and gives a rule of thumb: lockdown around 11:00 p.m. and reopening around 6:00 a.m. Plan late sessions inside that window.
Why ten rooms is the pivot
A group rate begins at 10 rooms. groupRooms.org defines a group rate as a negotiated rate for a block of 10 or more rooms, and the platform builds its request process for bookings of 10 or more rooms.
Send one request per cluster with the exact room count and the exact nights. Retailer buying groups travel in clusters of 10 to 40 rooms. A stated cluster size gives the hotel a number to price.
Holding rooms through show week
Show week fills downtown. Move early and ask for review dates.
Review dates let a group release rooms above current pickup without penalty. The Blocks contract guide, published by a commercial room-block software vendor, calls the structure rolling release. Its example contract language sets review dates at 120, 90 and 60 days before arrival. A group without review dates holds the full block until the cutoff and pays attrition on every unfilled room.
Request pickup reports on a schedule. A pickup report shows rooms booked by named guests against the contracted block, broken out by night. Read it against the attrition commitment.
Watch the cutoff. The Blocks glossary defines the cutoff date as the deadline for the final rooming list, with unbooked rooms returning to general inventory after that date. The same glossary puts cutoff dates at 21 to 30 days before the event. A missed cutoff releases rooms and leaves the pickup commitment in place.
The deposit schedule
Ask for the deposit schedule in writing. The Blocks glossary describes a deposit as the money or credit guarantee a hotel holds to secure a block, with payments spread across milestones: a percentage at signing, more at cutoff and the balance before arrival. Those funds credit against the master account or forfeit under the cancellation clause.
Track every deposit date beside the cutoff and attrition dates. A missed deposit date can put the rate or the block itself at risk.
Attrition terms to expect
The Blocks glossary describes attrition as a penalty for missing a committed room-night floor. Its example clause sets the floor at 80 percent of the contracted room-night block, measured cumulatively as of guest arrival.
The guide recommends a floor at 80 percent or below, with damages net of the hotel's saved variable cost and credit for resold rooms. The glossary states that attrition is calculated per night. Ask which basis the contract uses, and get the measurement basis in writing.
A group that commits 40 rooms a night for four nights and fills 30 pays on the shortfall.
Blocks is a commercial vendor. Its guidance describes common contract practice and carries no governing authority. Have counsel read the clause you sign.
Billing split
Set the billing routing before names go in. The Blocks glossary describes the standard arrangement as room and tax to the master account, with incidentals billed to the individual guest. A buying group with 30 rooms across four nights produces 120 room nights to reconcile. Name the payer for room, tax, parking and incidentals in the contract.
One request, competing offers
groupRooms.org takes one request and sends it to 50 or more hotels in the destination. The platform publishes 103,857 hotels across 46 states, a 24-to-72-hour response window and $0 fees to the group. It reports group rates 15 percent to 40 percent below the Best Available Rate. Proposals arrive contract-ready with room blocks, cut-off dates and attrition terms included.
Submit the request with the cluster size, the nights and the function-space need. Compare the offers on the four fields that carry cost: the attrition floor and its measurement basis, the deposit schedule, the cutoff date and review dates, and the billing split.
Indiana sits inside the 46 states the platform covers. The Indianapolis directory carries 273 hotels.
