For future reference: would there be benefit in hiring a reputed event management company, if so what would be the overhead?
Reasoning is three fold. The event management companies: (i) know which places work, (ii) they give repeat business, so less likely to be brushed off, and (iii) their boss (even if not onsite) has been in such situations before & knows what to do.
An event management company would definitely have helped.
However, since this was the first time we were handling accommodation in the tickets, rooming etc. we could only guess the numbers but had to give the hotel an upfront minimum room guarantee! Next year - we will surely outsource the effort to an event management company.
Lesson learnt but unfortunately - the very very hard way!
Reasoning is three fold. The event management companies: (i) know which places work, (ii) they give repeat business, so less likely to be brushed off, and (iii) their boss (even if not onsite) has been in such situations before & knows what to do.