Yeah, it's a new booking process that was implemented this year (probably to discourage scalpers and the like). So, from what I get, this is how it goes: people who are registered will get priority booking (in other words, get to pick first) for Fanime-rate hotel rooms based on the time of registration (so, for example, if you registered in January, you would have higher priority than someone who registered in February). Registered members will be able to book in their designated booking window and will be notified via e-mail when that time comes (that's why everyone's waiting for an e-mail update). Based on what staff stated on the Fanime Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FanimeCon/), you are only able to register for one room per badge for priority booking. When the priority booking phase is over, then hotel booking is open to the public (and most, if not all, nearby hotels will probably be pretty booked by then). If you wanna read more about it, you might wanna check out this Fanime housing update -> http://www.fanime.com/news/housing-update/. Hoped this helped at least a bit!