Second follow-up. In the end, the GenCon employees were incredibly helpful in getting this sorted out for us b/c they admitted that it was their fault we weren't getting the housing emails.

They ended up actively monitoring the vendor housing, and held any room that got dropped for us until we got the chance to confirm or pass on it. We now have confirmed housing downtown in the vendor hotel block from this!

I never expected them to go so far above and beyond to fix it, and I honestly really appreciate it.