Room blocks that bend with registration: three years, zero attrition charges.
The OC Marathon brings runners and their families to Orange County every spring for a weekend of races, an expo and a finish-line festival. CTC has handled the race’s hotel rooms for more than a decade. From 2024 to 2026 the race never paid for an empty room, even in 2026, when 18% of the rooms it had contracted went unsold.
Race organizerSports & RecreationRace weekend housing2024 – 2026Costa Mesa & Newport Beach, CA
0
Attrition charges to the race, 2024 to 2026
18%
Of the 2026 room block unsold, with nothing owed
112%
Of the 2024 room block filled
01 – The brief
Book enough rooms, and never pay for empty ones.
Runners register for a marathon on their own schedule, some a year out and some in the last few weeks, and many book hotels on their own. The race still has to hold rooms near the start line months in advance. Hotels usually want a guaranteed minimum in return, and that is where the risk sits. The brief was to:
- Hold enough rooms near the course for runners, families and staff
- Keep the race from owing hotels for rooms its runners did not book
- Get the lowest available rate for runners, and stop hotels undercutting it online
- Negotiate value back to the race and its runners on every room night
02 – What we did
Blocks with no minimum, and something back on every night.
CTC sources the hotels, negotiates every contract, posts the booking links, tracks pickup each month and audits every hotel after race weekend. Four things did most of the work.
Contract for no minimum. Almost every room block from 2024 to 2026 was written as a courtesy block: the hotel holds the rooms and cannot charge the race for the ones that go unbooked. The few blocks that carried a minimum, such as the staff rooms, were sized so they would be filled past it.
Spread the rooms across price points. Six hotels in 2024 and 2026 and seven in 2025, from Costa Mesa to Newport Beach, so runners had a choice of budget and no single hotel carried the risk. In 2026 the Costa Mesa Marriott filled less than half of its block, and the race owed nothing.
Make the hotels give something back. Contracts pay a per-night rebate back to the race on every room booked, guarantee the group rate is the hotel’s lowest, honor it three days either side of race weekend, and include a post-event audit to catch rooms booked outside the block.
Negotiate the extras runners notice. Hotel shuttles to the start line and back from the finish, a 5am race-day grab and go, late checkout, discounted parking and, in 2026, a resort fee at VEA Newport Beach sponsored by Visit Newport, so runners paid none of it.
03 – The results
Three race weekends, nothing owed.
From 2024 to 2026 the room blocks moved with registration, and the race never paid for the difference.
- Zero attrition charges, in three race weekends, 2024 to 2026
- 18% of the 2026 block unsold with nothing owed for those rooms
- 112% of the 2024 block filled, across six hotels
- Every minimum cleared, on the few blocks that had one
- Rebates paid back to the race, on every room night booked at participating hotels
- Resort fee covered for runners, at VEA Newport Beach in 2026, sponsored by Visit Newport
04 – Services
What CTC delivered.
- Housing & Room Blocks
- Venue Management
- Vendor Management
- Financial Management
05 – More case studies
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06 – Start here
Tell us the date and the budget.
We will tell you what is possible.
The OC Marathon’s housing started with one conversation about attrition, and what it was costing.