What a late booker can still hold
The 99th National FFA Convention & Expo runs Wednesday, October 21 to Saturday, October 24, 2026 at the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The venue forecasts 70,000 attendees. Official convention housing opened at 6 p.m. EDT on May 13, 2026 and closes at 5 p.m. EDT on September 23, 2026. FFA publishes separate reservation paths for chapters and for alumni. Until that 5 p.m. close the housing programme is open, and it is the only route FFA publishes for convention rooms.
What the passed deadline costs
FFA set the last day to cancel a housing reservation without penalty at 5 p.m. EDT on September 2, 2026. That date has passed. A room reserved through the portal today sits outside the free-cancellation window, and FFA publishes no penalty amount for a cancellation made after it. The cost depends on the property terms behind the reservation. Ask the housing provider and the hotel to state the penalty in writing before you confirm.
Convention registration runs on a different clock. Registration fees can be cancelled and refunded for any reason before 8 p.m. on Wednesday, September 30, 2026. After that date a refund requires extreme circumstances with documentation, such as illness or injury confirmed by a doctor's note, or a school administration cancelling student travel on letterhead. The request must reach FFA by November 24, 2026. Registration therefore still carries nine days of flexibility while housing does not.
Register at the early-bird rate while it lasts
Full registration carries Wednesday to Saturday access. It includes entrance to one opening session, the general sessions, the American FFA Degree Ceremony, the Expo, the Shopping Mall and the student and teacher workshops. The early-bird rate is $95 per person and runs until 7:59 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, September 30. The standard rate is $115. Onsite registration opens at 12 a.m. on Tuesday, October 20 at $120. Daily registration costs $55 for Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and $30 for Saturday through October 19, rising to $60 and $35 on site. A Saturday daily badge covers the American FFA Degree Ceremony and Session 7 only.
Four nights, Tuesday through Saturday
The four nights line up with the week. On-site registration and badge pickup open in the convention centre's Hall A from 1 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20. They then run 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 6:30 to 9 a.m. Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium only. A delegate who wants a Wednesday morning start arrives Tuesday night. Four nights means the nights of Tuesday the 20th, Wednesday the 21st, Thursday the 22nd and Friday the 23rd, with a Saturday, October 24 checkout. Chapter groups travelling by bus plan the same four nights.
The flexible rate and the non-refundable rate
Three structures cover the quotes you will receive: a flexible rate cancellable to a stated deadline, a non-refundable rate at a lower nightly price, and a chapter block with its own terms. Housing's free-cancellation date sits behind you, so the flexible rate is the only structure that restores an exit. It earns its premium when your rooming list is not final. A non-refundable rate suits a group whose names are settled, because the FFA schedule fixes the nights themselves. Ask each property to state the cancellation deadline in writing and to quote the nightly gap between its two prices. No source publishes a hotel rate for this event.
Two ways to place the room
The convention centre counts 7,100 hotel rooms downtown and 4,700 rooms connected to the building by skywalk. Visit Indy puts the connected package at 12 hotels and 5,200 rooms and states the downtown walking-distance total will pass 10,000. Skywalk lockdown is approximately 11:00 p.m. and reopening approximately 6:00 a.m., and the centre states both are event-dependent. Indianapolis averages $128 a night across 1.2 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026, and October averages $134, about 5 percent above the city figure.
FFA leans on shuttles for part of the week. Courtesy shuttles run between the Indiana Convention Center and the Indiana State Fairgrounds for registered participants in CDE and LDE events. They depart about every 15 minutes from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and 20 minutes covers the one-way trip. Rodeo shuttles run from the convention centre to the State Fairgrounds from 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, at $13 per person through convention registration. Both routes pick up on Maryland Street just west of Capitol Avenue. A room on the connected network keeps the convention-centre end of that trip indoors. Downtown holds 200 restaurants within walking distance.
What the week adds beyond the room
Budget the extras. The October 21 concert is $75 per person, the World's Toughest Rodeo is $45, the hypnotist performances are $25 and Career Success Tours are $30. Taxi fares from the airport carry a $15 minimum regardless of distance. IndyGo runs from the Julia M. Carson Transit Center at 201 East Washington Street and includes routes to the airport. Parking runs through Denison Parking and iPark Horseshoe, and passes follow each vendor's refund policy.
Put the request through the group channel
Submit your dates through hotelhuddle before you take a retail rate. One free request goes to 50 or more hotels, hotels respond within 24 to 72 hours, and the offers arrive side by side. Most properties quote group rates at 10 or more rooms a night and some from five, with no markup and payment made directly to the hotel. In a week the venue forecasts at 70,000 attendees, one request is the fastest way to see which downtown properties still hold inventory.
Confirm every rate, fee and cancellation term with the property or the housing provider before you commit.