So you're under the impression that most people traveling across the country book their trips to HHN in September? You can't possibly believe that. If their marketing is only targeting locals then the way they do it now makes sense. Waiting until a month or less isn't really helping bring in people from out of state. Announcing 2 weeks before is not really that different than waiting until opening night for those who need to plan in advance. What is the difference? From a planning perspective, the 2 weeks out definitely would be the same as the "mystery box". Even if they announced all the ips early, it's not like they can't continue to promote those houses the whole time leading up to the event for all those who aren't paying attention (especially locals). Really the event is probably big enough now that they should be advertising year round to some extent.