Just a suggestion or 2 to make that money stretch a bit further. Glad to see that a sponsor helped you out...Phwew! Good Luck in Orlando.
As for lodging though...Contact a church locally (or a group of them...the internet really can be your friend there), in the area of the Regional Competition, many will, for a simple asking, allow your group to use their facilities for a small donation, a lot of cleanliness and care for their place, and some really good respectful GROUP behavior by your team (tell them what our FIRST encouraged "gracious professionalism" is all about as an ice breaker).
Many large churches have sleeping areas (yes, sleeping bags, air mattresses, and cot type places...they are not hotels, bu they are actually better for larger and louder groups), where genders may be separated into like groups away from each other for sleeping and bathroom duties, kitchens (we buy our own food and use theirlicensed facility to prepare it, and clean up after ourselves + pay a small cleaning fee or leave a large tip also usually for their janitorial staff), and they usually have adequate male/female separate bathroom & shower facilities.
We used to use hotels only, but we have a standing agreement w/ a church in each of our Regional Competition areas that we normally attend now, and only use hotels for the Industry Mentors & the upper aged Volunteers working the event for FIRST that must be early/late at the competition facility. (We book that facility in each place now as soon as the Regional is completed each year, and of course by then we know they are happy w/ how we left their facility in good order, as good guests always should!)
The students and all of the Education Related Mentors (as they are ultimately the responsible parties for the Students), stay as a group at the church site together. We do stay in a hotel situation at Championships though...And that does get very expensive annually. We have that Breakfast for the entire team done in a hotel room suite in shifts (and the tailgate lunch), both down to a science by now.
The really great part about the church facility is there is usually enough group room, that we can either invite a Rookie team, or have an Alliance group pizza party...Or both...Try doing that in a group of hotel rooms, not quite as easy unless staying at that same hotel.
As soon as we qualify for the Championships....We also begin right away to ask private community clubs throughout our state (Frat. Order of Eagles actually...There are Eagles Aeries in your area...Locate them via
www.foe.com then look for the "locate an Aerie" link there, call them early and ask for them to help in fundraising), to help w/ that "Feeding the Team at Championships Bill" before we go to Championships now, and they have always responded quite great! And, of course...we add their names to all banners and PR. (Proper Thanks are always key to successful Past & Future fundraising!)
Sure helps w/ that huge grocery bill... Eating out is usually out of pocket unless it is a celebratory team expense once in a great while. Students need to bring pocket $$$$, and contribute a bit toward the food & drinks fund for the travel trip too.