The biggest thing I am worried about will be a rush to register when it opens in January, because furs will be worried about it being overbooked, just to find out in the end that they will be unable to attend.
Yes, that's a known problem ... Anthrocon is suffering heavily from this problem. Uncle Kage calls it "attrition". Their main trouble is, that room reservations are fully refundable, resulting in a significant financial setback for their hotel.
However, since EF memberships and hotel reservations have to be paid up front and are not refundable. That means, we don't get any organisational or financial problems. The only real drawbacks are, that we have to turn down other attendees becaus of spaces blocked by others who might not be able to attend, and the extra work for the reg team due to last minute membership transfers.
So far it has been managable, though.
I've probably just misinterpreted what you've said to Fawks, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
I can understand that if a person has paid, and then finds out they can't attend; you've given a disclaimer that it is their responsibility, not yours, to make sure all their arrangements have been pre-planned, and therefore you cannot be held responsible for any absence.
Because of the way the registration system works, I would've thought it would be nearly impossible to overbook the con. But surely, if it ever gets to the point that you are overbooked; because said persons would have paid in advance, aren't you legally obligated to give that person a refund if you are forced to turn them away?
I am not sure how full the waiting list was this year, but it will almost certainly be larger next year, and last minute cancellations would cause serious havoc on the staff.
What bugs me more than that is, that it makes it a matter of good luck and a matter of being able to pay early to attend. I really don't like this. It fragments groups of friends, and it gives EF some "elitist" taste that I really do not want. But then, there is not much we can fdo about it other than to keep a healthy growth ... but it is becoming increasingly hard to find good hosts for our con. We are becoming the victim of our own success.
I think the only way EF could be perceived as elitist depends on what leniency you give to pay the invoice the earlier a person registers. Thankfully, for your sakes, none of us are privy to that information. I would be extremely upset if I learnt that you guys extended the invoice period to people who registered early, rather than giving every registration a fixed period to pay the invoice before voiding the registration if they defaulted payment. Surely it would be better practice that if any registration defaults, under any circumstance, that they are forced to re-register joining the back of the queue. It would be fairer than just merely suspending the early registrations who are allowed admittance as soon as they can pay; it would certainly be a lot fairer to people who know they can secure payment almost immediately after registering, rather than people just waiting to see how long they can drag their heels for or for those who know they aren't financially secure upon registering.
(I realize this is all hypothetical and is not of concern until next year or later, but EF is almost certain to gain enough attendees that it could exceed that Ringburg's capacity... EF16 - Frankfurt 
)
We're very close to that limit. I don't think EF will be able to return to the ringberg hotel in 2009 ... heck, we might even crack the 1000 in two years.
The question I'm asking myself is how much like Anthrocon is Eurofurence trying to be? Only you can answer that really.
The thing is, the more the capacity grows, the higher the costs for attendance (ergo, for the attendees) will be. If the only purpose for Eurofurence is to rival Anthrocon for capacity, Anthrocon would surely win hands down because of corporate culture in American. American corporate culture surely encourages them to have hotels that would supercede the capacity of any that Germany could supply. Therefore, if I didn't think I was going to Eurofurence to also embrace German culture, I wouldn't see the point in going.
