When overnight guests are coming, hosts sometimes have to scramble to find an extra bed or two.

Fox Chapel native Taylor Curilla, however, is helping to find beds for 45,000 overnight guests.

Her job title is Hotel Manager for Delegate Services for the 2008 Republican National Convention. Although the convention isn't until September, she already has started finding rooms for visitors in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

"I'm actually really excited about it," said Ms. Curilla, 26, who obviously sees the task as a challenge, not a chore.

Although she is new to her job -- she has been in the position only five weeks -- she isn't new to finding accommodations for political events.

After she graduated from the University of Dayton in 2005, she went to Las Vegas to serve as volunteer deployment coordinator for the Nevada Republican Party during the 2006 election for the Senate, House and state constitutional offices.

She helped to coordinate more than 100 volunteers who were sent to Nevada to work with the "72-hour Get Out The Vote" effort.

"We took people to hotels, oversaw the meal plans and accommodations, took people to various offices and just all sorts of things," she said. "The 72 hours before the election was very hectic."

After that, she went to Washington, D.C., where she worked for the Republican Party as a management analyst.

While she was growing up, her parents, Kirk and Shawn Curilla, who still live in Fox Chapel, were active in political campaigns. Her own interest grew, and then she attended a political rally while she was a student at the University of Dayton.

"I was a senior during the 2004 presidential election, and I went to see President Bush speak. There was just such energy there, I fell in love with it," she said.

Her current duties include confirming hotel reservations made by convention staff members who have been in St. Paul since last summer and lining up which groups of delegates and other GOP organizations will stay at what hotels. She is living in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area for her job.

"I've been here since last June, and we have others who came in last fall to begin working with the [convention and visitors bureau]," said Matt Burns, director of communications for the GOP convention. "There are 101 hotels we are using with 16,000 hotel rooms lined up."

Ms. Curilla does not actually have to find accommodations for all 45,000 visitors to the convention.

"That number [45,000] is fluid and includes media, volunteers and other visitors," Mr. Burns said.

Even though the convention is months away, Ms. Curilla has a hectic schedule.

"Right now, we are working about 50 hours a week, but by the end of April, beginning of May, it will pick up," she said.

She compares her work to a puzzle.

"It is all about logistics," she said, "and things fall into place."

She enjoys the pace of the work and the excitement of the conventions.

"It is a unique experience and a great deal of fun," she said.

Mr. Burns added, "There is a great deal of continuity between conventions so we aren't inventing the wheel every time out. It is a pretty seamless process. Obviously, there will be some jockeying of guests from different hotels, but everything works itself out."

Although her degree is in early childhood education, Ms. Curilla does not see herself teaching any time soon.

"I would enjoy working on Sen. [John] McCain's campaign after the convention and then, hopefully, working with the administration in Washington," she said.

In the meantime, she enjoys her job.

"I love what I am doing right now," she said.