This is my first year going, and I wanted to see if I understood the stipulations on the hotels correctly. I know the last day to change/cancel your reservation is 07/17 but my question is after that date are you still able to make a change in your reservation once that res goes directly to the hotel? I am at the JW Marriott, and we have our res until Monday 08/07 but we may leave Sunday instead - we are waiting on more people in our group to decide and not sure if we'll get answers before the 17th

17th July is when the bookings get transferred from the Q-Rooms system to the hotels themselves, it can sometimes take a few days or a week to show up in their system though. Once the booking is with the hotel you'd have to contact them directly and are beholden to their policies and whims about and changes or cancellations. 

That makes sense it'd be up to the actual hotel. Thanks for the input!

I would highly encourage anyone/everyone to check directly with their hotel once the transfer takes place. Make sure your reservation is for the correct dates, room type, etc. While rare, mistakes have been made during the transfer process in the past. A few years ago, I was very, very close to losing my reservation at The Westin because I didn't check things with the hotel myself until I arrived in the lobby and tried to check in.