room blending

I had to get a couple room shots ready for a local hotel and spent way too long last night working on them.
I shot all ambient light and bracketed both rooms over 7 exposures.
I chose the best overall exposure and then drug the other exposures on to it to create a file with about 3 layers, i did not use all the exposures. For example in the above photo i used one exposure for the crowd, one for the stage and screens, and one for the red lights on the curtains. I used layer masks to hide or reveal the parts of each layer that were the proper exposure. It all blended in quite nicely. I used a tripod while shooting as i knew i would be doing this later.
I also tried the images in photomatix but was not happy with the results.

This was the second room i did and i basically did the same thing as i did in the above photo. One exposure was the tables, one the screens, and one was the walls and ceiling. I even masked the table candles to a darker exposure on a layer underneath.