I need help finding a hotel in the Buffalo grove Area!

michaelrachel

Help! I am having a hard time finding guest accommodations for the night of the wedding for the bridal party and guests who don't want drive home that night.  The reception is In Buffalo Grove, IL and the few hotels near there are not getting back to me. Thanks for your help!

Rachel

MobKaz

My daughter had her reception at The Arboretum in BG.  We had very good service with The Hampton Inn on Milwaukee Avenue.  They offered free shuttle service to and from the reception to the hotel with a certain number of filled rooms.  I think we also came close to booking at Homewood Suites, also on Milwaukee Avenue.  Have you tried The Marriot on Milwaukee?  Depending on where your reception is located, don't rule out hotels up and down Milwaukee Avenue between Vernon Hills and Deerfield. 

Vsoster

I booked a block at the Marriott on Milwaukee and they were super nice and easy to work with!!

KayDeee

I wrote a long post in the Chicago forum about how to secure a wedding block using a 3rd party site that I had heard about on the knot. It's a little bit different because this person was concentrating on city hotels but works in your instance as well. You would just need to concentrate your search in your area. It worked out well for us as the hotels were bidding for OUR business. Good luck to you!

For one of our blocks we used the service HotelPlanner.com (someone on theknot suggested it) it worked out great. You enter the dates you need the block, the highest rate you are willing to pay  and the area in which you are looking for rooms in the suburbs or City, and then hotels send in their bids for your business. You can also pick the number of STARS the hotels has so you don't get bids from flea-bag hotels if you want your guests to stay at 5 star hotels.

You don't have to pay anything for this service, but if you book any rooms with the hotel that bid on your block, that hotel pays a % of that to the site.

Make sure you are as DETAILED as possible so you don't wind up with a lot of bids from hotels you are not interested in or their terms. Like, where you are responsible to fill 100% of the rooms because you don't want that. Or you get a 1 star hotel when you want a 5 star.

Or you can do it the old fashioned way and call around. We did that for our first block, got a hold of a sales manager for the Starwood properties so they were able to give us rates for Aloft, Westin, W, Fairfiled Suites, the new Hyatt in River North. We chose Aloft based on location, price and amenities. It worked out well, they were great to work with and our guests loved the hotel.

TIPS: 

1. If you do not want to be responsible for ANY percentage of rooms used, tell the hotel you will have all guests booked 30 days out from the event and they can release any unused rooms at that time. Or even 60 days if you are super far out. Some will definitely work that into the contract, just depends on how much you want to use the hotel.  PRO: You are not on the hook for unused rooms, CONS: You have to stay on top of your guests to make sure they make the deadline.

2. Ask for discounted parking for your guests. Parking can range from $30-$75 a night, some hotels are willing to offer discounts. We were able to get our guests discounted parking, so it does not hurt to ask.

3. DO NOT book with a hotel that requires a deposit. There's no reason to with all the options in the city, there are many hotels that will do a room block for you without it. 

4. Feel free to ask for a complimentary upgrade for the bride and groom to a suite, it doesn't hurt. (you pay the discounted rate for a regular room, but get the upgrade).

5. Find out if there are additional charges for the hotel to leave gift bags for your guests (if that is something you are planning on doing).

If I think of any more I will post them! 

Good luck!