WR?: Hotel Blocks

future-mrs

I've thought about this but never *really* thought about it until now.  When is a good time to do this?  How do you choose hotels?  Price?  Location?  How do you determine how many rooms?  (our guest list is just over 200) 

TIA

AllAboutTheBenjamin

We did this months ago.  But we live in a prime hunting location and our wedding is a week after deer opener.

The hotel choice was pretty easy... it's a small hotel, and the nicest ones in town are the Holiday Inn Express and the Fireside Inn, which is an old Comfort Inn.  Fireside is a cheaper option. 

Honestly though - my mom did this, so I don't know how much the rooms are or how many we got.

SarahPLiz

I started by going thorugh the guest list, and seeing how many couples/families were OOT.. which was like 95%. Then I got on hotelplanner.com, entered the area where I was searching, the dates, how many rooms, and what the price range was, and hotels sent me bids based on that criteria. You can see all of the clauses and reservation information before you even talk to the hotels about the blocks. Its a great service. 

betrothed123

I'd say you have a bit of time befog you have to worry about this.  I'd probably start looking for hotels about a year out.

We didn't block rooms.  We knew our guests, and each family would have wanted something different in the hotel they picked so we didn't bother.

future-mrs

Ty mrs.  Good to know.  I should mention our reception venue is 7 miles out of town...I was thinking of doing hotels right off of the interstate from it.  Not sure about that either though??  There are none right near it which totally sucks.  (No worries, we're making transportation arrangements)

future-mrs

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_wr-hotel-blocks?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:c97d37d1-497d-4b49-b466-038890f5f7d1Post:1e32ce80-10fc-4693-bea7-607501588d4f">Re: WR?: Hotel Blocks</a>:
[QUOTE]I'd say you have a bit of time befog you have to worry about this.  I'd probably start looking for hotels about a year out. We didn't block rooms.  We knew our guests, and each family would have wanted something different in the hotel they picked so we didn't bother.
Posted by betrothed123[/QUOTE]

In one month, we'll be one year out.  ;)  But that's a good point of view too.  95% of our guests will be OOT so I'm not sure what to do.  But I'm thinking blocking hotels is probably a good idea because we're from a larger area (not KC)  but it gets busy around here on weekends especially.

kpwedkk

We did this three months before the wedding, and the expire date was a week before the wedding for the procrastinators.  Only because it was spring training, and hotels filled up fast.

We did 3 hotels in the local area (one had kitchenettes for bigger families) - each one we reserved about 10-15 rooms at each (since most of our guests were coming from out of town).  We got a discounted rate and posted this information on our wedsite.   It didn't cost us anything to reserve the rooms.  The rates for the kitchenettes was $100 a night (normally $150 a night), and the other types of rooms were about $67 a night (normally $125 a night).

I think the more rooms that you do reserve, you get a bigger discount, which was great   We also had them use the same code for whichever hotel they were staying at, so it wasn't as confusing on the wedsite.

betrothed123

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_wr-hotel-blocks?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:c97d37d1-497d-4b49-b466-038890f5f7d1Post:593fc247-97ee-4622-830e-995e8d566ca1">Re: WR?: Hotel Blocks</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: WR?: Hotel Blocks : In one month, we'll be one year out.  ;)  But that's a good point of view too.  95% of our guests will be OOT so I'm not sure what to do.  But I'm thinking blocking hotels is probably a good idea because we're from a larger area (not KC)  but it gets busy around here on weekends especially.
Posted by future-mrs[/QUOTE]
But even a year out I think is too early to block rooms, which is why I say you should start looking about a year out.  I'd start blocking 4-5 months before the wedding, or a couple of weeks before your STDs go out if you're sending them.

future-mrs

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_wr-hotel-blocks?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:c97d37d1-497d-4b49-b466-038890f5f7d1Post:c3b597b0-13ba-46ae-b748-4a7ae66834b6">Re: WR?: Hotel Blocks</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: WR?: Hotel Blocks : But even a year out I think is too early to block rooms, which is why I say you should start looking about a year out.  I'd start blocking 4-5 months before the wedding, or a couple of weeks before your STDs go out if you're sending them.
Posted by betrothed123[/QUOTE]


Gotcha, I missed the "start looking" part.  Thank you

[Deleted User]

We got married in BFE and the only hotels were right off the highway. So we provided a list of hotels that people could choose from, and set up a block at the one that offered the best deal. People could either reserve a room with the block or book a room at another place.
 
We set up the block about 3 months out.

Celles

I second the recommendation for hotelplanner.com.  This is a fantastic site for comparison shopping -- not just prices, but terms and conditions as well.  A hidden bonus is that your information is hidden from bidding hotels until you initiate contact, so you won't receive endless spam solicitations.

future-mrs

Good to know about the hotelplanner.com I'll definitely be checking that out.  We're in a town that's not huge but it's definitely not small either.  The weekends get crazy around here because it's a major shopping town.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

I blocked a hotel about 11 months out because I wanted to include the information on our STDs, just FYI.

future-mrs

Ah, that's a good point also.  We're doing STD's just because of the amount of OOT we have.

JennaV26

We did ours 6 months in advance and we had to block at our second choice hotel because they other one was already full for our wedding date.

We had 150 guests, originally blocked 10 and then raised it to 15 when those got full. In fact, I think we had 18 rooms book on our block. We got married where DH and I lived and while his family lives there all of my family, extended family and many of my friends were from OOT.

aplatanada

if you live in a city with a convention and visitors bureau, call them.  Most have a "family reunions" department that will also handle weddings.  We called ours and told them approximately how many people were looking to stay, when and what part of town.  They sent out bids to their hotel members and hotels contacted us directly. It saved us a lot of time and we got a decent deal out of it. 

K Byte

We did ours like ... 10 months before the wedding haha. But we had the perfect hotel for everyone, great rooms at a really good price. So we wanted to make sure there were enough rooms. The hotel we blocked had regular rooms, 1-bedroom deluxe rooms and 2 bedroom 2 bath "suites." I do know that the regular rooms were all booked at the hotel for Saturday night between our block, another wedding block, and just the regular hotel guests.

To determine how many rooms, I guess take a look at your guest list and see who's coming from OOT and figure how many rooms you'll need from there. My mom handled all of this stuff so I didn't have to deal with it haha.