Hotel Blocks

Re: Hotel Blocks

• jennykay85 member

  

  April 2014

  With room blocks, it usually goes one of two ways:

  1. You reserve all the rooms to be paid for on one card.
     
  2. Your reserve a block of rooms and your guests call in to make arrangements on their card.

  For the first option, they'll usually send you an email to a secure form so they can have your credit card on file. You'd need to provide them with a rooming list. Usually it's setup so that the room only is charged to you, guests are required to provide a credit card on check-in and any incidentals are on their card.

  
  

  For the second option, there's usually something in the contract regarding a "guarantee" that a minimum number of rooms will be booked by a certain date, otherwise you will be charged for the rooms to meet the minimum. I'm not accustomed to getting nailed with any of these details, due to the size of the corporation I work for.

  
  

  How many out of town guests are you expecting? Unless it's in an area without many hotels or there is a huge event/conference the same week, it really might not be necessary to pre-book the hotel rooms- a list of suggestions might suffice for your guests. I'd go with hotels closer to the reception if it's an evening wedding, the drive back to the hotel always seems longer since you're tired.

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• courtski2004 member

  

  April 2014 edited April 2014

  My suggestion is to not pre-pay or put a credit card on file for the block of rooms. Some hotels will put in the contract that they will charge you only if you don't reach the room block bookings by a certain date, but that could potentially be a huge expense (and why take that risk?!). Most hotels don't do it this way anymore, and I would strongly urge anyone considering a room block to go with a hotel that doesn't require a card to be on file.

   

  ETA: Be sure to have the hotels draw up a contract outlining the room block. You never know when you might have to refer back to it. This is a pretty common practice (I had to get with the manager to iron out all the details), but definitely don't put a card on file without one.

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• Kdwhitley81 member

  

  April 2014

  We booked a block of 40 rooms in Dallas. We did not have to pay anything. We also did NOT have a to guarantee a certain number would be booked. We just had to guarantee that our room would be booked. I double checked and made sure. Our guests have a link to go to and reserve their room at the discounted rate. They can reserve it up to 30 days before the wedding. Hope that helps.

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• professorscience member

  

  April 2014

  We did not have to pay anything to set up a block of rooms.  Just make sure you get a contract, as PP said.  Our hotel told us the block would close one day close to our wedding date, then they closed it two weeks early and several of our guests had to go elsewhere.

  

  
  

  
  

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• Kauris member

  

  May 2014

  We reserved blocks at Holiday Inn and Double Tree and neither asked for a deposit or had a room minimum, if one person books a room, that's it. If 20, that's it. And they all pay for their own room.

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• bgali91 member

  

  June 2014

  Okay, thank you! My parents and I definitely know we don't want to do option 1, the money just isn't there.

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