Wedding Etiquette Forum

Hotel blocks

julieanne912julieanne912 member
1000 Comments 500 Love Its Fourth Anniversary First Answer
edited March 2015 in Wedding Etiquette Forum
Not sure if this is the right place, but wasn't sure where to post this!

I have a couple questions about hotel blocks...

I have a few options for hotel blocks.  One is a Hampton Inn that is a half mile away from the venue.  The rates on the website are $160/night (I haven't called to see if I get a discount for doing a block).  The other hotels in that town are all about 2-2.5 miles away from the venue, but are lower in listed price, from $120-$140. They are national chain hotels as well... Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, Residence Inn, Courtyard, etc.  They're all right by each other near a convention center so I'm assuming that's why they're cheaper, due to the competition.   Obviously the one that's closer is a good option since it's so close... you could literally walk there if you had to.  But, would guests prefer hotels that are a bit cheaper in price but further away?  

Also, how many rooms should I reserve in a block?  Our guest list right now is 198, with 110 invites going out, although some of these invites are "courtesy" invites to people I don't think would come at all, but I'm inviting them to avoid hurt feelings in my family.  Over half of our guest list is people from out of town.   Wedding is in September, and hoping to get Save the Dates out here in the next week or two so I'd like to get this done so I can add to our wedding website that is on the Save the Dates.
Married 9.12.15
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Re: Hotel blocks

  • I'd try to do multiple options, not just for price point but also if the ones by the convention center are located next to other things people might want to do that weekend

    No idea on # though.
  • Can't really suggest how many rooms you should block because only you know your guest list--how many are couples? How many have children (if any)? How many are you certain will come versus those who may come? These are things you need to consider when figuring out how many rooms to block. You could always over-estimate the # of rooms to block, but just make sure they don't charge you a fee for unbooked rooms.

    All of those hotels are fairly close. I would consider getting room blocks at two or even three different hotels since they are so close. That way your guests can have options--maybe they are members of the Best Western rewards program and don't want to stay at a Hampton Inn, or whatever.
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  • mlg78mlg78 member
    500 Love Its 1000 Comments Second Anniversary 5 Answers
    Hotel blocks can always be increased.  Start out with 10-15 at two hotels and monitor them as it gets closer to the cut off date.  We did ours at Hampton as well.  See if they will offer a shuttle for guests.  Ours did if we had 10 rooms booked.
  • Can't really suggest how many rooms you should block because only you know your guest list--how many are couples? How many have children (if any)? How many are you certain will come versus those who may come? These are things you need to consider when figuring out how many rooms to block. You could always over-estimate the # of rooms to block, but just make sure they don't charge you a fee for unbooked rooms.

    All of those hotels are fairly close. I would consider getting room blocks at two or even three different hotels since they are so close. That way your guests can have options--maybe they are members of the Best Western rewards program and don't want to stay at a Hampton Inn, or whatever.

    Guests are always free to stay wherever they want, whether there is a room block or not. I would definitely do 2 in this situation, the one closest and one other.
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  • Can't really suggest how many rooms you should block because only you know your guest list--how many are couples? How many have children (if any)? How many are you certain will come versus those who may come? These are things you need to consider when figuring out how many rooms to block. You could always over-estimate the # of rooms to block, but just make sure they don't charge you a fee for unbooked rooms.

    All of those hotels are fairly close. I would consider getting room blocks at two or even three different hotels since they are so close. That way your guests can have options--maybe they are members of the Best Western rewards program and don't want to stay at a Hampton Inn, or whatever.

    Guests are always free to stay wherever they want, whether there is a room block or not. I would definitely do 2 in this situation, the one closest and one other.
    Ok thanks, I think that's what I'll do, I'll pick the cheapest one in the farther away area.  I'm thinking I'll also list the other hotels that are in that area too, noting I don't have reserved rooms there?  Something like "We have reserved blocks of rooms at the Hampton Inn at XX address and and at the Holiday Inn Express at XX location.  There are also multiple other choices nearby, including Residence Inn, Courtyard, Best Western blah blah blah"

    Also there is an RV park close by the venue, I might mention that as well.  With our crowd, that might interest some of the people (many of our friends and family on FI's side have campers)
    Married 9.12.15
    image
  • Can't really suggest how many rooms you should block because only you know your guest list--how many are couples? How many have children (if any)? How many are you certain will come versus those who may come? These are things you need to consider when figuring out how many rooms to block. You could always over-estimate the # of rooms to block, but just make sure they don't charge you a fee for unbooked rooms.

    All of those hotels are fairly close. I would consider getting room blocks at two or even three different hotels since they are so close. That way your guests can have options--maybe they are members of the Best Western rewards program and don't want to stay at a Hampton Inn, or whatever.

    Guests are always free to stay wherever they want, whether there is a room block or not. I would definitely do 2 in this situation, the one closest and one other.
    Ok thanks, I think that's what I'll do, I'll pick the cheapest one in the farther away area.  I'm thinking I'll also list the other hotels that are in that area too, noting I don't have reserved rooms there?  Something like "We have reserved blocks of rooms at the Hampton Inn at XX address and and at the Holiday Inn Express at XX location.  There are also multiple other choices nearby, including Residence Inn, Courtyard, Best Western blah blah blah"

    Also there is an RV park close by the venue, I might mention that as well.  With our crowd, that might interest some of the people (many of our friends and family on FI's side have campers)
    nearly 100% of our guests are coming in from out of town. We did 2 different hotel blocks in 2 different price ranges, and I can call back to increase the number of rooms if they start to book up fast (we have 10 rooms at 1 place and 15 rooms at the other place for the 100 invitations we sent out).

    On the accommodations card that was included with the invite, we put "there are blocks of rooms at x and y hotels" with the contact info. Then on our wedding website, we put the exact same thing, and also added a section underneath that said "Other Hotels in the Area:" and listed a few more options with phone numbers.

    That's what I've seen other people do that was useful, so that's what FI and I decided to do. If people prefer to go a different route or book some other type of place or whatever, they're obviously free to do so. It's nice to make things convenient to people and try to be helpful but in the end also remember that they're adults and can take care of their own accommodations (this is something I have to remind myself of because I tend to worry about things that are not my problem)
    image
  • Can't really suggest how many rooms you should block because only you know your guest list--how many are couples? How many have children (if any)? How many are you certain will come versus those who may come? These are things you need to consider when figuring out how many rooms to block. You could always over-estimate the # of rooms to block, but just make sure they don't charge you a fee for unbooked rooms.

    All of those hotels are fairly close. I would consider getting room blocks at two or even three different hotels since they are so close. That way your guests can have options--maybe they are members of the Best Western rewards program and don't want to stay at a Hampton Inn, or whatever.

    Guests are always free to stay wherever they want, whether there is a room block or not. I would definitely do 2 in this situation, the one closest and one other.
    Ok thanks, I think that's what I'll do, I'll pick the cheapest one in the farther away area.  I'm thinking I'll also list the other hotels that are in that area too, noting I don't have reserved rooms there?  Something like "We have reserved blocks of rooms at the Hampton Inn at XX address and and at the Holiday Inn Express at XX location.  There are also multiple other choices nearby, including Residence Inn, Courtyard, Best Western blah blah blah"

    Also there is an RV park close by the venue, I might mention that as well.  With our crowd, that might interest some of the people (many of our friends and family on FI's side have campers)
    nearly 100% of our guests are coming in from out of town. We did 2 different hotel blocks in 2 different price ranges, and I can call back to increase the number of rooms if they start to book up fast (we have 10 rooms at 1 place and 15 rooms at the other place for the 100 invitations we sent out).

    On the accommodations card that was included with the invite, we put "there are blocks of rooms at x and y hotels" with the contact info. Then on our wedding website, we put the exact same thing, and also added a section underneath that said "Other Hotels in the Area:" and listed a few more options with phone numbers.

    That's what I've seen other people do that was useful, so that's what FI and I decided to do. If people prefer to go a different route or book some other type of place or whatever, they're obviously free to do so. It's nice to make things convenient to people and try to be helpful but in the end also remember that they're adults and can take care of their own accommodations (this is something I have to remind myself of because I tend to worry about things that are not my problem)


    Thank you, I need to remind myself of this too :) 
    Married 9.12.15
    image
  • We did something similar; rooms at the venue that were slightly more expensive, and another that was cheaper but <1 mile away. I also listed other nearby hotels on the website with information about them (ex. one is right on a big party street, another is farther away, nice/much more expensive, etc.) and links to their websites. As for numbers, ours had maximum numbers they could reserve without a fee (15 rooms at one, 20 at another). If you know a lot of people are OOT, the number the hotel can hold for you might determine how many blocks you need.
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