A hotel issue

Junebug2015

I'm getting married June 20, 2015. I posted awhile ago that I was concerned about finding appropriate hotel blocks because there is a highly anticipated tourist event. To recap - we had 50 rooms blocked on site at our venue, and 10 rooms blocked at a hotel down the road. Most people will be travelling at least two hours.

I called our venue today, and there are only three rooms left on site and 8 left on the other block. We haven't even sent invitations yet! Most of the people who have booked are our closest friends and family, but I'm a little nervous about not having any remaining rooms for people who book after receiving invitations.

Should I try to find another hotel block? Should I just stop stressing because this is out of my control? What would you all do?

Maggie0829

Can you add more rooms to the room blocks at the hotels that you currently have blocks under?

I would maybe try to find one or two more hotels (if possible) and see if you can set up some smaller room blocks.  But if nothing is available or they won't allow room blocks then I just wouldn't stress over it.  I would have a list of nearby hotels with their phone numbers available just in case someone asks for a recommendation, but you can only do so much.

novella1186

Maggie0829 said:

Can you add more rooms to the room blocks at the hotels that you currently have blocks under?

I would maybe try to find one or two more hotels (if possible) and see if you can set up some smaller room blocks.  But if nothing is available or they won't allow room blocks then I just wouldn't stress over it.  I would have a list of nearby hotels with their phone numbers available just in case someone asks for a recommendation, but you can only do so much.

Exactly this. We ran into some trouble (the main hotel we had a block at, where FI and I and our entire wedding party were also supposed to stay was sold and then closed with no notice). The other hotel we had a block at was able to add some more rooms to it, and then we finally tracked down a second hotel to do a smaller block as a backup. 

And if you aren't able to do those things, then don't stress. People can figure it out. 

indianaalum

Agree with others. See if you can add to the current blocks. If not, try another hotel if it isn't too big of a deal. If you can't, you can't

Try to warn people though that there is a major event and finding rooms may be hard..Sometimes people think "oh, I can wait til last minute"

(it is too your benefit to do it, as you might have people RSVP "yes" and then no-show or cancel when they realize they can't find a hotel room if the conflicting event is big enough that all rooms are taken)

MyNameIsNot

How many people are you inviting that need to travel? If I'm reading correctly, you've got 60 rooms blocked already. That should be enough to house about 120 guests, right? 

Junebug2015

@MyNameIsNot we are inviting 170 people. About 20 of those are traveling from within two hours, so it's hard to tell if they will get a hotel room, especially since they are a little pricey.

@novella1186 yikes! At least we know the wedding party and our immediate family is all set.

And thanks, everyone. I was super stressed about whether people would be able to find places to stay, and it helps to hear that this isn't something that needs to cause me a lot of anxiety.

MandyMost

I got the rooming list from the hotels (just had to ask) and was able to quickly match it up with my guest list. Any guests that I was expecting might need a hotel room, I sent a casual/friendly email to. Just a "Hey, Just FYI if you're planning to come to the wedding and were thinking about staying overnight, our hotel blocks are almost full and the deadline to book is X. If it fills up let us know, and we'll ask about adding some extra rooms!". 

We had some guests sharing rooms, and other staying with nearby friends/family, so they didn't end up needing a hotel room after all.