Accomodations for out-of-town guests

nogush

Hi!
This is my first post on here and I'm not even sure this is the place to ask this question! Lol.

I'm getting married 8/25/12 in League City and want to reserve a block of rooms for my out-of-town guests. It's a pretty busy season so I want to do it soon, but how do I know how many rooms to reserve? We're sending out STD soon and will have our website information on there with an option to RSVP but really I don't think people will start RSVPing until much later. So how do I know how many guests will arrive and how many rooms to reserve? Just guess?

Thanks! 

lnhassel

I just reserved my rooms for out of town guests earlier this week....my suggestion is to use hotelplanner.com it was super easy and you tell it where and when and then all hotels close to your area will make an offer for your block of rooms. It doesnt cost you anything which ever hotel you choose will pay hotelplanner a comission.

Anyways back to your question. We are having approximately 200-250 guests with about 30-40% out of town and we blocked 10 rooms at one hotel and 15 rooms at another just to give our guests an option. Both hotels told us that if we used all of the rooms we could then add on extra rooms to our original block. The trick is to find a hotel that does not require you meet a certain % of your block. A lot of them will say you are responsible to guarantee 80% of your block and if for some reason you dont meet that minimum you would be responsible for paying the difference. If you use a hotel that does not require this then it doesnt matter if people choose to stay there or not as you will not have to pay any difference.

Hope that helps!

emilyhar

Inhassel - what hotels are you using?  Do they require you to pay the difference?

lnhassel

We settled on the Crowne Plaza Downtown and the Courtyard Marriott by the galleria. My family lives on the north west side of town and FI's family is on the south east. Our ceremony will be at a church off of 59 and 610 and the reception is downtown. So one hotel is close to the ceremony and one is close to the reception. Both places offered the same rate so that was nice this way our guests have a choice of where they would like to stay since there isnt too much to do downtown on a weekend. Neither hotel had a deposit requirement or a minimum percentage requirement so we paid nothing to get our hotels blocked and will not have to pay anything even if none of our guests decide to stay there.

nogush

Thanks! I'll try out hotelplanner.com

KelaRenee

I reserved a block at one hotel that didn't require you to fill a percentage, and got a rate code (10% off the going rate) from the other hotel I liked that did require you to fill a percentage