Deposit to reserve rooms at the hotel?

Siegel29

Hi ladies - I'm getting married in Puerto Rico in March and the hotel is asking us to put down a $7000 deposit to reserve a block of rooms for our guests. We aren't planning to pay for the rooms for our guests, since we can't afford it. our understanding from the hotel is that this money can be applied to our one remaining deposit on the wedding. The block is for 30 rooms (both normal rooms and suites). Is this normal? Have any of you been asked to put down deposits for room blocks? Thanks!

chosen175

I wouldn't do it - that's a LOT of money to tie up! What is their policy on room blocks? Some hotels will make you pay for any unsold rooms in your block - maybe that $7k will be used to pay for any rooms not sold. Sounds a bit shady to me. I'd probably just let guests book on their own, unless you're willing to lose that $7k. Or if you haven't already signed the contract for the wedding, maybe you can tell them you're interested but have another hotel that isn't making you do that and see what they say.

sarlah

We had to put a deposit down for our block of rooms, but nothing even remotely close to $7k. How many rooms are in the block? We did the minimum room block of 10 rooms, I don't recall the exact amount, it was a certain % of the total for all the rooms.

cmoffett205

Hi - I am also getting married in Puerto Rico at the Hotel El Convento. They also asked for a deposit. It was a substantial deposit (and our situation was a little different in that we are paying for our guests' rooms so the deposit was not that huge of a deal because it went to the total cost of the room block) but our deposit was not anywhere near 7,000. I would speak with the hotel again and see if there is a way to change this, esp since if the rooms on the block are not reserved by a cut off date they are normally released back into regular reservation status.  If you don't mind me asking what hotel are you staying at?

ajameson

Our deposit w/ moon palace in Cancun was $7500.  This was $300 per room deposit for 25 rooms.  As long as we cancelled the unsued rooms by a certain date our money was to be refunded to us.  This locked in a room rate for our guests plus gave us freebies such as free cocktail hour, free nights for us and such for a certain number of rooms we booked. I would look over you contract carefully and pay by CC so you are protected.  Also make sure the resort is reputable.  But we had a great experience and am very glad we did what we did. The left over deposit was applied to my stay and the rest was refunded to me like30-45 days before my arrival.

sferg2010

Wow, $7000 is a lot of money. We plan to pay $200 per room for a block of ten rooms. We didn't want to take a chance and get too many rooms and lose money. Also, we didn't want to have to shell out too much right now to hold rooms especially when we can't guarentee and exact number so early on. Our TA said we can add rooms to our block if needed. Do you think you can fill all of the rooms? Make sure you won't be penalized.

Siegel29

Thanks everyone! We ended up only putting down a deposit on 12 rooms, which still locks in the special wedding rate for all our guests and we know 12 rooms will be booked. We also had the contract revised to include that the entire deposit goes towards our final payment on the wedding and that there is no penalty if all 12 rooms aren't booked prior to the cut off date. Thanks for all the advice - it was super helpful in fixing the contract!