blocking hotel rooms...

jasmine0530

If we have 20 OTT guests (counted as couples/families) should we block off 20 total hotel rooms? Or just, say, 10 of them and list other hotels in the area? I would think the 2nd way would be better to give our guests choices, but what's the proper way?

mbcarney

I used to work in sales at a hotel and dealt with this ALL the time.  Don't block off 20 hotel rooms.  Hotels will often make you guarantee a minimum number if you block that many and will make your cut off date much earlier (which can be a pain)...that's a lot of hotel rooms to keep out of inventory.  I would block 10 if I were you... or better yet, if these people are family or people you are comfortable with, ask them what type of room they will need.  If it is family, odds are they will all want to stay at the same hotel.  Otherwise, give lots of options.  If you need hotel recs in Colorado Springs, let me know.  I have a ton on our wedding website.

jasmine0530

Thank you!I'm up in Fort Collins but I appreciate the recommendation offer, and the advice!

lap256

I would do the second option. As an FYI, jasmine, we blocked the Fort Collins Hilton (the block rate was I think $119), and a number of our guests did priceline 'name your own price' and got it for between $38 and $50. We also blocked at the Best Western University Inn, which was about $80, and had free breakfast and internet. The two hotels are around the corner from each other, which we liked.

steffenfam

The hotels we checked into for booking blocks of rooms required a guarantee that those rooms would be reserved. Any rooms that ended up not getting reserved, the bride/groom would have to pay anywhere from 80% to 100% of the cost of the unreserved rooms.  Since the b/g didn't want to get stuck paying for unreserved rooms, they never booked anything, just let guests take care of it themselves.P.S.  They checked LaQuinta (80%) and Embassy Suites (100%) in Loveland.

jasmine0530

wow steffen, yeah we went with the Best Western University Inn and the lady just said she would have a cutoff date of the time our guests had till to reserve a room, no penalties of having to pay if any weren't reserved. She also tried to say "well it's a football weekend so i'm expecting it to be busy..." but i know for a fact the Rams are playing an away game that weekend. Whatever heh

jkosky

I been talking to the Hyatt at the Denver Convention Center.  There's is a courtesy contract, meaning, if you your guests do not book all the rooms you blocked off, then you are in no way financially obligated.  Also, they will let you know if your block is getting full and you need to add more rooms.  It's convenient, the rooms are great, it's right down town, so easy to walk around downtown but central for any travel.  I've also been impressed so far with their customer service.

VailBride83

For my hotels I went the "negotiated discount" route instead of the blocked rooms route. The discount isn't as heavy and they don't guarantee the rooms for you, but you aren't obligated to the rooms and the discount has no cutoff.

BreckBride09

Just as a side...we ended up not blocking rooms because our guests found cheaper rates on hotels.com or priceline.com than the hotel was willing to offer for a room block rate -- we just made sure to tell all of our guests this plenty of time in advance and everyone who wanted to stay together is!