OOT bags - delivery?

aniadenver

I just found out that all three hotels I made room blocks for my guests are charging $3-$5 for delivering welcome bags to my guests. I think it's an outrage! with over 50 people ( this is a destination wedding) coming to my wedding I will waste couple hundred bucks on nothing. My fiance and I are paying for our wedding, so we are on a budget...
DO you girls have any ideas how to deliver the bags to my guests? I'm not throwing welcome party, just rehearsal dinner for wedding party people.

NOLAbrideinDC

Our hotel charged us that fee as well. We had them hold the bags at the front desk and hand them to the guests as they checked in.  There was no charge to do it this way. It worked find and all of our guests recieved their gift bags. Hope this helps!

RYLZ

Good idea, but some of my hotels actually state they have a policy against this solution so you might want to double-check.

honeypup

Had this happen at a conference for work so not sure it will be the same for a wedding but...FD outright refused to hold conference bags at desk. HAD to pay to deliver BUT found a reliable and friendly bellhop. The hotel was charging $3 per bag with 77 deliveries! Bellhop= 77 bags @ $100 flat.  I know it's a pain, but can you deliver them as people checkin? It might be a nice gesture to welcome them. I'm not saying stand in the lobby all day, but stop by rooms, meet a few in the lobby, rehearsal dinner, etc. No rule that they all have to receive them together.  GOOD LUCK!!

phunluvin82

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_louisiana-new-orleans_oot-bags-delivery?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:84Discussion:2098b133-193c-4ee7-945e-6cf58c6dddc0Post:67cf618e-3343-4c6e-9e01-2bdb513ae636">Re: OOT bags - delivery?</a>:
[QUOTE]Had this happen at a conference for work so not sure it will be the same for a wedding but...FD outright refused to hold conference bags at desk. HAD to pay to deliver BUT found a reliable and friendly bellhop. The hotel was charging $3 per bag with 77 deliveries! Bellhop= 77 bags @ $100 flat.  <strong>I know it's a pain, but can you deliver them as people checkin? It might be a nice gesture to welcome them. I'm not saying stand in the lobby all day, but stop by rooms, meet a few in the lobby, rehearsal dinner, etc. No rule that they all have to receive them together. </strong> GOOD LUCK!!
Posted by honeypup[/QUOTE]

Yeah, we had the same problem...a charge to deliver the bags & they had a policy against holding them at the front desk.  We did the suggestion above...we just gave them to people as we saw/met up with them...or texted to find out room #'s and left them @ people's door.  It was kind of a pain in the a$$ and by the time we were done, I was kinda wishing we just paid the fee...but it was sort of the principle of it, lol.  We also had more than 2x as many as you do so it may be a more feasible option for you.

aniadenver

THe hotels have the policy agaist holding bags at the front desk. Just another way of making money...
We will just have to visit everyone in the rooms

[Deleted User]

I agree that it might be better to deliver them yourself, or perhaps divide the guests between the two families and have your parents/siblings/wedding party chip in.  Not such a big deal if each person only has to deliver 10 bags.  And FYI, even if you do pay, the hotel might lose the bags - which is what happened to us.  The Ritz/Iberville Suites lost about half the bags and our guests never got them.  They ended up refunding us the money we had paid, but I was really bummed that some of our guests did not receive the welcome boxes that we spent so much time putting together. 

honeypup

With ya...the principle!

jml1981

My hotel also charges $5 to deliver but they will pass them out at check-in at the front desk for free. It's a fairly small hotel and we will take up about a fourth of it so I'm not worried about losing any baskets. The sales manager also suggested putting name stickers on there so they can make sure all of my guests get theirs.