something you should know about hotel blocks

alyss21mom

A number of our guests have called me because they were having trouble booking rooms.  They have been told several things:  the block expired or that the block was not there, etc.  After some calls to the hotels, I found out that this occurs when people call the 800 numbers for the hotels.  If people call the hotel directly, no problem.  This seems to be true for a couple of our hotels particularly if people want to add on a day.  The blocks are only for Friday - Saturday but a lot of people are coming early and staying late.  Centralized reservations is not set up to handle this.  Anyway, we are now posting messages on the website and facebook but thought I would share. 

AlmostMrsStrong

Thank you so much for this. I'm going to be calling to block some hotels soon. Where did you block, out of curiousity?

RYLZ

Thanks, Alyss21.  Our wedding is just 2 weeks away and we've dealt with all kinds of issues with the hotel blocks!  Avoiding the 1-800 number a good rule.

We directed our guests to only call the hotels directly, but even then, another common problem is when they want to arrive before Friday or stay beyond Sunday.  It's unbelievable what a pain this has been!  And since everyone is OOT most guests are either  arriving several days before or electing to stay several days after.

The hotels we've had the least problem with have been the Bourbon Orleans and the The Richelieu.  They offered guests reduced rates for pre-Friday night arrivals, post-Sunday departures, and easily combined that with our reduced guest room block rate.  Easy peasy.

Booking at the Prince Conti, on the other hand, has been a nightmare!! We've gotten the best rate from them so a lot of guests have chosen to stay there.  However, they will only provide the room block for Friday and Saturday-- no exceptions.  So for example, anyone arriving Wednesday (most of our guests) and departing Monday, has to make THREE SEPARATE reservations (2 regular ones, via the site, and one special one using our block code), then call the hotelwith all 3 reservations and ask that they be combined.  That sounds so complicated to me, I can already envision all the problems people are going to have like being asked to check out mid-stay and check back in to another room, if it hasn't been noted that the 3 separate reservations are all for the same person.  YIKES!

AlmostMrsStrong

Wait, what??? Well, forget that...

alyss21mom

We have blocks at the Omni Royal, the Holiday Inn French Quarter, the Bienville and the Royal Sonesta.  My husband and I booked early and we are arriving several days ahead.  We got a great rate and technically I don't think we are part of the block.  When we booked, we did it on line.  The Omni offered discounts for people who are over 55 and or govt employees.  My daughter sent save the dates with her website listed.  The website had info about the hotels but a lot of guests waited until the actual invitations went out to book.  Turns out it is a very busy weekend and the block rate is now the best rate.  That was not the case 10 months ago.

I recently booked a room for my mother-in-law, - there had been some question whether or not she would be up to traveling and I ran into the multiple reservation scenario outlined by PP.  I will say the person in reservations was extremely helpful.  It wasn't really an aggravation.  I just have two confirmation numbers for her.  We'll see how it goes at check-in.

On an aside, many of the grooms family got great rates at the Place d'Armes.  We have almost as many people staying there as we do in some of the hotels in the block.  The wedding is in Jackson Square, so the location is great.  Again, I believe they booked early.