Hotel room blocks (and cheaper shuttle option)

tracy_k

Where are y'all doing your hotel room blocks? We want to stay in the Inner Harbor.My fiance is in charge of the hotel rooms, and one of the hotels (I think the Marriott Waterfront) was telling him we'd have to sign a contract and pay for any rooms not booked by a certain date.Obviously, I was expecting that there would be a cut-off date after which any rooms not booked would be released, but I didn't think there would be a possibility that we'd have to pay. As a follow up to my post earlier this week about shuttles, I found a cab company that will provide a 14-passenger van on demand... so you'd basically pay per trip, no 3-or-4-hour minumum. Woo hoo! http://www.vanandlimo.com/

mandyjulie

Try the Sheraton Baltimore City Center (not the Inner Harbor Sheraton, though it is still downtown--the Inner Harbor one might have the same policy though). We didn't have to guarantee any number of rooms and pay if some weren't booked in the end. It was pretty sweet.I'd call this hotel and a few others.

keer38

My wedding is downtown, and we got room blocks set up at four hotels.  Here they are: Marriott Waterfront $139/night Marriott Inner Harbor $119/night Marriott Renaissance $129/night Harbor Court Hotel $199/night Basically, at most hotels that I called you can have a "complimentary room block" of 10 rooms.  They will keep adding to it as it gets lower.  That way, you aren't held responsible for the rooms.  I did a lot of research, and contacted a lot of hotels.  The Hyatt downtown doesn't have any complimentary room blocks, so I wouldn't go with them (although their customer service was great).  I tried the Hilton a few times, and no one would ever return my messages!  Even when I spoke to a sales rep and she said she would have her manager call me back-- never did!  So that was a red flag for me.  I also tried the Sheraton Inner Harbor, and couldn't get a straight answer from them about how to do a complimentary room block, so I didn't pursue. I originally had higher rates with the Marriotts, but I filled out an event planning form on Visit Baltimore (www.baltimore.org) and they contact area hotels for you to get rate quotes.  After I had already set up my room blocks, I got new quotes with lower rates through the Visit Baltimore site.  The Marriott honored the lower quotes.  I can't really find that event planning thing any more... this might be it, but look around some more: http://baltimore.org/meeting-planners/submit-an-rfp

keer38

sorry, don't know why that formatting got funky with the links!

ruffian99

We've got blocks at the Sheraton Inner Harbor (149/night) and Residence Inn (119/night). No guarantees or chance I will be liable for any rooms, but I had to negotiate that with the Sheraton. Marriott wouldn't guarantee me enough rooms at the quoted rates w/o the risk of me being stuck with some. The Hilton was expensive (169) and didn't include any free suite upgrades (but no guarantee clause). The Hampton Inn Camden was fantastic, just a little far for us. For Hampton and Hilton, you can submit a request online and both got back to me w/in 24 hrs. I wasn't thrilled with the service at the Sheraton, but it was still the best option for us. Thanks for the shuttle tip! I will look into that.