Can we negotiate hotel block price?

shannonalise

We have made contact with a hotel around the area where we're getting married to find out if they can arrange a block of rooms for our guests for two nights during the weekend of our wedding. An associate got back to us and told us that they could set aside a block of rooms for our guests at the going rate, which was the same price any other guest would get booking a room with them. Do we have any room to negotiate a bit of a discount for bringing so many guests to their hotel? If not, no big deal, we'll just look elsewhere, but I wanted to check here first. Thanks!

crfische

I suppose it never hurts to try! Most hotels around here do the same thing. They'll block of your rooms, but not give you a discount. The buggers. And Hi, Shannon!

shannonalise

Thanks Fischey! And hello, happy Friday!

scoetto

We were able to negotiate but we had family staying from Thurs-Tues so it worked out well for those people. Otherwise everyone just booked through Priceline, Travelocity, etc and chose hotels in the same vacinity.

hccpsu

I'd check with some different hotels, and if you find one that offers a discount, either go with that one or use it to bargain with your first choice.Our hotel gave us a discount, and they're also providing shuttles to and from the reception.

shannonalise

hccpsu, shuttles to and from the reception would be fantastic. FI and I were talking about hiring a shuttle to do that so that our guests would not need to rent cars when they arrived, unless they wanted to. A knottie told me about hotelplanner.com and we've been using that site to negotiate for affordable accommodations around the Napa area. The hotel I am wanting to work with is the closest to the ceremony/reception site, but I didn't find it on hotelplanner.com. Seems like the best choice if they can bring the price down about $10-$20 a night.

lyndausvi

you can try.  I would be surprised if you couldn't get a better rate, unless it's a popular weekend for the town

ac_in_dc

It really depends on hotel vacancies for that time and place. You can always give guests a couple of options, too, but then not everyone will be in the same place. We got a good discount, as it turns out all folks at the hotel could get that discount the weekend at the wedding. But our discount was available 3-4 months out, when other folks would have had to book at the full rate.

jamm2019

It doesn't hurt to ask for a discount since you will be bringing in so many costumers.  You could always ask if they will give you and FI a room for the weekend for free.  At the hotel we used they said they would throw in a room for us since so many people were staying there.  We actually declined because we were leaving for our honeymoon very early in the morning and it was just easier for us to stay at home and have everything ready when we woke up.

hccpsu

I forgot, we also got a free room if ten rooms were booked.  We had 12, so we got the free one (but we're going to give it to my sister).Since you're looking around Napa, that's probably pretty popular on weekends and you might not have as much negotiating room.  But it never hurts to try--the worst they can do is say no!

shannonalise

Very true! I will at least ask. Thanks for all of your advice everyone!

opalsky007

This sounds strange to me--we got a 25% discount on rooms without having to ask for it. I suppose it helps that we're having the reception there and also getting married during a very slow time of year.I'd try to negotiate for a discount or extra services, like pp said. If they don't agree, it's probably because they have an easy time filling the hotel during that time of the year and could just as easily find guests willing to pay full price.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Is this a major hotel chain or an independent boutique hotel? I'm booking with a major, upscale-ish chain right now and they're giving me $100 off their regular room rate per night, plus I can book a honeymoon/executive suite for the same price as the regular room block. The only thing I'm wary of is that I need to fill 90% of the block. But definitely ask:- can you do this price or close to it?- what bonuses can you give me? Free room? Free shuttle?- Am I responsible for paying for rooms not booked?- When do the rooms get released for sale?- Am I able to add more rooms to my block if they sell out?Good luck. And if you really want that particular hotel, get an offer from someone else and see if they'll counter it.

jilybeans4

Probably depends, but we were able to negotiate with ours - At first, the hotel we had the reception at was going to give us a rate of $129 with 80% attrition (basically, we had to fill at least 80% of the rooms in our block or else pay the difference).  I went back and forth with them a LOT until finally got it down to $99 the night of the wedding (and guests would have to pay a high rate if they were there the night before since there was a big 10 football game in town that night) and no attrition. Since the only people coming in ahead of time were WP and our parents and they didn't mind staying elsewhere the night before, we went with that.Thank goodness, too, since we had far less attendees than planned - we would have ended up having to pay for empty rooms if i hadn't negotiated out of that deal.

shannonalise

Thanks so much! Those are excellent questions and I've written them down. I'll definitely use those. Jily, that's what we're afraid of - we just don't know who will be able to make it at this point and we don't want to get into a situation where we're paying for rooms not booked under the block. I'm so glad you got out of that situation too!