Room block question

direy25

Hi ladies,

I generally stick to my local board but I think I'll get better advice here.  We're getting married in Vegas in May.  Most people on the Las Vegas board don't do room blocks for their guests because usually people can get better rates on their own.  Our wedding is off-strip in Henderson and the resort we'll be staying at can give us a discounted room block.  The problem is that we're responsible for any rooms that go unoccupied.  We're starting out with a small block of 10 rooms for family & bridal party.  Once those 10 rooms are booked we can still add additional rooms to the block.

Would it be ok to e-mail our guests explaining the room block situation and ask who might be interested in staying at that resort?  Or should I just send an e-mail with the group code saying that we've started with a small block but can add more rooms as needed?  Thanks!

direy25

Thanks for the responses ladies!  We're pretty sure that 10 rooms won't be a problem as that number was based on people we've spoken to (parents, bridal party, a few relatives, etc.) who have told us they want to stay wherever we're staying.  We definitely don't want anyone to feel pressured into staying somewhere they don't want to stay, just wanted to give them one option (it's a gorgeous resort and we got a great deal compared to the rates they're running right now).

@msmerymac, we're inviting about 120 people.  Thanks for the great info!

Beachy730

Ask the hotel if they will allow you to block more rooms but release them at a said date so as to not be charged for them.  To clarify, our hotel gave us a block of 15 rooms to start.  Our wedding was July 30 and if we wanted the block up until the wedding, we were responsible for any rooms not booked.  But if we released the block on June 29th (a month before) we didn't have to pay for the unbooked rooms.  This way we had enough rooms and didn't have to worry about being stuck paying for them.

I would start with the email or website or whichever way you plan on telling people about the hotel.  Tell them you have a block at the hotel you are staying if they would also like to stay there and give them the code.  I would also mention how far it is to the strip.  As KentuckyKate said I would probably choose to stay on the strip since i've never been there.

direy25

@ KentuckyKate:  Do you have an issue with destination weddings?  I keep re-reading your comment about how people are already taking vacation time to attend my DW and I can't tell if that was meant as a dig or not - I'm not trying to be a biitch by asking that, I'm just curious.

FWIW, we chose Vegas because FI's immediate family all live there.  My parents are in Washington & California, the rest of his family are in California, Minnesota & Iowa.  If we were to have the wedding where we live in Colorado it would actually be more expensive for our guests to attend our wedding.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Ok, cool. 120 isn't tiny, so there's quite a possibility you'll fill 20, 30+ rooms. Some Vegas weddings are about 20 people, max, which is why I asked!

direy25

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_room-block-question?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:6184d09f-e170-4f7a-83c1-e0267d31d8d8Post:95317be6-5e51-4604-a29d-82909cb38e84">Re: Room block question</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>Are you sure you have to pay for the unbooked rooms? My contract said that which worried me because it wasn't in our budget but my contact at the hotel told me they didn't actually charge anyone.</strong> With 120 guests, I'd probably do a 10 room block but hold off on doing more and just tell the guests it can be added as needed. We had 55 guests and had 15 rooms blocked. I didn't expect that many at all.
Posted by lovethebeach16[/QUOTE]
I'll have to double check that, FI has the contract with him right now.  He said that the contact person had told him that we'd be responsible for a certain dollar amount if all of the rooms weren't booked and I remember seeing something about that in the contract. 

brookelynpaisley

If I were you, I'd attempt to negotiate the attrition (responsibility for unsold rooms). We did this by pushing out the booking deadline to 6 weeks instead of 2, giving them more time to unbooked rooms. Also, I just said "such and such hotel is not holding me responsible for unsold rooms, and I'm going to go with them unless you can give me the same agreement." Done and done.