**vegasgroom** ~ or anyone else with a large out of town guest list

direy25

Are you doing any type of room block for your guests?  FI has called two different resorts close to our venue (the M and Green Valley Ranch) and neither one is really willing to offer any kind of decent group rate.  You can actually get a better rate on Green Valley's website than what they offered us (but they have a no cancellation policy for the online rate).  Just curious what other people are doing.  Thanks!

Kmills811

We are having about 40 people fly in and we got a room block at PH for a pretty decent rate.

direy25

Thanks for the info!  Did they offer a discount because you're having your wedding there, or did that part matter?

Kmills811

We are not having our wedding there : ) We actual went through Total Experience, they do all the group bookings for the Harrah's hotel. I think anything over 10 rooms they will give you a group rate. The girl I've been working with is really nice and they have been very helpful. She got me a small discount on a suite too.

amandajean36

We're not doing a block of rooms because from what I've heard about most of the Strip hotels, if any of the rooms in your block go unreserved, you're still responsible for those rooms.  Caesars has offered us a 10% discount at any Harrah's property - but I'm pretty sure guests can find better deals when Orbitz or Harrahs or whoever has random promotions.

People on this board are pretty good about sharing any deals they find, so keep your eyes open for those types of postings as well

direy25

Kmills - great to know, I'll check that out.  I'd really like to have one hotel where most of our guests are staying if possible.  Off topic, where in Colorado are you from?

amandajean - that's the same issue with M & Green Valley - I was hoping that since they're not on the strip that they'd be more willing to work with us but I guess that's not the case. 

vegasgroom

I'm running behind on this actually; I've been meaning to call Mandalay the past few weeks to find out exactly what they're going to offer.  I've also signed up for their mailing list and facebook updates.  What I plan to do is find out what they offer from a room block perspective, then let our guests have that info on the website along with all the typical travel-related websites where they may be able to get a package deal that's less expensive, and I'm also going to set up my own email list for guests that want it and I'll pass on any MB deals I hear about.  I'm hesitant to block too many rooms because I really have no idea how much our guests will want to spend and I'd hate to block off a whole bunch of THEhotel rooms and then find most people stay at Luxor because it's $100/night less, leaving me owing some money.  I'll post more on this subject once I make some progress. :-)

direy25

Thanks so much! 

Gribbles

We have guests coming from all over the world. I was reluctant as well to block off any rooms as we would be responsible for meeting the minimum, and our guests have different budgets and plans for Vegas. Under 'Guest Information' on our invitations I have written:

"We want everyone to have their own fun in Las Vegas! So that our guests are free to choose from the huge variety of accommodation available, we have not organised any room blocks. We will be staying in the Encore resort, however our events are spread out over the Strip. If you need any advice or help organising your travel then please let us know.
We are providing transport to the wedding and reception on the big day."

I am actually a travel agent, so I am in a position to help our guests get good deals - they just need to ask me!

Kmills811

Direy - As far as the contract, as long as we cancel the unused rooms 30 days in advanced, we are not charged for them. Here is the link - http://www.totalexperiences.com/totalexperiences/

I have been working with Angela and she is great to work with!

Side note - I am in Roxborough which is in SW Littleton, suburbs of Denver. Whereabouts are you!?

thefuturemrsrumley

We're inviting about 160 people.  We are telling the not so computer savy (our older family members) to use MB's travel conceirge THE Travel Company (its basically a travel agent, so they get a bit of a deal). 

Our wedding coordinator suggested against the room block.  Because its Vegas, there are always deals and most computer savvy folks can find themselves one. 

We're telling most people to sign up for MBs emails to get the first tom 30% off (our wedding is at MB).  We're also sharing current coupon codes that we know of as people RSVP.  For example, until September 30th you can use PSC25 for 25% off.

Hope that helps. 

direy25

Thanks for all the great info futuremrs!

Kmills - that's great about the 30 day cancellation policy, I'll definitely check that out.  FI & I live in Snowmass Village, right outside of Aspen.  I came out here to work for 1 winter - that was 10 years ago, I sort of got stuck here. 

Gribbles - you mentioned providing transportation to the wedding & reception; will that just be offered from the Encore, meaning that guests staying elsewhere would just need to get to the Encore?  Can I ask how many guests you're expecting?  We want to provide transportation to our venue as well, which was why we were originally trying to reserve a block close to the venue.  Sorry for all the questions!

**ETA - we're inviting about 150 guests.

aerinpegadrak

We invited about 50.  Here's the text from the Accommodations page from our wedsite:

"The beauty of Vegas is that your options for hotels are pretty much limitless.  We haven't blocked rooms at any one hotel, so you're free to choose where you would like to stay based upon how much you would like to spend and how you're planning to get around.  The hotels listed below are all on the corner of Las Vegas Blvd and Tropicana Ave near Mandalay Bay, where the ceremony and reception will take place; these are excellent choices if you're planning on walking.

Excalibur
Luxor
MGM Grand
New York, New York
Tropicana

We highly recommend that you visit Smarter Vegas to book your hotel, as they offer several fantastic deals on hotels in the city, along with other promotions and resources.  Plus, we've discovered that the hotels often throw in a few extra perks when you use the coupon codes found on the site.  Do yourself a favor and take a look.

If you're having trouble choosing a hotel, there are two great resources out there to help you decide:
1) This chart has a nice, quick comparison of ALL of the hotels in the city.  It's compiled by one guy so it's a bit biased, but it gives you an idea of prices and amenties.
2) For extensive, in-depth reviews of most (but not all) of the hotels in Vegas, check out Oyster.com.  The site also has lists of the best hotel rooms, best value hotels, best luxury hotels, and so on that are extremely useful planning tools, and they're a good source for finding the best off-Strip hotels that you may never have heard of before."

Most of our guests ended up at Excalibur.  We had one other couple at MB, a couple at MGM, and the rest scattered at South Pointe, Tuscany, Sahara, and I think a couple others I've forgotten.  People mainly booked through SmarterVegas or Priceline for the best deals.

direy25

Wow Aerin, thank you so much for that!  Tons of great info, would you mind if I 'borrow" some of that for my site?

aerinpegadrak

No problem!  If you want, here's my "Getting Around" page as well:

CARS

The good news: the hotels on the Strip all have free parking garages.  The bad news: traffic on the Strip ranges from annoying to nightmarish.  If you're going to be driving around, be sure to give yourself extra time to get to your location.

If you need to rent a car in town, Smarter Vegas has coupons and price comparisons.

ON FOOT

One of the nice things about having all of the major attractions so close together in Las Vegas is that it makes walking quite a reasonable way to get around.  Just do remember to bring heavy-duty walking shoes, or you'll be very uncomfortable by the end of the day!  This map of the Strip indicates the locations of all of the major hotels, and estimates the travel time between them.

MONORAIL

The stations aren't convenient for all locations (and are downright inconvenient for some), but the Las Vegas Monorail is a pretty nice way to get around, especially if you have a lot of distance to cover.  Fares are $5 for one trip or $13 for a day pass; more information can be found at the official website.

There is a free tram connecting Excalibur, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay, which runs daily from 9am to 10:30pm.

TAXIS

You don't need to call a cab in Vegas, just walk to the front of a hotel and wait.  There is one company in town that takes credit cards, but if you're going to be using cabs to get around, it's a good idea to carry cash.

queenklm33

Ditto KMILLS
I was a bit hesitant about getting a room block, but Angela at Total Rewards has been awesome.  I don't even have a contract for my room block.  She told me any unused rooms in the block automatically roll back to the hotel at 30 days out so the hotel can use them for booking
I got the best rate I've seen at Planet Hollywood for a weekend and we got a great rate on the APEX Suite as well.
I can also increase the room block at anytime if we need to.

lndsy1213

We did a room block at The Orleans. Wanted a cheap option for some guests who couldn't afford much. we had 100 guests fly into Vegas. They gave us a rate of $35 weekday and $62 weekend! couldn't beat that. : ) there was also a free shuttle most of them took to the strip.

Tasianab

We got our block at Mandalay Bay. 98% of our guests are coming from out of town. They didn't say we would have to pay for any unsold rooms but fiance works in the company so maybe he got a deal. The rate they gave us was actually really good...then again, we did set it up ages ago...

Hope this helps!

direy25

You are all awesome, thank you so much for the info! 

Aerin, thanks again, that is so incredibly helpful!

Gribbles

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_vegasgroom-anyone-else-large-out-of-town-guest-list?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:91Discussion:0ec8fe7f-6b57-48c8-bda6-6fd6ca8c41f6Post:53f84af6-617e-4389-bf0e-dc8369da4ee8">Re: **vegasgroom** ~ or anyone else with a large out of town guest list</a>:
[QUOTE]Gribbles - you mentioned providing transportation to the wedding & reception; will that just be offered from the Encore, meaning that guests staying elsewhere would just need to get to the Encore?  Can I ask how many guests you're expecting?  We want to provide transportation to our venue as well, which was why we were originally trying to reserve a block close to the venue.  Sorry for all the questions! **ETA - we're inviting about 150 guests.
Posted by direy25[/QUOTE]

Hi Direy. We are expecting about 30 guests which is a lot easier to co-ordinate than 150! So far 10 guests have confirmed their travel and all are booked into the Wynn/Encore. We will organise a few extra stops at other hotels for the party bus before it comes to the Wynn to get everyone else if needs be. We are having a map made which will show the Strip, where our events are and the pick up points and times once everything is finalised and we know where our guests will be. We will send this out a month before the wedding.

I just really didn't want to dictate where our guests stay, even though it makes things slightly more complicated for us.

It all sounds so simple, what could possibly go wrong......!? <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-tongue-out.gif" border="0" alt="Tongue out" title="Tongue out" />

direy25

In Response to <a href="http://lasvegas.weddings.com/main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_vegasgroom-anyone-else-large-out-of-town-guest-list?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:91Discussion:0ec8fe7f-6b57-48c8-bda6-6fd6ca8c41f6Post:91778a18-5c61-446f-8ace-7d0e6672fe87">Re: **vegasgroom** ~ or anyone else with a large out of town guest list</a>:
[QUOTE]It all sounds so simple, what could possibly go wrong......!?
Posted by Gribbles[/QUOTE]
Ha ha - and here I thought setting up the accommodations would be the easy part of all this planning stuff.  <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-tongue-out.gif" border="0" alt="Tongue out" title="Tongue out" />

red1115

We have our room block (40+) at MB/THEhotel and there's no penalty for unused rooms.  Those rooms are released back intp circulation 6weeks before the wedding though.

Although I've given the block info to our guests, I've also informed them of other alternatives and room/air combos available. (even on the MB website!)

I figure most of them are world travellers and will be able to find a room in Vegas they'll like!