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morenachica110

Room blocks.

I wasn't going to and now that I think about it, it may be a good idea. We're only inviting about 80 people. Most of them are couples and only a few are OOT. Estimating OOT is probably... about 30-ish? Most being couples. So how many rooms...?

Also, the wedding will be kind of out in the country(ish) since it's a barn venue. Pretty much there's a smallish town (couple restaurants, a WalMart, few stores, post office, a couple hotels and that's it) To drive to the venue from that small town would be about 15-20 minutes. The next town is about 20-25 minutes away. So I figured I'd keep everything around the small town (hence why I decided it would help to have room bloack sset up). Here's the question: Do I just stick with one hotel? Or do two?

The place I'm most interested in in a Holiday Inn Express which I actually love. There's a couple other places, but there're all about the same price range and either the same or lower quality.

Sooo.... what do you think? How many hotels? And how many rooms should I block?

rbwashington2012

Good question and on my to-do list today. I am actually booking one hotel so that everyone can actually be able to meet, greet and maybe carpool or caravan to the venue for the wedding so no one will get lost. I only have about 10-12 OOT guests for the hotel so one hotel just makes more sense plus we are at the same hotel as well. In yours, you might want to pick two just in case one can't block as many rooms as you wish. If the two are close enough in distance, could mean you can ask if someone could assist OOT guests by caravaning with them to the venue.

WLevine75

I am offering two hotels. Marriott Courtyard and a Full Service Marriott which is a little more expensive. I thought I would give them an option of how much they want to spend. I would probably block maybe 10-15 rooms at each hotel. One thing you want to make sure is that you are not being held responsible for rooms that arent picked up. Some hotels will hold you liable. Usually after a certain cut off date they will just release the un used rooms.

hollyweenOR

I'm also at a small town venue, with no other hotel in the actual town apart from the little one where the wedding is (only 14 rooms available to our guests). Maybe half of our guests will be from out of town, but in a sense everyone will be, as it's an hour and 45 min from where we (and the rest of our guests) live, so I'm hearing most of them are planning on staying the night nearby after the wedding. So I've got 14 from our hotel, 10 from a hotel 15 min away, and want to get 15-20 more, that should hopefully cover most of our needs. One hotel had already booked a block to another wedding, so they said no. I have a message out to another hotel, if they say no, I'm going to have to start looking at a town 35 min away from the venue.

volleygurl0306

Our set up is a little different because we are getting married at and having our reception at the hotel where our block is (and they gave us a rate that's unheard of in the area...only the same price or cheaper is a Motel 6).  So we only have the one.  The purpose (IMO) of blocking at multiple hotels is to give people price/quality options.  If the other hotels are the same price I think one is okay.  If there is a difference of say $20 or more per night, I'd say book a second block (assuming the place $20+ less isn't a dump).  For OOT that could be two nights so an extra $40+ night which with taxes and just all the other travel/wedding expenses add up.  And, if people live more than 45 minutes away and are drinkers, I'd assume they are going to stay at least the night of the wedding.  Count a room for each OOT couple/family and then for those who don't live that close.  HTH

bridalmomma

We chose to only block rms at one hotel, it is the nicest in the area for the $$ and they gave us a great price. Since we blocked the rms we have gone back in to add an extra night for several of the rms. While we were there we found out that there are only 5 rms left available in the block!!! We were going to add more rms to the block but the hotel is already booked full!! (collage town with home football game!) The lady we are working with has already put us down for any rm cancelations, she also threw in the banquet/party rm from Thursday/Sunday at no charge & DD/FI bridal suite is free for two nights!!

I would suggest checking to see if you are responsible for paying any "unbooked" rms first. Then if you are not going to have to pay for them, book a few more then you think you will need... or the max amount they will let you block out!

ETA: We are also at a Holiday Inn Express

kellycatalo

our reception is at a hotel, so the rooms were blocked automatically for us when we signed the contract. we have 30 rooms blocked total, 10 on the first night (night before) and 20 on the second night (day of). we're inviting about 180 people, and i think only 40ish are out of town. i'm not sure if we'll use up all the rooms, but we've already had 4 nights/30 booked.

jessa1228

We chose a Holiday Inn Express as well. It's literally right down the street from the venue. We blocked 20 rooms for both Friday & Saturday night, since we have a lot of OOT guests and that was the max number of rooms we could book at a time. The rooms can now be booked at a discounted rate, which expires a month before the wedding. At that time the unbooked rooms get released back to the public. We do have the option to add more rooms if we need to, but it's subject to availability.

mamameech

I just did a block of suites at 1 hotel, but I did inquire and provide information regarding other hotel options for guests. The block reservation is at a hotel right in between the church and the venue and is smack in the middle of downtown. The suites can hold 2-8 people so family can really take advantage a cheap stay at a nice hotel. I also have a banquet room reserved for the morning after for a brunch.