how far away for a hotel block?

mosli

i've been looking into doing a block of rooms for my quests and wanted some opinons...

I'm only going to block 10 rooms - and probably won't fill them all. The best rate i can do near my reception is $130/night. If I go 15 miles away (near the airport) i can block for $90/night and they offered to comp our room. Is that too far away to expect quests to stay? With only 10 rooms needed, should I even bother getting a block? What did you do?

tia!

KimWard

 IMO, 15 miles isn't too far away. Do the guests that need them know the Pittsburgh area well? Is one hotel easier to get to than another? Are these people who will be staying on tight budgets? Just some questions to ponder... for ex., I knew that some of our college friends would appreciate Red Roof Inn's prices vs. Hampton Inn, so I booked at both. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure that we had more than 10 rooms total occupied, but we still did 2 hotels. Do you have to give exact numbers you want blocked? For ex., Hampton Inn told me they'd start me off with a block of 10, and if more was needed they would add to it. If I didn't use all 10 that was ok too- wouldn't have to pay for those rooms or anything like that. HTH some!

nicki426

Our hotel block is 10 miles away from our venue. It's pretty much the closest place. They are having a free shuttle service for our guests to take them to the venue and pick them up when the reception is over to take them back to the hotel.

jrsygrl10

i actually dont agree with PP, i do feel that 15 miles is a bit too far away. if there is a free shuttle service, that helps sway my mind. but even still. i would block both hotels and let your guests choose. let them pro/con the higher expense/closer hotel vs. cheaper expense/farther away hotel. if there is something closer than 15 miles, i would opt for that.

LaFemmeRousse

15 miles seems really far away to me.  I would never choose to stay at a hotel that far away from a wedding venue if I had the option.  If that is the only place you block rooms, I would definitely be sure to provide free guest transportation to and from the hotel. 

Why not block ten at both?  For most places (although check yours to be sure), you can block rooms, and any unsold will just be released by a certain date (like a month before the wedding) at no penalty to you.  That way guests can choose on their own.

mosli

thanks for the input, everyone. I think we're going to let the guests choose their own.

gmc22

My wedding is at the Carnegie Museum in Oakland and we have rooms blocked at the Holiday Inn in Oakland and Sheraton Station Square (where FIs family and the BP from OOT will be staying - it's about 5ish miles from the reception venue - the Holiday Inn is basically right across the street a block down)

IMO, 15 miles is far - I'm having a lot of OOT guests, most of which have never been to PGH before - I wanted to make it as easy for them as possible...