Room Blocks

Kate504 · June 2011

Can please someone explain to me how this works and the process? This is like one of the last things that we have to do and it is we have no clue how it works. Our wedding is at St. Jude and the reception at the Wax. Any hotel recommendations?

I would estimate 50% of our guests may need a hotel room b/c even those that live in town are saying they want them.

wmh6 · June 2011

Hi there! Our ceremony and reception were at the Wax. We had room blocks at Dauphine Orleans and Holiday Inn Chateau Lemoyne. Both hotels are on Dauphine around the corner from the Wax.

I sent emails to the general email addresses for the hotels, and these ladies contacted me:

Dawn Ledet at Dauphine Orleans (dawn.ledet at ihrco.com)

Thu Tran at Chateau LeMoyne (thu.tran at ihg.com)

You can just give them dates and how many rooms you need, and they will give you a quote. I'm sure any other hotel would be the same way. Chateau LeMoyne also included the other Holiday Inn hotel in the quarter in the contract.

By the way, my husband and I were extremely happy that we chose the Wax. We had an awesome time, and it was an all around great experience. Good luck!

phunluvin82 · June 2011

I recommend going to neworleanscvb.com. They have a form under weddings that you can fill out and they will send you price quotes from a ton of hotels. It helps eliminate some legwork b/c the only other way to get price quotes (as far as I know) is to individually contact hotels.

I filled out the cvb form and started to receive (via email) a lot of price quotes from hotels. I narrowed it down from those based primarily on the prices, locations, and also read trip advisor reviews for a few places that I was not familiar with to make sure they were well rated.

Once you decide what hotel or hotels you want to use, you basically just contact them and they will write a contract for the # of rooms you want to hold, and the dates. The contract will let you know the window of time during which guests can book.

Some hotels have an 'attrition clause' where you will end up paying for unused rooms...but I found that many don't, so if you are really unsure how many rooms you will need, you will definitely want a hotel that will not hold you responsible for unused rooms.

I used Monteleone and The Whitney. The Monteleone has an attrition clause (and was more expensive) so I only blocked a small number of rooms there that I knew we would fill. The Whitney does not have that type of clause in their contract and they offered me a reallygood rate so I blocked a much larger # of rooms there since there was no worry about having to fill all of them. I was happy with both.

Kate504 · June 2011

Thanks guys. Is it ok, to not have enough rooms block off for everyone? Kind of first come, first serve. I mean I'm not going to know a true # of people except for the people in my bridal party and a few aunts who have told me they need one so far.

wmh6 · June 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_louisiana-new-orleans_room-blocks-3?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:84Discussion:d39ee087-ba0e-4e8d-badd-c1dd178ca28fPost:c7bc0118-cbee-4e98-9217-0b5f99bded40">Re: Room Blocks</a>:
[QUOTE]Thanks guys. Is it ok, to not have enough rooms block off for everyone? Kind of first come, first serve. I mean I'm not going to know a true # of people except for the people in my bridal party and a few aunts who have told me they need one so far.
Posted by Kate504[/QUOTE]

Yes, it's fine. Most of our guests were out of town so I had no clue how many would actually be able to come down when I did the room blocks. Quite a few of the guests also decided to stay farther away for a less expensive hotel.

oohsnapash · June 2011

When I contacted the Monteleone, there was no "attrition" clause mentioned to me. Guess I should double check that contract...

DenyseS · June 2011

Ask lots of questions and review the contract carefully. I'm kind of irritated with my room block b/c when I went to see how it worked exactly what I was told did not match up with what I was able to reserve.

I was told I would be able to reserve any type of room I wanted (but the special rate - which turned out to not be all that special would be only for a regualr room) which is not the case. I was only able to look at regular rooms. That's fine and all and in my case I get an upgrade if one is available anyway since we are the bride and groom. I'm just afriad now our guests will reserve outside of the room block. Either for a better rate of a better room. Several of my guests wanted suites. I guess it won;t be a big deal since anything not resevered 2 months before the date reverts back to the hotel in our case.

phunluvin82 · June 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_louisiana-new-orleans_room-blocks-3?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:84Discussion:d39ee087-ba0e-4e8d-badd-c1dd178ca28fPost:c7bc0118-cbee-4e98-9217-0b5f99bded40">Re: Room Blocks</a>:
[QUOTE]Thanks guys. Is it ok, to not have enough rooms block off for everyone? Kind of first come, first serve. I mean I'm not going to know a true # of people except for the people in my bridal party and a few aunts who have told me they need one so far.
Posted by Kate504[/QUOTE]

I don't think anyone really knows the exact # of rooms they'll need...the best you can do is ballpark it and any who miss out just won't have the discounted rate. I found with my guests that some people prefer to hunt down their own bargains anyhow...

eamcardle · June 2011

We had our reception at the Wax Museum (and loved it!). Our hotel block was at the Chateau Bourbon around the corner. Worked out great.

Definitely go through the CVB to get the best rate. We started with a block of 20 rooms because we had closer to 80% (over 100 people) from out of town. They kept adding rooms (at the rate we agreed on) until the hotel sold out. But most people start with blocks of 10, I think.

You don't have to reserve enough rooms for everyone -- some people will want to do their own thing or have points with certain hotels, etc.

Ktinagrl · June 2011

They are correct. You just call and set up a wedding block under your maiden name and his last name so when people call for a reservation there is no confusion...his fam will probably ask for his block and yours will ask for you...so if it's Jones/Smith Wedding block you will be covered no matter who they ask for. Most hotels just block off the rooms for a month or so and guests can call in during that time to get the special rate. We had three wedding blocks at three different hotels...one right near the reception so there would be no drunk driving.....hotel would shuttle guests (which is a great idea if you can get the hotel to do it) and two others in different price ranges ( one was family friendly with free breakfast, the other was a high end hotel where people could get more upscale expereince). We had welcome bags in all the rooms that were booked and people really appreciated the variety of choices at group rates.

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