Is it a big faux pas to not block hotel rooms? We had planned on doing so since the majority of our guests are OOT, but then I read that some hotels will charge you for any unbooked rooms, which makes sense, but we really can't afford to do so. I know for a fact most of my family members are just going to make a vacation out of the trip since it's a good 9 hour drive, and I'm worried they'll make reservations of their own and we'll be stuck with a bunch of unrented rooms. FI also thinks that it's a bit unnecessary since Lansing, MI isn't the country's biggest tourism spot, and has plenty of hotels. Is that a safe bet to make? We're sending out save-the-dates in a week, and all our guests already know about the travel involved, so they would have plenty of time to make accomodations. I know you can sometimes can get discounted rooms, but that's also only if so many rooms get booked. What do you think? Are we terrible people if we don't block rooms?
Re: Do we have to block hotel rooms?
You don;t have to make a block, but its done as a courtesy to your guests. As you said yourself many hotels give discounted rates for blocks. Even if the discount is small now, you are about a year out from your wedding, and prices will most likely go up. When we booked our block we got the rooms for $169 before tax, and they were $185 regularly. About a month before the wedding the rooms were going for $420 a night, so we were so happy that we did a block.
Call different hotels in the area and get their block rates and find out the details involved. We signed our contract saying that as long as we agreed to release our block 30 days before the wedding, then we weren't charged for any un-booked rooms. And we didn't have a minimum of what we needed booked. So call around to a few places and see if they will do that for you. Its pretty common to release them early, and you just have to give your guests enough time to decide what their plans are.
I opted against the block. We live in a tourist area and there are so many hotels here that I couldn't even begin to pick one. Our guests are also a huge range of tastes, some will go with economy, some with go with ritz, some will try to park their van in my driveway and run an extension cord to one of my outlets (that is so not happening).
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