Room Block Stress

ppenticost · February 2010

Ok, so I'm negotiating a room block at Planet Hollywood for Wed June 23 for 15 rooms and then from June 24-27 I've blocked 25 rooms. I just got the contract and I'm freaking out because it says that if we don't fill the 15/25 rooms we are on the hook for the first night of each of the rooms that we don't use. I am 90% sure that we will be able to do that but what if ppl drop off as they sometimes do with weddings?

Has anyone else gone this route? It also says if I cancel, I will be charged $10,600!! Can anyone shed some light on this??

We are getting smoking deals on the rooms doing it this way and I even get the Apex Suite so I don't want to do "each man for himself"... Ugh!! What do I do??

amandajean36 · February 2010

i would be too nervous that i wouldn't fill them. i would probably just pay what i had to pay and do the 'everyone for themselves' booking thing.

talk to your friends and family and try to figure out how many people you have coming FOR SURE (parents, wedding party, etc). and also make sure that they're ok paying the reduced PH rate (some people might want to go super cheap and stay off the strip). see where you're at then. if you're really close to the 15 (or 25?), then it might be worth the risk. if you only have a hard 8 for rooms you can count on, i wouldn't do it.

j_jaye · February 2010

Hi

We are in a similar situation. What I am planning on doing is asking for the first night as a deposit from everyone who wants to take part in the group booking. We are going to set a date by which the booking deposit is due and only those who have paid (or we know will definately be coming and will pay us back ie family) are included in the group booking. Because we are coming from overseas we are doing the same thing with the airfares. But this will work well for us as everyone has to plan well in advance to come as its a bit hard to just drop into Vegas from Australia! It is a risk to do it any other way as you might end up owing a lot of money. The cancellation fee is normal as the hotel may not be able to fill the rooms if you can and they have kept them for you.

kaburns1214 · February 2010

The deal I have with the Wynn is that the group booking price is only good until 60 days before the wedding, then it goes away. That way I'm not on the hook for un-used rooms and the Wynn has more than enough time (60 days) to fill the rooms.

atlcatlover · February 2010

I wouldn't sign this unless you are prepared to eat the costs if you dont meet their minimums. That is a lot of money to put at risk.

If you can arrange rooms at a discount that is very nice, but at the same time everyone needs to be responsible for their own bookings. You do not need one more thing to stress about.

sagi122 · February 2010

I decided against the blocked rooms as well. Caesars required something like 21 rooms, so I didn't want to take the chance that everyone would want to stay there. Good thing I made that decision. A lot of my guests are booking at different hotels based on their budgets.

Many of the hotels will have great deals on their rooms closer to the date, so I just copy the information about room specials on our wedding website. Hope this helps!

2BMrsMcW · February 2010

I asked about room blocks at PH as well and decided against it once they told me that I had to foot the bill if they went unused. They did, however, offer 10% off with a discount code.

futurecoachk · February 2010

Just my personal opinion... I would let everyone stay where they want. If I were traveling to Vegas for a wedding, I would not like it if I had to stay at a specific hotel. Many people have specific areas in Vegas that they like to stay. If you make them stay in a specific hotel, they may be less likely to go.

meyerse · February 2010

Hi.

I am doing a room block at the MGM because we got the Terrace for an awesome deal for 2 nights. We had to sign the contract saying we would have to pay if all the rooms weren't booked. We scaled down the number of rooms to 10 instead of 15+ and then if we got more rooms booked then the lady we are working with was going to adjust the price some more for us.

It has worked out great!! We have 15 rooms booked and counting

HTH.

jlstewart · February 2010

I chose to forgo the room block as well given that my guests each want to stay at their own favorite property plus I have a few gamblers in the bunch so they are getting better deals and even comped rooms all on their own using their players cards. I didnt want to be on the hook for the unused rooms.

stinkerbell6879 · February 2010

I skipped the room block and have just been e-mailing the promo codes, etc. that I have been receiving, due to the fact that I have guest with a variety of price points.

horceez · February 2010

We did exactly that to get the Apex suite.

Its a little scary but we only commited to 20 rooms knowing that our guests would need 35 so that way if some backed out or choose to stay else where we were ok. Most guests used the room block because it was a great price and all wanted to stay in the same hotel anyway.
PH let each guest pay the first night deposit when they booked (as any normal customer would do) so we only had to pay any differnce in the deposit they set for us and what they actually collected. Also its not the # of rooms that you fill that they use for the contact its actually the dollar value of the number of rooms so if some of your guest upgrade to suites or stay extra nights that money goes towards your total so if you are a room short the extra money makes up for it.
The lady we are working with is amazing at set our minds at ease over everthing. But before we signed we talked to all the people who said they wanted to come and confimed that they wanted to stay at PH and they were happy with the rate, just to be sure.

aerinpegadrak · February 2010

We didn't bother blocking. I've been directing everyone to smartervegas.com, and so far we have guests at three different hotels. Some people want to splurge a bit and are staying at nicer hotels, some are trying to go as cheap as possible, some are in the middle. There are so many ways to get a good deal on a room in Vegas, I wouldn't bother.

choxie_77 · February 2010

We were going to block rooms at JW Marriott or Red Rock but we decided against both after my fiance looked on priceline.com and expedia.com and saw that hotel and flight packages were a better deal than what the rate would've been had we blocked rooms. We would've been in the same boat if we blocked rooms at Red Rock (being responsible for unused rooms plus the $600 deposit we would have to put down).

Good idea though with the promo codes. But have them check expedia.com & priceline.com too.

mloeks · February 2010

Don't forget to check the hotel's own Web sites. Many of them offer best rate gaurantees and many of the specials you see on smartervegas.com, etc.

aerinpegadrak · February 2010

Most of my family uses Priceline regularly, but I've been warning them away for the wedding. There are a lot of sketchy hotels in Vegas, and I don't want anyone to get stuck in one because they didn't get to choose which hotel before they booked.

NICOLEWILSON85 · February 2010

I reserved a room block through MGM, but it's set up differently than the PH one. Ours will hold the rooms at a discounted rate until a month before our wedding.....and the rooms which are not booked will then go back up for sale to the public. I am not held liable for the cost of the un-booked rooms.

ppenticost · February 2010

Thanks for all the input ladies! Horceez - I talked to our guy today and he was really great and put our minds at ease... we now took Wed off the contract and instead of the 30 rooms we will need, we changed the contract to 20 rooms. I sent out messages to almost all who have verbally RSVP'ed explaining the deal and the ones that got back to me all said that they would book directly through PH instead of going through expedia or the like. There will be great seat sales on flights in the next couple of months too... we can sometimes get return flights from British Columbia to Vegas for about $250 Cdn. I really want the Apex Suite and this is the only way to get it... so wish us luck!! Oh and we have the Panoram for a smoking deal for Thurs, Fri, Sat too

horceez · February 2010

Thats awesome. Its totally worth it for the apex suite.

Have you seen the Apex suite? I have lots of pics from a scouting trip if you need some.

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