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Tell me what you think... Hotel Block

dsimone43dsimone43 member
First Anniversary First Comment
in New Jersey
So I contacted the hotel we blocked rooms with to find out how we were doing on space. She told me the numbers and I asked our contact person if she could be in touch with me when the number of rooms left in our block were really low. Her response was that I could check in with her weekly and she is sure that our guests will let us know when the room rate is no longer available.  This is not the original person I blocked the rooms with... our original person said she would do us the service of letting us know when the rooms are low.

So my question.... am I just really stressing in these last few months feeling like I am doing everything?  Or should our hotel be in touch with us when the room block is low? What is their responsibility here?
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Re: Tell me what you think... Hotel Block

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    buttrflyahbuttrflyah member
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    edited July 2012

    Personally I'd be annoyed too, especially if they had told you from the start that they'd do the courtesy of keeping track for you.  Is the person you originally worked with still working there?  If so, I'd reach out to them directly and address your concern.  If they're still giving you the runaround then express your disappointed but move on. 

    But - with that being said, I wouldn't waste your energy stressing over this.  Set a reminder for yourself to call once a week.  There are much bigger things to be worrying about.  I think that this is just more of a PIA than anything!

    Keep calm and carry on :)  That's what I keep telling myself!

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    sgdc2011sgdc2011 member
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    Just call, it takes 2 minutes out of your day.
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    cutiepie12702cutiepie12702
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    I also had to follow-up myself to check to see how close our block was to being full. After invites were sent out I'd check about once a week, until the last two weeks before the deadline to book - then I kept checking almost daily or at least every other day to make sure it wasn't full. Once it was almost full and I told them I knew for sure I had more people booking that same day and needed extra rooms they opened up an additional block for me. It wasn't that big of a deal, I'd just send an email and they would respond very quickly with an updated list for me.

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    dsimone43dsimone43 member
    First Anniversary First Comment

    I'm aware of how long the call would take... but I was wondering if this is something that other people had to do.  It just seems it would be in the job description of the sales manager.  Thanks for the helpful feedback!. buttrflyah, you hit the nail right on the head...  it is just a PIA!

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    FrenchieSRFrenchieSR
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    We are 2 and 1/2 weeks away and I do call regularly especially next week when I am going to make the room bag.
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    stk29251stk29251 member
    First Comment First Anniversary
    Check in every once and a while. They won't out of the kindess of their heart add more blocks if you don't ask them to because they will make less money. Its a pain but a call and reminder to your guest can't hurt either. Good luck!
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    First Comment
    edited July 2012
    The hotel was a very stressful part of our wedding planning (married 3 1/2 weeks already).  I only blocked out 15 rooms - my first mistake.  When I called them to find out who booked rooms (about 1 1/2 mths out) I found out I was almost at 15 already, so I emailed my hotel rep & mentioned that I think we should probably add more, well he never responded to my email.  I called again a day or two later only to find that he was no longer working there.  I spoke with the front desk & they told me that the hotel was totally booked at the moment because 2 other brides had room blocks there also.  This made me so nervous since I got a lot more guests saying they wanted to stay so they didn't have to worry about drinking & driving.  I got a call back from the new room block person & she was able to tell me if the other room blocks were booked up or not.  She told me she felt comfortable telling me that there should be more rooms opening up on the 23rd of May (1 mth from our wedding date).  Luckily there was.  I ended up with 24 rooms being booked.  It is better to add more rooms now than wait until last minute, unless they charge you for the unused rooms of course.  My hotel does not charge you for blocking rooms that don't get booked.   I suggest staying on top of them & if you are finding guests telling you they plan on staying & you need more rooms, add them now before too late.  Good luck, I am sure it will all work out like my wedding day did!
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    dsimone43dsimone43 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    I'm finding this to be one of the most stressful parts too.  If the people you book the room block through are not going to be helpful and are not willing to keep up on the size of the block so you can rebook... then why can't i just create these room blocks online and manage it myself. 

    Also, my hotel just told me that the hotel will "most likely" be booked at that time, so we "probably" wouldn't be able to block more rooms.  Are you kidding? 
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
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    Are there other wedding blocks or is there a convention or something like that going on that weekend? I hope it works out for you too. It definitely was the most stressful for me since we hired the shuttle limo too they only had one larger shuttle limo left. I chose to upgrade my shuttle after she told me that she felt comfortable that more rooms would open up
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    sgdc2011sgdc2011 member
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    We called once a week up until about 3 weeks before we set the deadline and then called everyday, sometime we would get calls from guests saying it was full.  You have to realize that they might sell out of 1 type of room, let's say a king bed, you might just have to up that.  There were 5 other groups during the same weekend as us, so we made sure we were on top of things.
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    dsimone43dsimone43 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    Thanks again for the feedback, everyone.  10/6 seems like a very busy weekend around Jersey City. We blocked rooms at another hotel just in case.  We will keep calling the hotels and I guess that's all we can do.  And hope for the best! 
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