Room blocks

Re: Room blocks

• ahyatt87 member

  

  November 2013

  I based it on two factors: 1) the end time of the reception (1:00 am) and 2) how far away guests live. For the guests that live 2 hours away or further, I guessed that they may not want to travel home that evening. In end I estimated that I would need 10 rooms. The hotel I booked with also let me know I can add addtional rooms to the block if needed.
  
  Good luck!
  

  

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• tamarar5 member

  

  November 2013

  Thanks! That seems like a good rule of thumb. Is it normal to look at a few different hotel options? Say a budget place, a place with a pool, a bed and breakfast? Or just stick with one location? Most of the hotels are still 20 miles/30ish minutes from our reception site (small town).

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• misssunshine17 member

  

  November 2013

  I know you said you're not ready yet, but I would do it soon as you never know what else could be going on the weekend of your wedding. There is a very expensive liberal arts school in my area and their parent weekend was the same as my wedding so hotels that were $89 regularly were $299. I never would have thought that would happen. 

  
  

  As for your question, I would maybe do two options. 

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• melbelleup member

  

  November 2013

  I did mine at a year mark. If it's a busy hotel I recommend doing it that far in advanced or more. All of my FI's guests are out of town. Anywhere from 2 1/2 hrs to completely different states. We opted to go with the max block our hotel would let us, which was 30.  We got a various amount of number rooms from thurs-sun with the majority being sat-sun.
  

  

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• Swazzle member

  

  November 2013

  We did our room block about 10 months out. The policy at the hotel we used was we could have them set aside 20 rooms at no charge to us and as that block began to fill up, they would set more aside for us. We ended up having about 40 rooms booked. 

  
  
  

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• MrsAitch member

  

  November 2013

  I literally just went through my guest list and counted the number of couples that I think will probably get a hotel room and then have just been telling the hotels I've talked to that number as an estimate, and they're really helpful with how many they think should be blocked.
  

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• tamarar5 member

  

  November 2013

  Thanks for all the insight! I've worked in the hotel industry for years so knew all the hotel end of room blocking, just not the planning end lol!

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• FutureMrsN3312 member

  

  November 2013

  MrsAitch said:

  I literally just went through my guest list and counted the number of couples that I think will probably get a hotel room and then have just been telling the hotels I've talked to that number as an estimate, and they're really helpful with how many they think should be blocked.
  

  This is what I did too.  So for me that number was 30.  The hotel I booked with recommended I add another 5 just to be safe.  They said once my block was used they couldn't guarantee me any more rooms so I overbooked.  They also aren't charging me for holding the block or for any unused rooms.
  

  

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