Do I HAVE to block rooms?

d2va · February 2014

So, the majority of our guests are local. The people who will be coming from out of town I know will be staying with family.

Am I obligated to do room blocks? OR can I suggest a few hotels in the area on my website and whomever wants to book a room for an evening or two can choose?

Maggie0829 · February 2014

No you don't have to do a room block. It is nice if you can so that way you know for a set period of time that rooms will be available to your guests who may want/need them. But I think providing some hotels around the area that have differing price points is good enough.

photokitty · February 2014

No, you are not obligated. It is a courtesy. I would not do it in your case, unless I could find a hotel that didn't require any minimums or guarantees.

banana468 · February 2014

You don't have to but it's nice if you can. The only times I think the couple really should do them are when many guests need to travel or their event is in a popular destination.

Amyzen83 · February 2014

I'm soooo glad you asked this question because I've been wondering it myself! Based on Maggie's response I'll just list nearby hotels

LondonLisa · February 2014

Blocks aren't required, but a small range of hotels close to your venue is much appreciated. Some hotels will even give you a small discount if you direct your wedding guests there. Call them up and see- I bet your guests would appreciate a lower rate or other benefits like free parking etc.

You may be able to do this without making a reservation block, but you could let your guests know that a special rate is only available if booked before a certain date.

photokitty · February 2014

Or it there is a big event happening in area - sporting event, marathon, festival, etc…then I'd bool a block as well.

futuremrsog15 · February 2014

Also glad this question was asked! I was curios too. My wedding is 15 min. drive away from reception site. Do I list hotels near church and near the reception? Or just near the reception?

Amyzen83 · February 2014

futuremrsog15 said:
Also glad this question was asked! I was curios too. My wedding is 15 min. drive away from reception site. Do I list hotels near church and near the reception? Or just near the reception?

Hmmm I'd be inclined to do both depending on how close the venues are. For mine the church and reception venue are within 5 to 10 min driving distance so I guess it doesn't matter too much. But if I had to pick I'd choose hotels near the reception since that's where most of drinking would be.

thisismynickname2 · February 2014

An additional perspective for anyone curious on the topic, even if many people were local I'd still choose a room block with a shuttle (as budget allows for the happy couple and expected guests). Why? This can allow guests to have more fun imbibing without worry of drunk driving, and even allow non-drinking guests to stay later than they ordinarily would so they don't have to drive home late and tired.

I've booked hotel rooms for local (within an hour's drive) of a wedding simply so that I could have more fun. Different strokes for different folks, but this is nice to have.

antoto · February 2014

thisismynickname said:

An additional perspective for anyone curious on the topic, even if many people were local I'd still choose a room block with a shuttle (as budget allows for the happy couple and expected guests). Why? This can allow guests to have more fun imbibing without worry of drunk driving, and even allow non-drinking guests to stay later than they ordinarily would so they don't have to drive home late and tired.

I've booked hotel rooms for local (within an hour's drive) of a wedding simply so that I could have more fun. Different strokes for different folks, but this is nice to have.

Agreed. I set up a wedding block thinking all of my OOT guests would book them, but most of them ended up staying with my family in town and all of my more party-minded friends IN town booked most of the rooms.

phira · February 2014

I've been going through this dilemma myself. We have mostly local guests, and no hotel directly near the venue, so most people will just drive the extra 20 minutes past any hotel to go home. And most of our out of town guests have mentioned probably staying with friends or family. I figured it was going to be too difficult to find a hotel that would let us have a hotel block that might not even have a single room booked. But I felt like an asshole, since the handful of guests who WOULD find a hotel block helpful are the guests who would really need a reduced rate.

I used HotelPlanner.com to find a hotel that could offer me a reduced rate but didn't need a guarantee that we'd book any rooms (YAY). There were a TON of other benefits this hotel would provide that would be helpful (since these particular guests would need a way to and from the airport, or might need to book just one night instead of two), and we're even considering them for our wedding night because they're offering us a suite at the same rate as the hotel block.

So if you have some free time, the website is free and I found it easy to use. You may still decide not to block rooms, but if you do want to take a look just in case, I recommend it.

MuppetOverlord · February 2014

d2va said:

So, the majority of our guests are local. The people who will be coming from out of town I know will be staying with family.

Am I obligated to do room blocks? OR can I suggest a few hotels in the area on my website and whomever wants to book a room for an evening or two can choose?

I didn't. I was dumb. I mistakenly assumed that there would only be a few people needing rooms. A lot of my guests, though within an hour drive, decided to get a room. Heck, we decided to get one too.

We didn't have people have issues with availability, but if I had arranged a block in advance, I would've been able to negotiate a much better rate for everyone.

Also, from experience, it protects the rooms from other events that you may not be able to anticipate. I've had friends have trouble getting people a place to stay that wasn't $250/night because of conventions or other weddings or even worse...NASCAR races in the area at the time of their weddings.

So, I would do it. Shouldn't cost anything to do.

phira · February 2014

@MuppetOverlord was the hotel in question also the site of the wedding? Or did you have a shuttle from the hotel to the wedding?

I ask because most of our guests are within an hour of our venue, and I'm now wondering if a lot of them will want to book a hotel room. I'm thinking probably not, at least not at the hotel we're planning on blocking rooms at, since it's probably a shorter drive home than to the hotel for most guests.

I'm just curious. The place we're looking at is totally cool about adding rooms to the block if we need them (I love this hotel now), but I'd love to hear more about your hotel situation so I can decide if I might be in the same boat.

syoun1nj · February 2014

My wedding hotel was - for real - 15 minutes from my own home. We had a block though, for OOT guests and people who would be drinking and wanted to shuttle and not drive. Less than I expected took advantage but we felt safer ourselves and for our guests. It's free to block the rooms and sometimes you'll get a free upgrade for yourself (we got a Jacuzzi suite instead of standard room). I highly suggest it.

Gift bags are not a requirement - they're a nice touch if you have room in your budget though! It is nice if you at least have printouts of any schedules, directions, shuttle info, nearby restaurants/shopping if folks are on their own, etc.

MuppetOverlord · February 2014

No. My wedding was about 15 minutes away from the hotel. There was no shuttle from the hotel to the wedding, I didn't ask. It was probably possible because they do have a shuttle that will bring you anywhere within city limits for the most part and this was just outside.

indianaalum · February 2014

futuremrsog15 said:

Also glad this question was asked! I was curios too. My wedding is 15 min. drive away from reception site. Do I list hotels near church and near the reception? Or just near the reception?

I did near reception because people will want to be home faster at the end of the night. Also, sometimes hotels have shuttles to reception halls, but only if they are within so many miles of the hotel. It is something to look into

MrsAitch · February 2014

If it matters, blocking rooms at a hotel was probably the single easiest bit of wedding planning I've done so far, so I don't really see why you would skip it. I called a few places, they all gave me discounted rates, I picked the nicest one, signed the contract and it was done. I didn't have to pay anything and I'm not obligated to pay anything either, and I don't have to cancel any rooms my guests don't book--they will just release all unbooked rooms 3 weeks before the wedding, and will add more rooms if my block fills up and they still have rooms available. I literally just counted the number of out of town couples/families to figure out how many rooms to book and the hotel advised me from there.

It's really, really nice for the guests too. They can stay at a pretty nice hotel for about $30 less per night than the usual cost, and they can have that discount for as much as 5 days before and 5 days after the wedding (which is awesome, because I know some family members who were planning on staying a little longer and making a long weekend of it), AND they're giving all guests in my block a voucher for free breakfast at the hotel restaurant.

We're also having a shuttle, and it wouldn't make sense to do that without a room block. Maybe you could call and see if you could do as small of a block as 5-10 rooms?

mellyD2014 · February 2014

While it's not required, I would also say it would be VERY much appreciated. My FI and I recently were invited to a wedding on memorial day weekend in a MAJOR tourist beach town. The bride and groom did not book rooms and hotels are going at 200-300 per night and the hotels require at minimum a 2-3 night stay because of the holiday. Because they couple didn't think to get something set aside for their guests, we're now faced with $600-900 in hotel bills if we can't find a house to rent with other couples (which could end up being just as expensive) OR we will have to drive the 2 hours between our town and this beach town twice in one day. It's a HUGE inconvenience, and honestly, our gift to them is going to be much smaller because of the cost involved in going. I would really recommend you block some rooms for your guests, especially if there's no cost involved (most hotels won't charge you for unbooked rooms in the block).

d2va · February 2014

My issue with it is that my ceremony / reception is taking place near a very snazzy place in town, and an area where people use some hotels / motels for prostitution ( lol )

I looked at the nearby hotels and they are either $150 + per night or smaller hotels (which I'm nervous about). I emailed my venue to see if they can recommend some nearby hotels. So, I am waiting for them to reach out to me.

Also, providing transportation to and from is just not in budget so yeah.

AshleyP42 · February 2014

It would be worth looking into. Our hotel mandates a 15-room block reservation (no more, no less) but the price drops from $139/night to $99/night as a result. The best part is, we don't pay anything up front and we have until 3 weeks before the wedding to make the room count official. So if we end up just wanting 5 rooms, there is literally NO cost to us as long as we let them know in time. The only "risk" is if someone says they definitely want a room and then decide not to go AND not pay for the reservation they requested.

Our venue is only an hour away from where I (and most of my BMs) live but we're staying in the hotel the night before anyway, as are my FI and his GMs. I'd rather wake up in the right place than worry about some sort of freak traffic issue making us late. Granted I live in an area with awful traffic every day soooo it's more of a concern here than maybe some other places.

d2va · February 2014

Actually upon further research... looks like hotels in the area are 180 ++

Do I HAVE to block rooms?

Re: Do I HAVE to block rooms?

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