Room Blocks

Re: Room Blocks

• labro member

  

  March 2014

  I've blocked 20 rooms each at two hotels. Overkill? Maybe. But with 80% off my guest list coming from out of town I figured I might as well have more rooms available than not. I also did a secondary hotel because the first hotel was more expensive at $99/night so I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a cheaper option for guests who might be on a budget or who want to stay longer than just one night.

  
  

  
  

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• Coalette2013 member

  

  March 2014

  Our wedding is a 3 to 5 hour drive for the majority of guests, so I thought long and hard about the room blocks just as you are. I over thought it. As long as you make the effort and have something available for your guests I think you've done enough. A number of ours have taken advantage of the room block and others have done something different. One group completely booked up a Bed and Breakfast for the weekend.

  
  

  If you are really worried about it, I'd go ahead and set up the additional room block, as long as it's not one of those hotels that is going to charge you for the unused rooms. I did this and it put me at ease.

  
  

  
  

  

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• AprilH81 member

  

  March 2014

  First, make sure that any room block you set up is not GUARANTEED by you.  Most hotels will set up courtesy blocks at a special rate with no obligation to guarantee rooms.

  Second, as long as the less expensive hotel will give you the courtesy block I would do it.  Most of the time 10 rooms are the standard amount for these types.  The hotel will usually honor the group rate if the block fills up as long as there are rooms available. 

  I would set up blocks in both places so your guests have options.  As long as you guys won't be held responsible for unbooked rooms this should be a very low-stress task.

  

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• phira member

  

  March 2014

  We're having a pretty local wedding, but the venue isn't accessible by public transit, we will have some out of town guests, and in general, I don't want to be a rude host and not provide accommodations. So we're making two room blocks; one of them is farther from the venue but accessible to the main city (for people who want to be able to get from the airport to the hotel), and the other is closer to the venue (for people who want to drive only 10 minutes and crash for the night).

  
  

  1) Do not block anywhere that requires any deposit.

  2) Do not block anywhere that requires you book a certain percentage of rooms.

  3) Do not block anywhere that gives you a higher room rate than non-blocked rooms (A THING THAT HAPPENS).

  
  

  Both of our blocks have 10 rooms blocked, and if none of the rooms get booked, we don't pay a thing.

  

  now with ~* INCREASED SASSINESS *~
  
  

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• phira member

  

  March 2014

  I should add that most hotels that let you block rooms with no fee/guaranteed % booked rooms often require or request that guests book a room by a certain time (usually anywhere from 2-3 weeks ahead of time to 6-8 weeks). That way, if the rooms don't get booked, they can offer them to other customers. One of the hotels (a Holiday Inn) that we're blocking rooms at actually said that if there are rooms available and a guest tries to reserve a room after the block expires, the hotel WILL try to honor the original group rate. I thought that was awesome.

  

  now with ~* INCREASED SASSINESS *~
  
  

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• silver0319 member

  

  March 2014

  Ditto everything Phira said.

  
  

  @RedJacks25, do you have the option to add rooms to your block after the 10 are booked?  Our venue automatically blocked off 25 rooms, and we had the option to block off more in groups of 5 after the original block was booked.  

  
  

  
  

  

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• Sugargirl1019 member

  

  March 2014

  Ditto all of the above. We had the option to book whatever number we wanted (say 20) and to add if we found out more guests needed rooms.  

  
  

  HOWEVER, the contract stated that if 75% of those rooms we blocked did not get booked by one month before our date, we would be charged for the remaining unfilled rooms (but they would also be released from the block). SO while we did not owe anything initially, we could POTENTIALLY owe a shit ton if we were over enthusiastic about our guests. 

  
  

  We asked all of our out of town guests (who are very close to us) if they planned on using the hotel at the rate we were given, and then booked what we KNEW would be booked. We can add more if others decide to use the hotel.

        
  

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• phira member

  

  March 2014

  @Sugargirl1019 The 75% of rooms you have to have booked is pretty annoying. I hope that you get enough people booking those rooms!

  

  now with ~* INCREASED SASSINESS *~
  
  

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• emmyg65 member

  

  March 2014

  If your guests are anything like mine, they'll stay at the hotel. Our wedding was only an hour from most of our friends and all but one of them booked a room.

  
  

  Do make sure that you're not on the hook for anything if guests don't book, though.

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• RedJacks25 member

  

  March 2014

  Thank you so much, everyone! This is all extremely helpful.
  
  
  

  

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• AprilH81 member

  

  March 2014

  @redjacks25 Also...  Don't be afraid to ask for breakfast and/or wifi to be included in the rate if it isn't already.  The worst they will say is no and it could bea big help to your guests.

  

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• Sugargirl1019 member

  

  March 2014 edited March 2014

  phira said:

  @Sugargirl1019 The 75% of rooms you have to have booked is pretty annoying. I hope that you get enough people booking those rooms!

  We were allowed to book a small number first and then add as people wanted to book a room - but still - so much potential crap!

        
  

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