Bed and Breakfast - Rent out all Rooms?

Knottie42790118 · July 2014

Hi All! I'm recently engaged and trying to keep my wedding under a reasonable budget. We visited a beautiful B&B for a potential venue option, where they wanted us to rent out 11 rooms plus the fee of having the ceremony and reception on site. Question- is it standard for us to pick up the tab for those 11 rooms or could we negotiate with the B&B that we would guarantee a certain amount of rooms will be rented?

monkeysip · July 2014

You can offer those rooms out to guests just like you would block hotel rooms at a hotel. Just let your guests know that rooms are available for $X at XYZ bed and breakfast. But, if not all 11 rooms are rented, you may need to pick up the tab for the rest.

[Deleted User] · July 2014

To insure that you have the inn to yourself you would need to rent all of their rooms. Else you would need to allow them to rent any rooms out on a first come first service basis and risk not having all the rooms you want. I can see why the B&B might want you to rent all the rooms because if you have a wedding there, they might not be able to allow other guests the privacy, quiet, or use of all the amenties they would normally have access to. My recommendation is if you have your heart set on having your wedding there you should pay for all the rooms, and you can let your wedding party and/or VIP's know that you there are rooms available at the B&B at a rate of $xx.xx per night. You would just need to work it out with the B&B if they people would need to reimburse you for the cost of the room or if the B&B would be able to take the payment and then credit you for the cost of that room.

theartistformerlyknownas · July 2014

What @monkeysip said. You cannot have guests pay you directly; they'll need to work it out with the B&B. You will have to guarantee them that you will rent all rooms, and just cover the cost of any that your guests don't book themselves.

PrettyGirlLost · July 2014

Knottie42790118 said:

Hi All! I'm recently engaged and trying to keep my wedding under a reasonable budget. We visited a beautiful B&B for a potential venue option, where they wanted us to rent out 11 rooms plus the fee of having the ceremony and reception on site. Question- is it standard for us to pick up the tab for those 11 rooms or could we negotiate with the B&B that we would guarantee a certain amount of rooms will be rented?

My venue is a restored mansion that is a B&B, and it works the same way; We are on the hook for the 13 rooms in the main mansion if no one else chooses to book those rooms for the night of our reception.

This is a know your crowd sort of thing- 90% of FI's half of the guest list is coming from OOT, and expressed an interest in staying at our venue once our STD's went out and they saw the venue on our wedding website. However, FI and I are fully prepared financially to pay for the cost of the rooms ourselves- it was built into our budget from day 1.

So if you choose to book this venue, you need to have the cost of the rooms in your budget. Do not count on your guests to fill the rooms.

southernbelle0915 · July 2014

ditto @monkeysip

I'd also offer these rooms to your VIPs first.

lilacck28 · July 2014

We're going to a wedding like this. I'm sure it will be lovely but... Fiance and I and Fiance's parents are a little resentful of the fact that we were strong armed into booking multipled nights at the inn where the wedding is taking place (strong armed as in told "It would be great if you booked this room that we've reserved for you! You should book a room here and then we have the place to ourselves!"), (ps-fiance and I have to share the room), when we might have (probably) would have been able to secure less expensive rooms that we would not have had to share with anyone.

Obviously, we did book the rooms, and its not THAT big of a deal... but explore your options in venues thoroughly, and don't assume your guests are going to just love that they'll be in this inn. We're doing it because it is family and we want them to be happy. We're still not all that pleased about it.

monkeysip · July 2014

lilacck28 said:

We're going to a wedding like this. I'm sure it will be lovely but... Fiance and I and Fiance's parents are a little resentful of the fact that we were strong armed into booking multipled nights at the inn where the wedding is taking place (strong armed as in told "It would be great if you booked this room that we've reserved for you! You should book a room here and then we have the place to ourselves!"), (ps-fiance and I have to share the room), when we might have (probably) would have been able to secure less expensive rooms that we would not have had to share with anyone.

Obviously, we did book the rooms, and its not THAT big of a deal... but explore your options in venues thoroughly, and don't assume your guests are going to just love that they'll be in this inn. We're doing it because it is family and we want them to be happy. We're still not all that pleased about it.

Yes, definitely don't try and persuade your guests to book these rooms just so you can fill them! Guests should feel free to book anywhere their budget allows, but just offer this as a nice option for them since it's nice to stay at the venue of a wedding (no traveling!).

Wasn't there a thread a while ago where a girl was making her bridal party book rooms like these because she had to fill them or something?

lyndausvi · July 2014

lilacck28 said:

We're going to a wedding like this. I'm sure it will be lovely but... Fiance and I and Fiance's parents are a little resentful of the fact that we were strong armed into booking multipled nights at the inn where the wedding is taking place (strong armed as in told "It would be great if you booked this room that we've reserved for you! You should book a room here and then we have the place to ourselves!"), (ps-fiance and I have to share the room), when we might have (probably) would have been able to secure less expensive rooms that we would not have had to share with anyone.

Obviously, we did book the rooms, and its not THAT big of a deal... but explore your options in venues thoroughly, and don't assume your guests are going to just love that they'll be in this inn. We're doing it because it is family and we want them to be happy. We're still not all that pleased about it.

Oh hell no.

Besides, between DH's drunk snoring and farting the others in the room would be regretting staying with us.

lilacck28 · July 2014

To be fair, the bride asked us if we would mind sharing, and I said "no! Whatever is easiest for you!" because I'm overly accommodating. ETA: and stupid. Except, the rooms are expensive. By splitting the cost of the room at this inn we are paying the same cost of a room by ourselves in a normal Hilton or something.

lyndausvi · July 2014

lilacck28 said:

To be fair, the bride asked us if we would mind sharing, and I said "no! Whatever is easiest for you!" because I'm overly accommodating.

You might want to expand you vocabulary to include the word NO. It's a small word, but can be very powerful and liberating.

lilacck28 · July 2014

Yeah, I think we would have said "we'd rather have our own room" if the rooms weren't so expensive. And it was very clear we were expected to get a room from this inn or else DRAMA. Also, it's fiance's family. So I'm certainly not about to make waves with them if I can help it.

kat1114 · July 2014

OP, I would check to see if time of day makes a difference. We are having our reception at a B&B. We were only required to rent the rooms if we are doing a night reception. If we had opted for an afternoon reception, we weren't required to rent out the rooms.

annathy03 · July 2014

lilacck28 said:

We're going to a wedding like this. I'm sure it will be lovely but... Fiance and I and Fiance's parents are a little resentful of the fact that we were strong armed into booking multipled nights at the inn where the wedding is taking place (strong armed as in told "It would be great if you booked this room that we've reserved for you! You should book a room here and then we have the place to ourselves!"), (ps-fiance and I have to share the room), when we might have (probably) would have been able to secure less expensive rooms that we would not have had to share with anyone.

Obviously, we did book the rooms, and its not THAT big of a deal... but explore your options in venues thoroughly, and don't assume your guests are going to just love that they'll be in this inn. We're doing it because it is family and we want them to be happy. We're still not all that pleased about it.

Yep, one of my friends weddings is on hold b/c they're moving for a new job, but they were planning a DW at a B&B and "We'll be staying in this room on the website. You guys can book X Y or Z room since we have to book the whole place and we obviously can't afford that". I'm less than disappointed it's on hold.

sarahufl · July 2014

We went to a wedding at a B&B a few years ago and it was really annoying. In a small town in BFE Georgia, the B&B rooms were $300-$400 and the Holiday Inn down the street was $99. What ended up happening was the family/friends essentially paid for the wedding because once the rooms were all booked, the ceremony space/rental fee was waived.

Not to mention the cost, it was also just not that nice.

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