Help! Reserving Hotel Blocks

Re: Help! Reserving Hotel Blocks

• Maggie0829 member

  

  August 2014 edited August 2014

  Well if the hotels have no problem letting you block rooms this far out then I don't see why you shouldn't. As for how many rooms to block, maybe 30 would be good. You figure that most likely there will be 2 guests per room (more if it is a family) and you want to have a few extras for any local guests who want to stay overnight instead of driving home. ETA: Keep an eye on your room blocks and when you see them getting low ask the hotel to add a few more rooms if they are available.

  
  

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• southernbelle0915 mod

  

  August 2014

  You can try, but some hotels won't have their rates set until the start of the calendar year. However it doesn't hurt to call them now and ask.

  
  

  There are two main types of room blocks:

  
  

  1) A courtesy block - it's usually about 10 rooms guaranteed and then once those are full, additional guests booking under your name can get the enhanced rate - IF rooms are available. Pros: you're not locked in to filling a certain number of rooms; it's free. Cons: rooms may not be available

  2) A normal room block - You block as many rooms as you want and then you're usually responsible for filling a certain percent of the rooms. If you don't fill that percent, you have to pay the difference. So say you block 20 rooms and the contract says you're responsible for filling 80%. You only fill 14 rooms. You'd be responsible for paying for those 2 extra rooms - whether people stay in them or not.

  
  

  We did courtesy blocks at 3 different hotels. This also allowed us to get out of needing to sign any binding contracts with the hotels and guests had options.

  
  

  Also, if you're sending Save the Dates, you may want to provide your website and make a note so people know that they'll need to book early because of the boat show.

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• PineapplePopsicles member

  

  August 2014

  It seems a bit early, but you can certainly try!

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• caitlinmca member

  

  August 2014

  Our wedding is April 25th, 2015, and I had started calling January-March 2014 to set up my hotel block, most hotels could not begin my block as their system did not go out that far, however, they were able to give me pricing as each year on the weekend that we are having our wedding is a big soccer tournament thus the pricing for that weekend is normally the same. Most told me to call back around May-June and sadly, I forgot and waited until June-July and most hotels around my area were completely blocked or almost filled.
  
  I was able to get 2 hotel blocks for our April '15 wedding that the block is good until March '15 and April '15.
  
  I would at least try, there is no harm in trying to start early.
  

  

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• silver0319 member

  

  August 2014

  It will vary from hotel to hotel, but you won't know unless you call. I got married at a ski and golf resort, and signed my venue contract 14 months in advance.  They blocked off rooms right away.  I called another hotel nearby to block off rooms, and they weren't booking that far out yet.  They told me to call 11 months prior to set up the block.  

  
  

  Both hotels released rooms a month prior to the wedding, as per their policies for room blocks. 

  

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• ashleyep member

  

  August 2014

   We blocked our rooms basically a year to the day of our wedding. I'm not sure if we could have done any sooner.
  
  My advice would be to block more than you think you need. We blocked 10-15 rooms to start and were told we could add more later. Well when "later" happened, there was another wedding blocked by then and they gave me a hard time about adding more rooms.
  

  

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