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Hotel Room Blocks

alyrey89alyrey89 member
First Anniversary First Comment
in Louisiana-New Orleans
Hello! We're having our wedding at the Degas House on 10/30/15.  I don't really understand room blocks or how to go about them.  Should we get multiple hotels with 80% of our invites going to out of towners (east coast!).  Do you have to pay for rooms that aren't booked in the room block?  Are there hotels we should stay away from in the French Quarter?  I want to make sure all my quests have a reasonably priced place to stay but I don't want to over do it and somehow get screwed over in the long run.  Anyone have advice or experiences they'd like to share?
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Re: Hotel Room Blocks

  • nolabride2015nolabride2015 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Comment
    With as much lead time as you have, I would totally go through Leslie Straughan at the CVB.  It took a little while, but I sent her all my info, and then I got back quotes from over 15 hotels (it was an email, with a proposal, including prices for different types of rooms, etc.).  We ended up putting them all into a spreadsheet to make it easier for ourselves.  

    Most hotels do what they call an "open block", where they agree to hold the rooms at that price until they reach a certain capacity.  A couple of hotels asked us to guarantee a certain number of rooms, but we didn't really want to do that.

    Also, we visited a few hotels when we were in town... I really liked the hotel provincial for being a good, middle-range hotel that was very clean and nice and well-managed - and Margie, who handles the room blocks there, is wonderful.

    We decided to do 3 blocks - one where price was the main consideration, one middle-range, and then one at a higher-end hotel.  We felt like this was a good way to give guests a choice.

    Post if you need any more info - hope this helps!
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  • edenisleedenisle member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    Thank you for the information!  I was wondering the same thing!  I've heard good things about Leslie Straughan, especially when considering travel booklets/maps to go into guest's gift bags.  I'll definitely be contacting her!
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  • nolabride2015nolabride2015 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Comment
    Sure, anytime!  I'd definitely give them some lead time... I think they might have been really busy when I contacted them, but I think it took a couple of weeks before I heard anything, and then another couple of weeks to get the hotel block quotes.  

    Good luck - and I'd love to hear what you find!  :)

    OH and I just thought of something else - the Hotel Storyville is on Esplanade, and has all these cute little suites - kind of like apartments... we decided against it because she was charging more per person than hotels in the FQ, but for you, since it'd be in between the FQ and the Degas House, it might be perfect - and it has a great backyard that you could throw a brunch or another event in, with her permission.  There are a couple of other B&B's on Esplanade you might want to look into - since it might be nice for guests to walk home from your reception...
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  • alyrey89alyrey89 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    Thanks!! Yeah the Degas House actually allows people to stay there too, but I definitely wanted some options in the French Quarter.  I'll email them for sure! Thanks again! These are all the unglamorous wedding planning questions haha
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  • Dot825Dot825 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    I psychotically emailed what felt like every hotel in the quarter.  We secured 10 small (non-guaranteed) blocks at various hotels.  Want to get a laugh?  The majority of our guests are staying at their own hotel locations / renting houses.  So much for that! 
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  • whodatbridewhodatbride member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    It can be very frustrating! Guests don't realize how much work it takes to secure the perfect hotels and get the best deals.
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  • edenisleedenisle member
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    Dot 825...if you don't mind me asking, which hotels did you block?  Just trying to get a list.  I did email Leslie at the CVB and haven't heard anything, but from what I'm hearing, that is normal!
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  • alyrey89alyrey89 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    Just an update.  I did the hard way of blocking rooms and called a ton of hotels (the Jazz fest website has a list of tons of hotels by location with their numbers) I haven't set anything in stone but because our wedding is the same weekend as Halloween and Voodoo Fest we're only seeing blocks for as low as 249.  I was hoping for cheaper but that looks like as low as it's gunna get!
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  • littledarlingnikkilittledarlingnikki member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    My wedding is the 1st weekend of JazzFest so I am running into the same problem.  It's such a headache!  I tried going through the CVB but I wasn't getting great rates so I tried hotelplanner.com and they have been great.  I wish I could've gotten better rates but considering the event weekend I really can't complain.

    Dot825  I KNOW YOUR PAIN!!!!  I have been tirelessly working on this for no joke, 5 mos. to get the best block.  I got 4 decent ones and not one guest has booked a room at any of them!!!! I guess it's time to cancel some of them:(

    Suggest to your guest to also use VRBO. 
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  • Dot825Dot825 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    We did several price points for our guests ranging from $143 (Royal St. Charles) to $359 (The Ritz) before tax.

    Everyone I know who hasn't booked their own place (on vrbo or through airbnb) or at some random hotels are stating at my cheapest (Royal St. Charles) and the Mariott ($209 before tax).  I'm getting married on an "off" weekend in April though.
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