Our venue is a restored mansion that has a hotel on the grounds. When we put down our deposit, we essentially reserved the whole venue (including the hotel rooms) for our entire wedding weekend. The venue hotel can accommodate around 110-125 people depending on how many guests are in each room. The room prices range from $150-$200, which is a special rate.
We invited 165 people, so we began looking for additional hotel blocks in the area for the guests that could not stay on-site. The problem is that our wedding falls on the opening weekend of a big local tourist attraction, so the prices of the hotel blocks we are able to find are upwards of $250, with a majority of them over $300. The hotels we contacted also require the rooms be booked at least two months in advance, or else the rooms in the block would be released.
So I'm kind of at a loss for what to do. We can:
(a) Keep the expensive room block, send invites out at 10-12 weeks (much earlier than I wanted to) and emphasize that guests should reserve their rooms ASAP
(b) Find cheaper hotel blocks at places that don't have great reviews/were not recommended by the folks at my venue
(c) Not get any hotel blocks but give guests a heads up about booking soon and offering recommendations
(d) Stop worrying about it because guests are adults and can figure this kind of thing out on their own
Note- our STDs already went out, so the only interim option to communicate with guests before invitations is by word of mouth or on our wedding website.
As an aside, it's always a good idea to look into these things before you decide on your date to make things cheaper and easier for your guests. Unfortunately, the schedule for this attraction was not finalized until this month, so we couldn't have really avoided it unless we didn't reserve the venue for the "high season" in the area.