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Help! All hotels are sold out a year in advance!

knottie7298ce718b2cdfecknottie7298ce718b2cdfec member
in Destination Weddings Discussions
Hello everyone!

We're a year (minus a week) out from our destination wedding in Sonoma, CA on 10/10/2020. Most hotel vendors were not open for these dates until last week and now they are all sold out! What do I do? Since it's a destination wedding for us, most of our guests will be coming in from out of town. Has anyone dealt with this before? If so, how did you overcome it?

Any advice would be SO greatly appreciated!
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Re: Help! All hotels are sold out a year in advance!

  • charlotte989875charlotte989875 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    I would contact all the hotels directly and see if they have any rooms available for a room block. Is there an event or reason why they’re all booked already? 

    If they really are completely full I would recommend looking into AirBnbs, home rentals, VBRO, etc. How many people do you have flying in for your wedding? If there is no place to stay you may want to look into a different weekend, or hotels outside of the area and providing transportation to and from the venue. 
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  • charlotte989875charlotte989875 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    knottie7298ce718b2cdfec said:
    Hello everyone!

    We're a year (minus a week) out from our destination wedding in Sonoma, CA on 10/10/2020. Most hotel vendors were not open for these dates until last week and now they are all sold out! What do I do? Since it's a destination wedding for us, most of our guests will be coming in from out of town. Has anyone dealt with this before? If so, how did you overcome it?

    Any advice would be SO greatly appreciated!

    Report Reply
  • maine7mobmaine7mob member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    It's not clear from your post whether you have booked a venue and just need accommodations for your guests, or if you have just picked a city and date, and now have no place to hold your wedding. If it's the former, definitely have the guests you intend to invite start booking AirBnb, etc. now. There are places besides hotels and inns to stay, although they may be far from your location and will cost a lot. That is an expensive area. We once waited too long to book a trip to visit my MIL, who lives in Sonoma, and ended up staying in an overpriced place in Petaluma. It wasn't bad, but your guests may not be as close to the wedding venue as they like, and there will be traffic to deal with. From spring through the grape harvest, there is lots and lots of traffic, so make sure your guests know.

    If you do have your venue, call them ASAP and ask what they'd recommend for your guests. Cancellations happen.

    But if you have not booked your venue yet, then you will need to find another place to get married, or choose another date. October is super busy in wine country.
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  • MobKazMobKaz member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    maine7mob said:
    It's not clear from your post whether you have booked a venue and just need accommodations for your guests, or if you have just picked a city and date, and now have no place to hold your wedding. If it's the former, definitely have the guests you intend to invite start booking AirBnb, etc. now. There are places besides hotels and inns to stay, although they may be far from your location and will cost a lot. That is an expensive area. We once waited too long to book a trip to visit my MIL, who lives in Sonoma, and ended up staying in an overpriced place in Petaluma. It wasn't bad, but your guests may not be as close to the wedding venue as they like, and there will be traffic to deal with. From spring through the grape harvest, there is lots and lots of traffic, so make sure your guests know.

    If you do have your venue, call them ASAP and ask what they'd recommend for your guests. Cancellations happen.

    But if you have not booked your venue yet, then you will need to find another place to get married, or choose another date. October is super busy in wine country.
    I am guessing that a semi "gimmicky" date that falls on a weekend is also impacting this issue.  10 + 10 = 20/20
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  • MesmrEweMesmrEwe member
    First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited October 2019
    FWIW - There are other wine themed DW locations across the globe.  Sonoma is always insane when it comes to booking rooms regardless of the date.  Most of all, yes, this is an easy to remember date, so will be busy, but then so is October in Wine Country!  

    If you've not already booked your venue, given this information, go ahead and find someplace else, people will understand "We wanted to book Sonoma but there were exactly zero hotels a year out for anyone to stay!"
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  • MyNameIsNotMyNameIsNot member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    Don't rely on what websites and booking sites say. Call the hotels. It's possible that they are all blocked for event blocks this far out, but it's also possible that they have rooms that they simply haven't released yet. If you call and ask about blocks, you may be able to get a block that has enough rooms for your guest list. 
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