Are room blocks necessary?

I would say the room block is up to you, depends a lot on whether people are coming from out of town or not, time of day etc. The STDs I would say is a good Idea even if you have the room block to let the people know where to stay so they can budget that into their travel plans.

You should do STD regardless of if you get rooms blocked or not. On your wedding website you can just have a list of suggested hotels for guests. I don't think it's the end of the world in a city to not have rooms blocked if it's not possible. But it's always nice when guests can get that discount

I don't think they're a must have, especially in Philly where there are tons of options. Ours is taking place in South Jersey, so we couldn't actually secure a "block" either because it's still considered busy season. So we're just making a few suggestions in the area of reasonably priced hotels, and providing transportation to and from there, and letting that be that. If people want to do something else, they are free to do so! We did send STDs, but that's also because most are OOT

We didn't do room blocks but did send save the dates. Ours was in January right after holidays so we wanted to make sure people had a heads up on when our date was. If you have a lot of OOT guests, I would still send save the dates so they can make hotel reservations on their own early.

I think for some cases it is necessary. We have a lot of guests coming from out of town and there is a hotel down the block. I want guests there so they don't have to drive after the reception. If it's easy to find close hotels I con't think it's necessary.

I did a STD and put the wedding website. We already have a bunch of rooms booked before invites were sent out.

We did them because 1. Cheaper rooms for our guests (we got a great deal!) 2. Free transportation! There will be a shuttle for our guests back and fourth. And we got an upgraded room for free since we did a block. From what I've heard from all the hotels i called before the decision was made they had up until 1 month before the wedding to book. I did it before the STD's and just included the info on our website. No one booked until a few weeks ago when they got the info with the invitations.

I would do STD's because it sounds like you have OOT guests if they need to get hotels it's nice to have a heads up of when or where.

On our STD's we just listed:

Jack and Jill are getting married!

Sept 26, 2015 in Philadelphia, PA

www.website.com

On our website we had one preferred hotel where we had a block of 20 rooms. We listed 3 other area hotels of varying price ranges (really cheap $70 a night up to $220 a night. Our room blocks were $120 a night).

The nice thing about a room block is you often get a deal. A room at our hotel normally was $149 a night and we got a special rate of $120 a night.

We didn't do a room block because none of the hotels near our venue offered courtesy blocks either. And some of the "discounts" offered as part of the room blocks wasn't much of a discount (the AAA and AARP discounts for 2 hotels we looked at were $30-40 less than the room block rate). Instead, we offered a list of hotels at various price points on our wedding website and stated we did not book a room block and which hotel we'll be staying at. Our wedding website was listed on our STD's.

We're doing room blocks for a few reasons.

1. Our venue is in a nice area and so are the hotels we blocked, but there's a fairly sketchy area right around the interstate and our guests wouldn't know that otherwise.

2. The block allows guests to actually stay in a block of rooms, rather than on various floors in random places.

3. It's a good deal for the guests, and we get a whirlpool suite for free if 10 nights are booked, which will be easy since we have OOT guests staying for 2 or 3 nights.

Ours is a courtesy block so I'm not sure I would have done it otherwise, but it'll be nice to have the wedding party and family all together and not pay for our suite on the wedding night!

No and No. Unless you're getting married on homecoming weekend for Penn State or in the host city for the Superbowl.

STD's lock you into a guest list far before you know what your costs are going to be, and any adult who has left the house knows how to book a hotel.

Don't make this your issue. Because it's not.

We didn't do room blocks. I put surrounding hotels on our wedding website for suggestions.

I think it puts unneeded stress on you. Adults can get their own rooms.

Our guest list is mostly local. Maybe 20% OOT, but some local guest will stay downtown overnight too. If we can find a courtesy block we'll do it, but possibly being on the hook for empty hotel rooms makes me way too uncomfortable. If we don't have a block we'd list the 5 or so closest hotels on our website. They're all walking distance so transportation isn't necessary.

We weren't going to send STDs, but I don't know if people need to book hotels more than 8 weeks in advance if there no block...

S&P - You could just send your invitations a little on the earlier side?

Creating a room block is such a simple process that I think it is an easy extra courtesy to extend to your guests, especially if they are not from the area. I would at least do some heavy research before giving up on it all together.

If you can get a room block w/out recourse (meaning you don't HAVE to fulfill them) they I would say 100% do it. Adults are also capable of RSVPing but I think we all see that isn't always the case. I would hate if my guests waited until the last minute, couldn't get a room and possibly had to skip the wedding.

I don't want to send them too early, but maybe 10 weeks out.

@Jeanne we're not giving up yet, I send him a list of 4 or 5 more hotels to call today to see if they offer courtesy blocks

I think its nice if you can do it. Plus most places give you a bit of a deal. Our room blocks were $30 cheaper than their normal rate. But if you are in an area that people know, listing them on your website is just as easy.

STDs aren't necessary. But there really isn't another way to get your website and the information out to people. You could do something simple, no pictures.

None close do courtesy blocks? That's crazy. We used the Hilton (formerly Hyatt) at Penns Landing, so if they have another location closer to your venue, try them.

@Elyse he's only talk to one (Double Tree) so far so I might be unnecessarily coming up with a back up plan. The Double Tree is actually by Hilton though and they don't do courtesy blocks :/

I just looked it up and it's block rate from them is the same as the regular rate on their website and it's actually cheaper to book through hotels.com sooooo wtf