Asking guests if they want to be in our hotel block

We just posted about it on our website. We also refused any clause that required we food the bill...It's too scary to know you could be left with a surprise $2,400

You can’t require anyone to stay anywhere unless you are paying for them. All you can do is let them know the rooms are available. I would personally just book at another hote where you aren’t stuck with the bill if the block isn’t filled

We live in/are getting married in an area where hotel rooms are $300+ a night and hotels here don’t do courtesy blocks. Our wedding planner told us to not do a block where we are financially responsible so we did a rate agreement with one hotel and are listing a bunch of other options on our website. Room blocks are convenient but aren’t always possible and I think letting adults figure out a place to stay on their own is fine.

I wouldn't do a non courtesy block because people change their minds all the time. I would not want to have a bill later on

I'm mainly just trying to figure out how to politely ask guests if they're interested in staying at this hotel (so that I can figure out in advance if we can fill ten rooms). I definitely wouldn't require them to stay there; I'm just not sure how to approach the conversation with people.

On principle, I almost want to tell the hotel that we're planning to take our business for hotel rooms elsewhere because of their unreasonable policies, but since I know a few people really want to stay there, I'd love that option to be available without forcing them to stay two nights. If we weren't having our wedding there, we wouldn't even consider it.

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That's a good point-even if we got people to tell us they were staying there, they might change their minds.

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I really like the idea of a rate agreement. I'm not sure if they'll go for it (the room portion of this hotel seems extremely unflexible) but it won't hurt to ask.

So I’m going through a similar thing. Our venue has a B&B with 5 rooms (between 2-300 a night with 2 night minimum) and we paid up front to get a discount. I also booked a courtesy block at a cheaper hotel 20 minutes away too since we will have a lot of OOT guests. I just let closest family and WP know about the rooms at the Inn and let them know it’s an option.

However with 10 rooms - that is a higher risk. I would just ask casually if it was something people would want to do and if u get the numbers then book it.

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Kathryn, the hotels 2 night minimum policy isn't unreasonable. Most guests book a room for 2 or more nights. Weekends are the most popular dates. If someone needs a room for Friday and Saturday, but the hotel can't help them because your blocks 10 rooms are only available on Saturday, the hotel will lose $3000. I don't know what "principle" you're feeling moved by, you can't be upset that a business isn't willing to sacrifice a full day of income on those rooms for your convenience.

I have a room block that’s in your price range... originally I only blocked 10 rooms. They filled in a day, so I added 10, they were gone in a week, then I added 15 and they were gone in a week. So we filled about 35 rooms in three weeks... I was surprised.

We are 10 days out and we’ve only had 1 person cancel their room (actually I didn’t let them cancel, I just transferred the room to another wedding guest who didn’t get in on the discount rate at the hotel). And 10 days out, the hotel wants $500/night to book their best available rate... so the $300 rate looks really good now!

we have a small wedding- 115, and maybe we just have great friends (which we do), but no one complained about the cost of the hotel, people were willing to book, and they aren’t canceling!

The thing I'm finding unreasonable is that they're unwilling to work with me here even though I'm already paying over 10K for the venue rental and catering; I've asked if they can just keep the rooms until late April (two months before my wedding date) and then release the rooms to the public or in some other way prevent us from having to foot the bill but they've refused.

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That makes me feel better! Our wedding is probably half the size of yours, but hopefully at least 10 people will book.