Block of rooms? Huh? Hotel nonsense.

Maybe contact the out of town guests you know are going to come and ask them? It doesn't hurt... Most people want to vouch for themselves...

Perhaps just contact one or two hotels and put the details and prices on your wedding website.

I am pretty sure that most people will be staying in a hotel for our wedding even though we are only like 45 minutes away from where most of our guests live. I haven't blocked out any hotel rooms, just put a heap of suggestions on our website so people can check out prices, hotels close by etc.

If you want to have a look: www.weddingwire.com/adamandcaseybray

It there are that few guests, I'd let them deal with it.

It usually only results in a little group discount for your guests, but most people can usually get a discount by booking early or using AAA discount. They will usually hold a block of rooms (but I think you need to have a certain minimum sometimes) for a certain time period at the discounted rate, but as the date gets closer and rooms are left unbooked they usually release the unbooked rooms so they can be booked by others.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it in your case. You might suggest some hotels on your wedding website that have good ratings and affordable prices.

I looked into 2 hotels, and here's the lowdown. Basically you can call dibs on a bunch of rooms in a hotel for a couple reasons: 1) you are providing a recommendation of somewhere nice to people unfamiliar with the area, 2) your out of towners are guaranteed a room even if the rest book up, and 3) sometimes there is a discount involved.

One hotel I looked at said they would reserve up to 5 rooms for 2 night stays, and they would need to hold the rooms on a credit card. That was NOT what we wanted to do. The second hotel, which we signed a contract with, said they could offer 10 rooms for 1 night, and a smaller number for 2 night stays, at a discounted price (about $15 to $20 off the regular per night price). They said guests just mention our last names when they reserve. One month before the wedding all unreserved rooms will be released, and guests will then be on their own to find accommodations. It's a suggestion, not mandatory, and can make the process easier on guests.

We blocked off rooms it gave our guest a discount they do have to book by 9/11 that is the only problem.

We were dealing with this today. It was a huge hassle though, because they would offer free perks that didn't make sense or would have fine print that said you were liable if your guests didn't book all of the rooms. Make sure you get a contract and read ALL of the fine print! Also, price-check the "discount" rates given in the contract with expedia/priceline/etc. One of the hotels had the audacity to give us a rate $10 more than the going rate! With laughable perks such as free breakfast (breakfast is always free in that chain) etc. Check to see what comp rooms, shuttle service, etc. you get with each booking as well

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh ok I see, I need to talk to FH and possibly call the out of towners and see if they want us to do that or not.. Thanks so much guys!!

We did that for ours. We have a block of rooms reserved at one hotel with a discount. Guests must make their reservations at that hotel, and let them know they are with our wedding by a month before, or else the block gets released to general reservations. We didn't have to put any money down.

The Luckiest, I think your explanation helped me the most! I have been wondering the same, since we are doing much of everything on our own...

I'm coming so close to having a small breakdown

We called a family ran suites motel. We asked them for a special price for our guests. They give us a price and did not limit us to an amount of rooms or a book by date. They said if we book the whole place thats fine they will honor the price. If we book one room that is fine also.

Most people say they had to have at least 10 rooms booked to get the special rate. Or they would only let you book up to 10 rooms to have that same rate, this left people needing to get more than one motel.

We used hotelPlanner.com you fill out your area and some things you want in the hotel and any area hotels can send a bid/package of their best offer. We found a hotel that blocked 15 rooms for 2 nights at a discounted rate and would hold the block upto two weeks before the wedding (then they got released back to the public) and as a bonus we get a free room if ten rooms get booked.

We did this for multiple reasons.....We are getting married where WE live. Both of our families live out of town. so, most will need rooms.

Our venue had a list of a couple in the area that they like and the extra bonus is that the hotel provides a free shuttle to the venue. As we have a few older guests, it will DEFINATELY make it much easier on both them and us.

There is a discount for the guests and with so many rooms, we will get a free room as well.

The other reason we decided on that hotel, when we were talking with him, he let us know that there will be one of the largest soccer tournaments in the area and that it would be very difficult to find anything.

We moved our date for that reason and he got our business.

We just did a huge block of rooms as our is out of town for everyone. It was as simple as saying approximately how many rooms would be reserved eventually and then giving our names for them to reserve under. It doesn't cost anything but gives a discount to the guests. The only problem is if the hotel fills up my guests are out of luck so we are sending the name of the hotel to everyone this week with the low down and they can make the choice to reserve if they want to.

Hope this helps

We were going to do this, and I looked into a few to let my guests know about it - most are coming from out of town and are staying anywhere from 3-6 nights. NONE of my guests could agree on a place to stay...there are a lot of options in the Scottsdale area, and everyone had a different idea of what they wanted, from budget motel to high-end resort. We scrapped the whole plan and let them make their own reservations.

We blocked rooms because the wedding is where FH and I live - nearly everyone is coming about an hour. If it is only a few people, I would let them deal with it.

But basically you set it up with the hotel and you do not pay anything. Some hotels, such as mine, will require you to pay a percentage of rooms that do not get filled (my wedding is on opening day of a state fair so the hotel is usually full). It sounds a lot more confusing than it is

Ask what the discounted price is....some hotels near us quoted us a discounted price that was actually HIGHER than the rate I found booking online, and some wanted us to reserve the rooms ourselves with a credit card and we'd be billed for any rooms that were not reserved and used by guests....just do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions...for some chains the block is a crock..

A room block is when you reserve a number of rooms at a hotel for out of town wedding guests. The main reason you do this is that hotels will give a discount when all the rooms are blocked at one hotel. Room blocks are nice because sometimes the hotel will give you a free room with 10 rooms booked. So you can get your room for free.

Plus, wedding guests tend to like to stay with other guests so they can hang out.

There are 2 types of reservations you can make for blocks...

1) you get a group rate and the hotel holds it for you up to 3-4 weeks of your event, while your guests book for that rate... afterward the rate discount is over

2) you get a group rate you have to guarantee 80% of the rooms... meaning that you will be responsible for unused rooms.

Its better to get the first kind (courtesy room block). For lack of space, here is link to article: http://grouptravel.org/wedding/what-is-a-courtesy-room-block-do-i-need-one-for-wedding-guests