Blocked room rate question and welcome bags alternative

We were given 20 rooms blocked with the option of more if we need it. If there are unused rooms we will not be charged for it.

We are having 40 rooms blocked at our hotel guests have the rate of $90 we don't get billed if rooms are not used. We get the bridal sweet with whirlpool for free night of wedding but I booked for night before as well for special discounted price.

We are being given 20 rooms initially and more as those fill up, our rate was $99 at a Hilton here in Tampa - we didn't have to have a contact or money down or anything for rooms not booked.

We have 30 blocked rooms. They will be released 1 month prior, anything not used, will NOT be chagred to us. I found some hotels that did want to make us pay, and i refused to work with them.

As for welcome bags I'm not planning on doing that. Everyone is getting a free meal with an open bar, not sure that we owe any more.

Call the hotel and ask any questions you can think of. thats what i did before signing.

we went with an option that offered a hotel shuttle to the reception and back to stop some of the potential drunk driving. they are also including a private farewell breakfast buffet.

They said that they will take care of assembling and distributing them to the guests.

Typically, wedding room blocks do not have an attrition clause, like corporate event room blocks. You just want to check the language to make sure there is not attrition rate (i.e. you must meet 80% of the room block requested or pay the difference).

For welcome baskets/boxes, check to see if your hotel will provide the service at check-in, free of charge. Many will do this, but will charge an additional fee to deliver them to rooms.

Hotels are different. Some that we spoke with required us to guarantee a certain number. You're then obligated to pay if they aren't all booked. As for the welcome bags, can you ask the hotel if they can give them out at the front desk instead of delivering them to the rooms to save the fee.

We blocked 10-20 rooms at 3 seperate hotels to give our guests budget options ($65, $89, or $119). All have rooms blocked up to 30 days out. The Hilton property did say if we didn't meet the 10 blocked they reserve the right to change the rate. No "contract" per se but we did sign an agreement on the rate and terms.

gift bags- we aren't doing mainly because number needed and costs. I have seen some cute ones done with custom wine bottles and local snacks. (Example - VA peanuts and VA wine)

We did blocks at two hotels the Hilton at $72 night...what a deal! We also blocked a Marriot in the heart of Atlanta for $119 night. No charge for rooms not booked. We are leaving our welcome bags at the front desk and there is no additional charge to hand them out when our guests check in. Don't pay for delivery.

Unless you are working with just one option in your city, I would negotiate so that you aren't on the hook for any unused rooms or delivery fees. Be clear that you're looking around: "We like this hotel option for our guests, but we also need to be responsible for our budget and are wondering if you could waive X requirement. Y hotel down the street doesn't have a requirement like that, and this would make our decision easier." I mean, they are getting free advertising and business out of the deal, so it's not unreasonable to ask them to relax some requirements, especially if it isn't a particularly busy time of year (i.e., your wedding is the same weekend of a big festival in your city).

I have to pay if I don't fill 80% of the rooms I booked I pay for the remainder, it's all in the contract, don't sign it if you're uncomfortable with it. I booked 20 rooms and I'm inviting 106 guests and there's no way I'm paying for unbooked rooms because I point blank reserved 20 to keep it safe

Each hotel has different policies regarding room blocks. For my destination wedding the hotel held our rooms at a certain rate till 45 days before the wedding. Whatever rooms weren't booked by that time were opened up to everyone and the price was no longer locked at the lower rate. I didn't have to pay anything if the booked or didn't do so.

As for welcome bags I just got some medium sized craft paper bags and filled them with mexican candy and had caligraphy on them that said Gracias. I also included a print out with local attractions and the time/location of our ceremony. My hotel delivered them to the rooms for free on the day the guests checked in.

Wow, I am so jealous of these hotel block rates!!!

We got a room block at the hotel where we're having our reception. It is a destination wedding so all of our guests will be traveling for the occasion and the hotel only gave us 10 rooms. They said we could request additional rooms once those were sold, and we've had to do so twice already. The block rate is $189/night and that's the best rate in town. I feel kinda cheated seeing as how most of you got 30+ rooms in your block initially. But oh well. The hotel has been very responsive with our requests for more rooms so I won't complain. We aren't under any financial obligation for the block though.

And we're not doing welcome bags either. That's basically another "wedding favor" since it'd go to everyone traveling in and that's just an unnecessary expense.

We booked the Marriott hotel in Atlanta @104 a night...blocked off about 40 rooms, we won't be charged for rooms not used (which I doubt we will have any left) but they will add more if needed..they are providing us with a free shuttle bus for the weekend (we are not the fat from Atlantic station so the guest can use the shuttle to go back and forth there and we will have it for the wedding. We get the bridal site for free for 2 night day before and day of. Use of their conference room for our meet and greet and they will pass out the welcome bags as the guest arrive....We couldn't beat that....

You guys have it good. Our resort is $414/night if you stay a week. It goes down if you are not on the adults-only side.

We are doing really nice welcome bags because everyone is spending so much to be with us on our day.

Wow our rate is high.... our rate is $129 for a courtyard marriott in a suburb of Cleveland we could only reserve 15 rooms and to have welcome bags created and delivered was $6 so we passed on it.