Did You Double Check Your Hotel Room Block??

You just reminded me to send in the room block contract. Thank you!

I actually made reservations for my aunt so I know our block is set up. Of course one of my cousins called to reserve a room and was quoted a higher rate. I told her to call back and mention the wedding and of course she was then quoted the wedding block rate. In addition you may want to check periodically to see if rooms are still available as often the hotel will only increase the number of rooms available if the bride or groom request it.

I deal with one person who periodically sends me a spreadsheet of the reservations. Unfortunately our block is full and I asked for more rooms (we've already upped it once) and I haven't heard back from her. Think I'll have to check again.

I didn't. Never even occurred to me since my peeps reserved their own rooms. I wasn't beholden to anything if they didn't get filled up.

We only have 15 rooms blocked so I'm hoping that's enough. We're only inviting 70 people and expect/want 60 ppl to attend. Karen, thanks for mentioning the spreadsheet. I'm gonna ask for those periodically so I'll have an idea of where things stand. I'm so glad I double checked the room block today. I was so frustrated when I found out it wasn't set up. I'd hate for my guests to go through that frustration. And I need to book our room now that I'm thinking about it!

I haven't done that yet... yikes. I really don't know what booking a block entails. Can someone break it down down for me]? What are our responsibilities financially if not enough people book.

FutureMrsRichards, generally you're not responsible for rooms if people don't book. Guests have a deadline by which they need to book their rooms or the rooms fall off the block. Work with someone in group sales at your hotel on the room block and ask them what the financial obligations are just to be sure.

Oh boy I have to do this, especially where I am getting married near Salem, Massachusetts 2 weeks before Halloween! It is a zoo in that area the entire month of October. Thanks for the reminder.

If you're doing room blocks, the hotel also really appreciates you communicating and checking back with them periodically. I worked at a ritzy hotel summers during college and we did a lot of destination weddings. The brides that communicated were the best!

Good reminder. My "book by" dates had come and gone. One hotel is fabulous, the other is about like pulling teeth to get a guest list out of them (for welcome bags). Doesn't help that the Steelers play at home the day after & my guests seem to be quite confused about hotel rates in the city. Uh, if you want to pay $39.95 good luck finding something downtown where my shuttles are. I sure as hell wouldn't stay in that kind of a hotel!

Yes I did, thankfully the places we are using are family run and most of the owners know my grandparents so I get regular updates and do email the places to check. We are already full and some guests have contacted me for other recommendations for hotels nearby

You usually shouldn't have to be responsible for the rooms if they aren't taken by guest. One thing that I ran into was being potentially charged for incidentals. I told them that I would not cover guest incidentals and that should be done with their individual credit cards.

Just something to watch out for that could be in the fine print. I had the lady rewrite the contract to remove that statement.

TheFrankSpot, I had to revise my contract too because it had some questionable/confusing language about me being charged for things guest related. It's definitely a good idea to read the contract thoroughly so there aren't any surprises. A good rule of thumb is to read a contract from the perspective of how to get out of it. They're binding, so you always need a way out if things don't go as planned.

I just called our hotel a couple weeks ago to get them to send me a list of people who have booked rooms so i could see who i needed to nudge along. glad i did. most people i expected to have booked rooms already have, but there were a couple that i was like, 'c'mon guys.' lol.

I check our block incessantly but our sales person at the hotel is getting married the same weekend as we are so I think she understand the crazy bride bugging her. We haven't had any problems. Once we hit a certain amount they just opened up our rate for indefinite number of rooms. So I don't have to keep upping our contract but people will get the rate when they call as long as the hotel in general still has rooms available. Right now we are at 36 rooms. I'm going to make 50 welcome bags.

Also a hint if you want to make welcome bags but don't want to break the bank...I wanted to put Advil or some type of pain reliever in the bags but buying that was the most expensive part but I found a 50 count box of those single dose packs on Amazon for $10! All in I think we will be spending about a buck a bag.

The Sales Lady at the hotel sends me an email update every now and then, and no one has booked a room at the hotel - it worries me because several people have said that they were going to book a room there, but they never did. Did they decide on a different hotel, did they change their mind about coming, etc.?!

I called the week before the date to book ended and I'm glad I did bc some ppl didn't use our name and I don't think got the price. I called mostly to check on my room.