Discount codes for guests?

We got a code for guests to use when they booked their rooms within our room block. The code identified that they were part of our group and allowed them to get the discounted rate.

Thank you all! this was very informative and helpful! Like I said we are on the fence because we have a handful of guests traveling from out of state but 98% live within 10 miles of us. So we aren't sure what we want to do yet.

Awesome! Thanks Kate!

I got a discount code instead of a block. It was ten percent instead of fifteen but I wasn't on the hook if people didn't fill the block.

I have a courtesy block and they told me the rate for it, but when I looked online it matched their current rates. So maybe by me asking them to hold the rooms it locked in that rate, ensuring I could share it with my guests and they won't pay more than that price?

Also, a lot of websites won't let you put a code/wedding info into the website directly, so you have to call to make sure you are part of the wedding block.

Also sometimes hotels will give extra perks (free shuttle, suite for bride and groom, etc.) if enough guests book. If that's the case, you definitely want to encourage your guests to use the code or call to book, to make sure you get "credit" for your guests staying there. At my cousin's wedding the shuttle ended early, because not enough people booked with the block for them to do the extended shuttle hours for the wedding. I'm glad I found that out, because I booked online and there was no place to out in a code, so I wrote the hotel a note to complain (not that they could "fix" anything for my cousin, but to hopefully help future people who encounter this!) - I knew there were at least 3 or 4 of us who stayed at the hotel but booked online, so my cousin wasn't credited for our stays. I didn't know it would matter or I would have called to book since I couldn't put the info in online.

My venue offers a discount for rooms booked by my guests but they have to make the reservation by phone and provide either my or my FH's name and date of the event. I think a discount code is a very neat idea though.

We got a courtesy block at the hotel we are using because my company does a lot of business with them, and it works just like Kate said. They reserve 10 rooms at a time and when those 10 are booked, they reserve 10 more. They are holding the block for us until 3 weeks before the wedding, then they will release any un-booked rooms to the public. They gave us a link for our guests to use to book their rooms which gives them the discounted rate. I put the link on our website and have sent it to any friends that asked me about discounted rooms.

Our hotel provided us discount codes for our guests. They provided three options, a code that guests could paste during checkout, a direct link that guests could click on and codes would be applied automatically and a particular phone number to call for those who wanted to book via phone (this was different from their general number). We put all this info on our wedding website.