Do Hotel Room Blocks Really Save Anyone Money?

Our hotel blocks aren't saving much money, Queen/King rooms for $132- but we're getting married on a holiday weekend, in a touristy area, in the peak foliage season. 16/25 local hotels are already completely booked for our wedding weekend, and have been since August of last year. Our guests would have been absolutely screwed if we didn't set up hotel blocks, as almost all have expressed interest in staying nearby.

As people have said, it depends on the hotel as to whether or not you get a discount. Honestly, depending on the hotel, people may be able to find a cheaper deal through GroupOn or a different travel site. If you have a lot of OOT guests, the primary benefit is convenience. Families can stay near each other and catch up prior to wedding activities. It also ensures availability. Not sure how populated the area of your wedding is, but there can always be big events going on that you aren't aware of. It could be a local college's alumni weekend the weekend of your wedding and you wouldn't necessarily know that and everything could be booked for all the surrounding areas. It also makes things more convenient for your guests. They don't have to research hotels in the area of the wedding, you've done that work for them. We have a lot of OOT guests so we are doing welcome bags and a shuttle to the venue, so having them all in one place makes that a lot easier.

They definitely give you a break! Our room block was $169/night for either 1 king or 2 queens, and the hotel's normal rate for that night was going to be $229. $60/night discount is a huge difference.

My hotel doesn't offer a shuttle but it is less than half a mile from the venue. It is really convenience for those out of town without a car or place to sleep nearby if they are drinking alot. My hotel block has buffet breakfast each day so that's a bonus

Most blocks will offer you a discount when you do a block. Another plus is that they will hold "x" number of rooms for you. If the hotel ends up selling out, you'll still have those rooms held for your wedding guests to book. Usually they keep all of the wedding guests together in the same area which is a plus.

Ours is a significant cost savings. but i dont actually think they block off a specific section of the hotel as much anymore, its really just setting aside a set number of rooms for a lower rate.

Depends on the hotel and the weekend honestly. I think first and foremost its to ensure your OOT guest have a place they can stay without stressing about hotels booking up, but i know most of the hotels we spoke to wouldn't ensure us a discounted rate since it was the holiday weekend. Some even said they wouldn't do a room block for the holiday weekend

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Yeah that has been my experience in looking around. Since the hotel isn't our venue, and we weren't having any official events there, they didn't offer much.

Our hotel is giving us a significant discount (about equivalent to the friends & family discount) for people to stay there, but they are also our venue, and we are having our ceremony and reception there.

My hotel block saved my guests $10 from their nightly rate.
Hotel blocks are nice so guests can stay together, maybe the hotel provides a shuttle from the airport or to the venue, and it is nice to not to have to look for your own hotel if you don't know the area.
If you get a nice hotel, the couple may get their stay free.