Do i have to reserve a block of rooms for Out of town guests?

It is what it is at this point. You are in a fall destination like area, and I'm sure things book up. The only real issue is if people are unable to attend because they can't get a room. Could you look farther out and provide a shuttle to and from the venue? Personally more times than not I rely on the hotel block and if I for what ever reason don't book there, I always try to stay at a hotel walking distance to the hotel block so I can go and have fun with my friends and then crawl back to my room.

I wonder if the hotels had already maxxed out the rooms that had blocked for other weddings and didn't bother responding to you. I'm not saying that is ok. At this point, your guests might need to stay further away or make the decision to not attend because they can't find accommodations within a reasonable distance. And no, blocking rooms isn't required if there are a lot of hotels nearby or if the wedding is not in a popular month for weddings. In your case, however, a block would have been a good idea.

Yeah, I'm guessing the hotels already had blocked rooms for other wedding. Just wish they would have said that so I didn't continue wasting my time.

I ran into a similar issue with getting blocks at hotels near my venue. Our engagement was only 9 months, and while I did call hotels as soon as the venue was booked, it was already too late. Everything was booked, so we took a block at a hotel about 35-40 minutes away and bussed all the guests back and forth. It sucked but it was the only option, there were literally no rooms or blocks available closer to the venue, and I didn't think it was right to leave all our out-of-towners to fend for themselves, knowing that would mean everyone would have to rent cars and be all over the place, or possibly not be able to attend.

If I were you, I'd expand your search area for hotels and get a bus.

When we booked our venue/date we didn't realize that the college in town was having their graduation the same weekend and no hotel in town would give us a room block for our wedding. We went a bit further away, about 25-30 minutes, and were able to get a room block without any issues. Since it was further away than we had intended we did book 2 school buses to shuttle our guests back and forth and it worked out really well. Even guests who didn't stay at the hotel used the shuttles and then uber back to their other hotels or their houses.

We did not block rooms, but we are getting married in FH hometown, in winter, and all of the local hotels said they never run out of rooms this time of year.

My parents honeymooned in the poconos! Great place!

I don't think you broke etiquette necessarily, I've been to destination weddings without room blocks.

I don't know if you sent invites yet, but maybe on your details card I'd give guests some recommendations of hotels that are available so they don't have to call around.

I would start calling around to other hotels & motels, and try to research some available airbnbs or VRBOs for guests. We have some out of town/state guests, so we are reserving a block for them. I assume it's too late to do now! So providing some other options would be great if you can find them.

I did a room block since at least 50% of my guest are out of towners. My room block is also where the wedding is being held. I figured once everyone fly in I didn't want to have to figure out how to shuttle them. So everything is in the same place. It makes it easier for your guests. It cut cost for me.

I work for the corporate office of a hotel company. Here’s how room blocks work. They are held up untill a certain date called the release date. At our hotel the release date is 1 month before the blocked date. Once the release date has passed the rooms are now available to be booked by the general public. I’d still widen your search radius and block something as close as you can but it’s very likely your guests will be able to find a room closer to your venue if they are able to wait to book till less than a month before the wedding. I’m not sure how you would communicate this though. Also put links to Airbnb, VRBO or other home rental sites. Lots of people prefer to stay in those anyway.


People rarely book all the rooms they block for a wedding. I really think some will open up for you but I understand some people like to book now. My fiancé’s grandfather probably would have booked his hotel room last year if it were possible 🙄

I’m also getting married in the Poconos, but I didn’t have an issue with room blocks. My venue also does multiple weddings per day, and we were only able to block 20 on-site rooms because of all the other weddings. So I booked a second block with a local hotel about 2 miles away from the venue to be safe. My venue’s hotel will release any remaining rooms in my block 8 weeks before the wedding if they haven’t been booked yet, and the 2nd hotel will release unbooked rooms from our block 4 weeks before the wedding. It’s obviously going to be short notice for your guests to wait that long, but maybe they can check back closer to your wedding for any cancellations or released rooms from wedding blocks? Or maybe you can ask the hotel to alert you to any openings? I know that our venue’s hotel still has rooms that aren’t in a wedding block that would be open for people to book, they just wouldn’t get our discounted room rate when booking.

I didn't block out hotels - I THINK most of our out of towners will stay with family so I didn't want to be on the hook for rooms nobody will use - plus the 2 hotels that were closest and nicest weren't getting back to me about blocks, just like your situation, so I just put them as suggestions on the website and that was it. I felt bad about it so tried to do the "hotel finder" thing through WW, and those 2 hotels said there wasn't enough availability for the 10 or so rooms I needed - I figure there's a chance they'll be filled up but everyone is an adult and can find another place to stay, even if they have to drive an extra 10 minutes. I did put on the website a lot of helpful info including "if you need assistance with your lodging or transportation, please give one of us a call in advance and we'd love to help you!"

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Yes exactly! I figured that everyone will be able to figure out lodging if they need it. Thank you for the advice about the website. I will add info about assistance with lodging! Thanks Summer!

View Quoted Comment Sure! It’s easy to let yourself go crazy trying to bend over backwards to make everything perfect and effortless for everyone, especially when you see people on here who’ve spent thousands bussing their guests around the world (nice, but not standard or necessary), but you can go broke AND lose your mind trying to do everything everyone else has thought of! Don’t worry, there’s so many options even airbnb or VRBO which I’m sure are available in a resort area like the Poconos. Your guests won’t be out on the street.