Hotel Block for destination wedding

I’m doing a destination wedding (domestic here in the US, but all of our guests have to at least drive a couple hours), and so far my biggest “if I had to do this again” would be not setting up a room block. Even though it will make our guests’ lives exponentially easier to stay within our block, it just hasn’t been worth the hassle on the front end…to us or to them. Granted, we’ve had some obstacles particular to our venue. But you can’t force your guests to stay in the block anyway, so you achieve the same result by just putting up a list of recommended hotels at different price points on your wedding website, and if you’re offering services like transportation to certain hotels, note that too. The people who want to make their own arrangements will do so anyway, regardless of whether or not you have a block.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the information. I’m leaning toward doing not doing the blocks and just letting people do their own thing.

If I were a guest, I would prefer a list of options and then make my own accommodations

View Quoted Comment Thank you. We are going to provide links to travel agents for those that may want to use them but not do the blocks. We are only suggesting our resort because there are additional fees for people to come to the wedding but don’t stay on the resort that we have already stated we are not covering. I’m not sure this is proper etiquette but it’s we are doing because a $100 a day per guest for 3 days it’s just way to much to pay.

View Quoted Comment Yes, if there are additional costs to attend without staying at your venue resort, I would definitely make sure that all of the guests know that before making their decision. I would highlight your resort first in the list of recommendations and maybe even put in bold on your website that there’s a day pass fee for anyone not staying there. Maybe other hotels will still be cheaper with the extra fee, maybe not. We had a few guests who initially planned to use hotel points elsewhere to book their stay, but once they knew about the inconveniences involved in not staying in our block, they decided to just save their points for future travel. But each guest should have all the information in making their decision.

We're having a destination wedding in Puerto Rico next summer. Personally, I found that Airbnb is waaay cheaper. But, almost immediately after finding a venue we had some guests asking about our hotel block. So needless to say, we now have a hotel block but are still recommending Airbnb

For Mexico - give me the travel agent and where the room blocks are. Mexico has become so unpredictable that I want to stay close to my peeps!

It sounds like your wedding is at a resort where guests who are not staying at the resort need to purchase a day pass simply in order to enter the resort to attend your wedding. I've been to a number of destination weddings in Mexico where this was the norm, however, the bride and groom usually cover the day pass for the guests in question. I've never heard of guests covering this fee themselves (which is essentially an entrance fee to attend a wedding that guests have already been asked to fork over hundreds/thousands of dollars for given travel costs). Sounds like you would greatly benefit from having a room block because then more guests would stay at the resort and you'd have less guests staying off resort to figure out what to do with re: the entrance fee for your wedding. At the most recent destination wedding we went to in Cancun the couple had a room block with a special rate and I believe 35 out of their 40 guests opted to stay at the resort. So it only cost the bride and groom around $500 to cover the day passes for the remaining guests, which was super reasonable!

At the tail end of planning my destination wedding in Mexico. Our travel agent has been nothing short to helpful and wonderful. Helped us pick everything out and book. She also helps family and friends book as well. So when family and friends have questions, I can just direct them to her and not have to worry about answering all these questions about booking for everyone. I shopped around and found a travel agent that worked best for us. One of the first travel agents we met with, was big on room blocking. When I met with others, the more room blocking seemed like a hassle I did not want to be dealing with. You have to pick out and predict how many and what others are wanting. Which I feel it is easier to let guest do that because you truly never know until down to the wire who is going to come or not. Especially with destination. We invited 110 guests and are expecting now 30.

We got married in Mexico in May and my suggestion would be to let the guests book however they want. We tried going with the room block as our travel agent suggested but we had a lot of guests who were getting a better deal booking their flights and hotel together. It was a lot of work to answer our guest’s concern and plan the rest of the wedding at the same time.
We ended up cancelling the Room block and we don’t regret our decision
Hope this helps!

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This time 100%. Guests definitely should not have to pay a fee to attend a wedding that they already had to spend a lot of money to get to in the first place. Also, if I remember correctly there used to be a list of things that people have to do to get legally married in Mexico. Make sure you have all those things done as well.

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Unfortunately, this is in no way acceptable. You need to host the wedding you can afford without requiring your guests to pay an admission fee simply to attend. A destination wedding is already a huge ask and investment of people's time and money. Please don't even consider adding insult to injury.

I would double check with your venue because I have a very hard time believing they would charge anyone coming to a wedding you are hosting on their property. In any case, there is no down side to room blocks. People can still book wherever.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for your input.

View Quoted Comment Did you have guest that stayed at different resorts attend your wedding?

View Quoted Comment We’re putting the additional fee information on our website several times. Thanks so much.

View Quoted Comment I didn’t say I couldn’t afford, I said I wasn’t. Plus there are additional responsibilities that fall on the bride and groom when guest utilize day passes that we don’t want to be responsible for. As someone that has been on the other side, I’ve factored those fees into the cost of my trip just as I did my luggage, share rides, etc. which is why we are letting guest know up front. That way they can decide if they can make an informed decision.

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Is this reception actually part of an all inclusive resort dinner? That's the only way I can imagine any of this making any sense, If so, you are essentially passing the cost for your wedding onto your guests.

View Quoted Comment We had only two people staying at a different resort.

View Quoted Comment Yes it is. We’ve been in contact with numerous resorts in Mexico before we decided on this one and they all had this requirement. It’s essentially a day pass so the guest we have access to all of the resort not just our wedding. If they don’t want to pay it they have two options either stay at the resort or unfortunately don’t come. I’m okay with either because I don’t want the added responsibilities (we have enough going on) and I do understand it is a big financial responsibility. That’s why we are letting them know upfront in a hope to avoid this and have everyone stay at the resort.


On a side note my Fiancé doesn’t agree with my decision but we flipped a coin on it and I won.

View Quoted Comment That’s not bad.