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Super April 2020

Hotel blocks confusion

Maggie, on May 17, 2019 at 9:48 PM Posted in Etiquette and Advice 0 7

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Hey there guys! So, my wedding is 11 months out but my venue is recommending that I block out hotel rooms soon (they have a deal with a hotel in the area that we basically have to use).

My my concern is that our wedding is Sunday evening so idk who will be needing a room. Fh has a lot of family that live in the same town as the venue and majority of my family live 1 hour away but are planning on going to work the next day (getting married on a Sunday).

I don’t want to block too many rooms and then get stuck footing the bill for unused ones but I also don’t want to not block enough and people have to go somewhere else w/o the transport (this hotel has free shuttle service).

Many recommendations/ advice?

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7 Comments

Latest activity by Kristan, on May 18, 2019 at 2:44 PM

Devoted September 2019
Farrah · on May 17, 2019 at 9:56 PM
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Check with the hotel to see if you would even be charged for remaining rooms unbooked! Our hotel gave us a book by date, and after that they release the rooms for public sale. I definitely wouldn’t want to be stuck paying the bill for extra rooms!
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Super September 2019
ASMini914 · on May 17, 2019 at 10:08 PM
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They usually block 10 rooms for free as a favor
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Legend November 2019
Caytlyn · on May 17, 2019 at 10:15 PM
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Are you required to pay for unbooked rooms? If so, I would start with a few and add more when those are booked.
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Savvy October 2019
Katherine · on May 18, 2019 at 12:18 AM
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What Farrah said. Most hotels will give you a date that rooms must be booked by in your block. Check with your hotel to find out their policy on this! How ever many rooms are not booked by the date they give you will typically get released back into their normal inventory, that way you don’t end up paying for rooms you’re not using and they don’t lose out on a potential room to sell. Basically the room block guarantees you X amount of rooms at X price by X date. Once that date is passed, they will not honor the (typically reduced) rate for late comers to reserve rooms outside of your block. Good luck!
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Super June 2019
Eamsee · on May 18, 2019 at 2:46 AM
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Definitely speak with the sales representative of the hotel. Our wedding is June 8th 2019. We picked an area of the state that was between both of our families, so a decent chunk of people will be traveling. We made a hotel block in June 2018. We had until 30 days out from the even (so May 8th 2019) to remove rooms from the block without any penalty/fee. So we sent the invitations out a bit early in mid-March to give people a decent amount of time to book. I asked that they RSVP by May 4th. After May 4th, I contacted those that I hadn't gotten the RSVP from and then I called the sales representative of the hotel. There were only two rooms left and so we just removed them from the block and they went back into availability to the general public. If you are going to need a block, definitely do it sooner rather than later. A few months after we did our block another wedding was blocked for the same nights. So there are no rooms at the hotel left at all, blocked or public. Also, this hotel also has the free shuttle service once a certain amount of rooms have been booked. Make sure you go over the contract in depth, but you shouldn't have a problem or get stuck with rooms that you need to pay for.
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Super September 2019
Selena · on May 18, 2019 at 11:18 AM
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I would book it early. We booked ours months ago, then found out the broncos opening game will be our wedding day... I was glad we already had it confirmed.
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Just Said Yes October 2019
Kristan · on May 18, 2019 at 2:44 PM
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We booked our hotel block at a Marriott near our venue and their policy is that the rooms must be booked no later than 30 days before our wedding. Whichever rooms are not booked will be released to the public with no charge to us. I'm assuming most hotels operate similarly, but definitely check. I have a Sunday wedding also, so we ended up blocking 20 rooms (guest list of 125 w/ not too many out-of-towners) and we split it between 5 rooms on Saturday night and the remaining 15 for Sunday night, so I know we're not going to fill all of them but better safe than sorry. That was the hotel's suggestion to me as well.

Maybe try to make a list of who you think might be staying and go with that number. That's what I did and I also asked my parents and my wedding party to give me a little insight on who they thought would be staying just to get a better idea.
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