Hotel Blocks how do they work?

Some places charge others don't. Definitely go for a place that won't charge. Some hotels make you cover a certain percent of rooms if they aren't booked. Avoid this at all cost. My hotel only charges if I needed more than 50 rooms. Which I don't. Get quotes and read carefully any paperwork they give you.

Also if you want to do hotel favor bags make sure you aren't being charged for that either.

Your shouldn't. But you have to call the hotels to ask their policies. You should be able to tell them you want X number of rooms. Can we have a discount for this many? What date do guests need to book by, before you will release the rooms back to your inventory?

It depends on the hotel. Some hotels offer a courtesy room block, so they will hold a certain number of rooms at a lower rate for a certain amount of time and you don't have to pay for the block, and you're not responsible for any un-booked rooms. Some hotels will require a fee, or will require you to pay for un-booked rooms. I used a service called Jetaport, where I picked several different hotels in my area and they contacted the hotels for me to get offers, and I went with the best option to reserve a room block.

I would suggest calling to see what hotels have availability in the location of your wedding. Ask what their policies are. I work at a hotel and we have a group sales coordinator. They have all the information you will need. Just block the rooms for your guests as soon as possible.

Personally reach out to hotels near your venue. they'll respond with their rates. Also if you go there they will normally let you tour the rooms and amenities! Typically you reserve X amount of rooms and any that are left after specified date ( mines a month before the wedding) will be released back into the normal booking quantities.

I called 2 hotels and neither requested any out of pocket expense or commitment. As PPs have said, my guests have until 30 days before the wedding to book discounted rooms in the block.

You should also check:

1. what is the guests' cancellation policy? - we chose one hotel over the other since our hotel had a 24 hour cancellation and the other hotel had a 7 day cancellation.

2. If you have gift bags for OOT guests, will they do room drops for free or will they give your guests the gift bags upon check-in? - either is fine, just ask if it's included or if there is a charge

3. If your guests book a certain amount of rooms, can you get a free room for yourselves? - some hotels will do this, some won't, it doesn't hurt to ask

4. Is parking included and if not, what are the rates? - Depending on where you live, there could be a charge for self-parking. One hotel may be less expensive but may charge for parking so you want to compare apples to apples.

I just blocked my rooms for my wedding and I did not have to pay for anything. The hotel I am using states that I can block up to 15 rooms without any financial obligation if they do not book. If I block anything over that, I am responsible that at least half of those rooms book by the cutoff date. So I just did the 15 and if we need to add more, they will add it without me having to guarantee it.

I used the Skipper service to get my three wedding hotel blocks (85% of my guests are OOT). Their service picks hotel blocks according to distance from the venue. As a result, all three of my hotel blocks are courdesy blocks about a mile from the venue at 33% of the advertised price.

I tried the skipper service and none of the hotels in the area of my venue would do block more than 5 rooms and rates were not much better than advertised. With half of my guest list coming from out of town, it was not helpful.