Hotel blocks or just listing the hotels surrounding the venue

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All the hotels I talked to had a contract option where your guests are responsible for the bill, not you. They block the rooms off until about 30 days before the date, then any unclaimed rooms are released to the public.

I would just list nearby hotels so people can decide for themselves esp if there’s plenty of options

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Sounds good!

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Yeah that's what most are saying that I have talked to.

I did a room block at the closest hotel (4 mins) to my venue but this hotel also happens to be smack dab in the middle of a popular nightlife strip. Therefore, its on the expensive side. Because it is also downtown, any hotel nearby is expensive.

Sooo, I also listed hotels that are all near each other but about 8 miles from my venue. I did not do room blocks with them, just listed a link to them on my wedding website.

I would do at least one (better yet two - one nicer and one more affordable) complimentary blocks to help guests.

I listed! There are almost 15 hotels near my venue (not far from an airport and bigger city), so I thought my guests would prefer to pick whichever hotel suited their tastes and budgets!

We did just one hotel block. I honestly like the hotel block because then you can usually get comps for reserving there. We are getting two extended suites and discounted prices and our wedding night suite at a discounted price. Plus they are giving us a complimentary congrats basket for our wedding night. Also, if you do a block, they will usually give you a discounted group rate, so that helps your guests as well.

We did both. The rates at our hotel are a bit pricy, so not all guests will want to stay there. We listed all the local alternatives nearby with travel times and rough cost per night.

View Quoted Comment Thinking about doing the exact same!

View Quoted Comment Very true, I’ve been doing a lot of contacting hotels to make sure we won’t be financially responsible for any unbooked rooms

View Quoted Comment Oh yes! You should never be responsible for that!!

My suggestion would be arrange room blocks. I arranged hotel room blocks for our guest. I selected 3 hotels in the vicinity with a radius of 10 to 15 minutes from our venue. If you reach out to the hotel and arrange block rooms ( which are complementary) you are able to secure better rates for your guest, and if you decide on having a farewell brunch nor welcome reception they will give you better rates as well.

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You wont be responsible. They will hold the room I believe up to 30 day of your event. Thereafter the room are released back into their inventory, and if your guest(s) decides to book it will be at the (UCR) usual customary rates.

View Quoted Comment Thanks that’s what I’m currently researching with several hotels near the venue

View Quoted Comment Good luck with your search . Also, try negotiate having the hotel you’re staying at arrange a room for the bridal party to get hair and makeup 💄 done. They may buck but it’s worth the try. I did and I’ve secured that for us. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

View Quoted Comment Usually for lower negotiated rate, they will require you to guarantee a certain number of rooms. My planner told me that she could negotiate a lower rate if we could guarantee at least 15 rooms. However, we’re having a small wedding and can’t predict how many people will stay at our venue so we didn’t feel comfortable doing it. According to her, if you can guarantee at least 10 rooms or more, she can typically negotiate a lower rate. The more guaranteed rooms, the better the rate. Just an issue of if you are willing to take the risk that people won’t book.

View Quoted Comment Wow! I guess FlorIda is a little different . I’m getting a suite for us that is usually over $300 Per night for $220.00 And I just have courtesy room blocks I have nothing guaranteed.

View Quoted Comment We still got like a $30 discount from the publicly available rates even with no guarantees. It’s just that our venue is pricy so the planner offered to negotiate an even lower rate if we could guarantee a certain number of rooms. That’s part of their job, planners are repeat customers with different vendors (florists, DJ, musicians, caterers, venues, etc) so they’re often able to negotiate better prices than individual couples who only hire a vendor once.

View Quoted Comment Very true! I had planned and negotiated all my vendors before I decided on the planner I really connected with. My saving grace was the majority of the vendors o ALREADY had hired were the ones she usually worked with. Our venue is in Boca Raton. FlorIda -the name and area by itself is high end this hikes the cost up. All the hotels that were relatively close by pretty much gave the same discounted rate. It’s organized that way) lol! We’re happy with the cost for that area they really gave us great pricing . We’re also doing our welcome meet and greet and our farewell brunch there so I think that also contributed to the better rate. We are also looking at around 160 guest. I’m still trying to pull more perks out of them lol. I can’t have my wedding coordinator do that because I had already contracted with them before her and seal the deal. Yours will work out fine. You’ll be surprised how many end up staying in the hotel .