Hotel Blocks

When we blocked hotel rooms for our guest I'm not too sure if it saved money but it helps make sure everyone gets a room. For us we didn't have to put any money down and filed it under our names, so when our guest make reservations they just say our name. We didn't block a certain amount the hotel we are using is holding 10 rooms and if those 10 rooms get booked then they will add 10 more. That way they don't block all the rooms if we only need a little. Each hotel was a little different but I would talk to someone at the hotels for more information.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for the info. I really don't know which direction I am going with this.

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When you start looking for hotels I would recommend to keep in mind how far from your venue it is, how the inside is (you wouldn't want your guest staying somewhere you wouldn't), and for me it was important that breakfast was included. That way less for the guest to have to go out and find especially if they don't have a car because they flew in.

View Quoted Comment You are absolutely right! I would definitely go in and check it out first. Having breakfast would be very convenient also.
There's 2 hotels within 5 minutes of our venue, I just hope it's decent. 🤞🏼

That's awesome! Good luck and congrats!

It honestly just depends on the hotel. I booked my room block directly with Marriott (I called the hotel directly ) they do a courtesy room block which means one month before the wedding the rooms are released to the public. I blocked 25 rooms and if they don't get used there's no penalty. I've also had friends that had to put up a credit card to hold room blocks and were charged if they didn't meet a minimum.

I also forgot to add check with the hotel if they offer shuttles to your reception

It saved our guests money. By blocking off the rooms, we got them at a discounted, group rate. It also ensured there would be rooms available for our guests.
The number of rooms and what will happen if they are not all booked will vary based on the hotel. Typically, they ask you to cancel any remaining rooms within 2 weeks of your wedding and you won’t be charged.
I would contact the hotel and speak with someone directly about their room block policies.

A lot of this depends on the hotel! I think it saves a little bit, but the big thing is it ensures that there are rooms available! We blocked off at different hotels to have different price points for our guests. Most hotels require 10 rooms for a block! And if you don't fill them, then the remaining hotel rooms usually fall back out to the public at a certain date (1 of our hotels is 1 month before and the others are 2 weeks before).

I would just ask the hotels all these questions, since they are all different

Ours definitely saved our guests money. We looked at the price of the room without the block and it was easily $100 more. I would speak to a couple hotels you're interested in because every hotel is different, but we kind of did a guesstimate of how many rooms we thought we would need and they gave us a threshold of # of rooms we could get before we'd have to pay the difference of rooms unused. For example, one hotel would hold up to 24 rooms, free of charge, and if you went to 25 and didn't use all of them we'd be on the hook to pay for unused rooms. We ended up only doing 20 and whatever is left over they just throw back into their system.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the info. How far was thebhotel from your venue?
I looked around ours and found the decent rating hotels were about 20 mins away.

View Quoted Comment I think Im hesitant to commit since Im not sure how many will need hotel rooms or if they want to book close to the venue.
I live in MD, our wedding is in VA and Wash DC is in the middle of both. I think some of our out of town guests may want to squeeze in a DC tour. 🤷🏻‍♀️ But if the hotel doesnt put a fine for unused rooms then I think I will do it. Just dont want to be fined.

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I would always get too many than not enough. You don't want your guests not having a place to stay. I would just ask the hotel what happens if you don't use up all of the blocks of rooms!

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Both our hotels are under 2 miles from our venue. Some hotels will offer transportation, if you book a certain amount of rooms or for a small fee, if thats what you're worried about.