Hotel Room Block

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Wedding Wire has a hotel block tool that's somewhat useful. (Just make sure that you remember to stop the bidding once you're finished, otherwise you'll get a gajillion emails.)

JC room blocks

Are you a member of a rewards program for any hotel brands? I got a bunch of points and night stay credits through Marriott for our room block at a Courtyard. If not, sign up now!

I also need to look into this. Being able to get rewards points was something I hadn't thought of so I appreciate learning that.

Mainly I wanted to post because we are date twins! Yay September 30th!

Google hotels close to your venue. I recommend calling the hotel directly. Call a few, figure out pricing and what that includes, and choose your favorite! If you plan on doing welcome bags, ask if there is a fee for that. Some hotels will charge, so just be aware of that in advance.

We found hotels near our venue, and called or emailed them all directly. Then we went to the top 3, and asked lots of questions and looked at rooms. Although some looked great on paper and value wise - they were GROSS!

One of them had an issue that caused the kitchen/restaurant to be closed after we looked at it for a RAT infestation. Online is a great tool to start - but I found better rates going in person - and we also refused to guarantee a certain amount of rooms/pay for a specific amount of rooms - we only considered courtesy blocks.

I used the WW tool , they completely walked me through it. Made the contacts with the hotels etc. All i had to do was call and confirm.

We asked our venue which hotels people usually used, so they gave us a list of about 3 nearby options. We visited in person and chose from there

Date twin! We did our hotel room blocks and our venue gave us suggestions a block away from venue. We called and told the hotel we needed rooms for many out of town guests and the hotel pretty much did everything for us!

See if they charge for unused rooms. And see if they do courtesy blocks.

I used the Weddingwire tool. It was awesome. Very easy to use and personalized. You get a representative from Weddingwire who works with you through the process if you need them. I had the whole thing wrapped up in a few days.

Thank You for all of the info!

I just did a google search for hotels near our venue. You can also ask your venue for a list of local hotels, I'm sure they can help you out. Check the hotels out online and see what they look like and how convenient they are (distance) to your venue. Call the hotels you're interested in and tell them you'd like to get information about setting up a room block. I HIGHLY SUGGEST ACTUALLY GOING TO THE HOTEL IN PERSON before deciding. Ask to see a room that would be in your room block. And READ REVIEWS ONLINE!!! I regret that we did not do this because our hotel did not have their sh*t together and it didn't ruin our wedding or anything but it definitely caused a lot of stress and headaches.

The person at the hotel who handles room blocks should get you something in writing that details how many rooms in your block, what type of room categories are in your block, how much the room rate is for each room type, ad the date when the room block is released. Ask if they will let you know when the room block fills or gets close to filling before the date, and if there is an option to add additional rooms to the block if necessary. You should not have to pay ANYTHING for unfilled rooms. If you want to do welcome bags, ask them if they are able to hand those out to guests when they check in and if there is an extra fee for that. Ask if they do any vouchers or discounts for their restaurant for breakfast, if they have one. We actually got a free room as the bride and groom for our wedding night by booking our hotel block with them, so see if there are any perks like that as well. Always make sure you get everything in writing!

If you need any shuttle service between the venue and the hotel, that's something hotels can typically do (if they're within a certain distance).

When I went to block hotels for my wedding about a month ago I found out that no hotel within 15 miles of my venue would block rooms because my venue is near the motor Speedway and apparently nascar is in town... didn't think to check the nascar schedule when I picked a date. Found a hotel outside of the range, but they won't provide a shuttle due to the distance.