Hotel Room Blocks

I did a room block of ten on one hotel and one of 5. The room block of 10 has a complimentary shuttle that will transport the guest to and from venue. I did half king beds half double. I believe. I did what the hotel suggested. I did not put a deposit and I am not responsible for any unbooked rooms.

Most of my guest list is comprised of OOT guests. We chose a venue that has a hotel attached and has plenty of decently priced hotels around it. However, we are only reserving all of the rooms at the venue - there are only 26 rooms. The other hotels will be listed on our wedding website as well as a few local airbnbs.

Because we are hosting an event at the hotel, the room block fee was waived. I'm not sure what percentage the deposit would have been otherwise but I'm fairly certain the rate varies from hotel to hotel.

A lot of what you are asking is dependent upon the hotel you book with.

Most of our guests are local but we do have some traveling. I picked a relatively high rated, but still affordable, hotel. I estimated we would need 7 rooms. The hotel required a minimum of 10 rooms to book a block. We were not required to put a deposit down but we booked one of the rooms for ourselves.

We are not responsible for any unused rooms they will just open back up to the public after a certain date.

We have mostly out of town guests so I got a courtesy block of 10 rooms to start with at a Double tree by Hilton. The sales person set it up with a mix of king rooms and doubles. We have since added a few more rooms just in case (we have like 90 more folks that need to rsvp by next Friday lol). I recommend a courtesy block so there’s no cost to you.

I had a variety of experiences with room blocks. I started trying to reserve 1 year out for a guest list of 75 with about half OOT.

- One was super easy- it had very simple contract for ten rooms, no financial obligation, deposit, or card on file. It's perfect. They gave me five rooms with one king and five with two doubles and I was fine with that.

-One was super great but had a very in depth, lengthy contract and wanted way too much liability on my part. I skipped this one.

-Two said it was too early and to call back in four months.

I'm hoping to at least get one more block of ten rooms somewhere and then list alternative suggestions.

Thanks for all the info! I’m wondering the same questions😂😂

I used hotelplanner.com and did i think 6-10 rooms at three different hotels locally in various price points.

Was really helpful using hotel planner.

I used Skipper. So easy. They ask the location of your venue, and then give you a list of hotels by distance and their prices. It's all courtesy blocks so no obligations on my end. I invited 184 adult guests with 85% being OOT so I blocked off 86 rooms in three +4 star hotels 33% off their retail price. All three hotels are within 6 blocks away from each other, and about a mile from the venue.

I actually didn’t block off rooms since I only have two couples coming from out of town, but I do work at a resort and regularly block off rooms for weddings. I would count the total number of couples that could potentially come, as wells as the total number of families/smaller groups that would share a room, and block the total number couples as kings and the others as queens. (I would always book more queens than kings if you’re not sure) If there are suites, and you think some of your guests may actually use that and pay the little extra (ex. Parents with children) I would consider blocking some of those.

Most hotels will not charge you any deposit and will honor that rate until a week or so before the event. Meanwhile a resort or 4 star hotel will likely require a deposit and signed contract usually with an 8-10 room minimum that will need to be met 2-3 weeks before the event.

*Queens = Double Queens. I used the office talk there, sorry!

I have not reserved my block yet, but I work in hotels.

Blocks generally start at 10 rooms. They will set up a a rate and your guests will call and make their own reservations. If the rooms are not reserved by a certain date they will be released from the block and be able to sell to any guest. Some hotels may charge a fee for unused rooms or ask for a deposit. That will be very individualized to the hotel. As for the type of room, doubles are always a good choice but reserve a couple different types to allow guests to choose.

Room blocks were such a headache for me. I live in/am getting married in a town where hotels don’t do courtesy blocks because they have no incentive to. Hotels sell out year round so we were able to do a rate agreement at one hotel for $249/night with a 2 night minimum. Our event coordinator at our venue was able to get us a courtesy block at another hotel for $249/night with a 2 night minimum but we were only able to block out 15 rooms. We filled our block within 10 days lol. So basically I listed a ton of hotel options on our site and listed the fact that Airbnb’s aren’t allowed in our city and that it’s not uncommon for hotels to sell out a year in advance for a weekend so to please book soon! Other than that I’m letting adults be adults and figure it out! We invited 128 households and all but 3 will need hotel rooms.

We booked a block at the hotel right next to our venue. They’re able to offer 20 rooms as a courtesy block, so no deposit or financial liability on our end. The block and the discounted rate expire a month before the wedding though, so we need to encourage our guests to book early. It’ll be a mix of king beds and doubles (depending on availability).

We might be a few rooms short, but we live in an area with tons of hotels within walking distance, so we’ll just be providing recommendations for other places to stay on our website.

I’d definitely avoid any hotels that require a deposit or have an attrition clause (requirement that your group books a certain number of rooms, or you’re responsible for the difference) if you can.

I used Kleinfeld Hotel Blocks (a free service). They found a list of hotels for me and got back to me with prices, did all the negotiating with the hotel, and then sent me a contract. It made life much easier!

We chose to go with 1 hotel and have 20 room blocks (yet they said they would add more if they fill - so hopefully they hold up their end of the deal). We have 150 guests, but not all will be staying at the hotel. We are able to use the lobby for a small afterparty and we are able to use the meeting room free of charge to serve a private breakfast the morning after. The breakfast is included with each room, so there is no extra charge to us. We were not required to put down a deposit and we are not responsible to pay anything if our room blocks do not completely fill. Our hotel has 1 bedroom suites with one king bed and a pull out couch as well as two bedroom suites with a combination of bed types. The two bedroom suites come with 2 kings and a pull out couch or 2 queens in 1 room, 1 king in the other room and a pull out couch. The two bedroom suites are limited so most people are doing the 1 bedroom. I was worried about this since we have quite a few families, but it should all work out. There are tons of other hotels in the area for people to stay at, if this becomes an issue for them. We stuck with a clean, nice, cheaper hotel option.

I got courtesy blocks at 2 hotels near my venue. One 10 minutes away, one 5 minutes away. I don't have to pay a deposit and have no liability (I even had some vague wording in one of the contracts clarified) but one hotel releases rooms 45 days before and the other 30 so I put all of that information on the website. If I get enough rooms one hotel would give me a free upgrade and the other a free night. I'll be staying at the cheaper, closer hotel most likely, but wanted to provide the nicer option as well. They are both highly rated and recemmended by my venue.

We did 2 room types. Some single king beds and some double beds. I held 10 rooms. We chose a hotel that didn't require a deposit. My rooms need to be booked by 9/25. After that the hotel releases the hold for the block. We have 85 guests total but most are local. We expect some local guests to stay at the hotel too though.

As the bride and groom we get a free upgrade to a suite which is nice!!

We are in Washington DC. I hope this helps.

So we ended up needing 40 rooms for a guest list of 183. We honestly didn’t think that this many people would stay over but I’m excited about it! Our room block and special rate included 4 different room variations: single, double, triple, quad. We made this rate elastic until a certain date which was a month out. Anyone after this would have to pay the regular rate and take whatever is available. I made sure to indicate this on our insert cards

I did 2 room blocks. Where the ceremony is being held at I did about 10 of their rooms because the rate is more on the expensive side even with a discount but I know a couple of people that wouldn’t mind spending a little more for location. I also did a hotel about one exit up (5 min drive) that was $60 cheaper & got 15 rooms. I did a mix of 30% single & 70% double beds because family is more likely to share a room if it’s just a weekend trip. I did not pay a deposit to hold the rooms also I only used 2 hotels because honestly most of our guest are going to use whatever hotel they have points at.

Our venue has cabins that can be rented, so we have those available, and I did a hotel block in town. We didnt have to pay for anything, and we will not be on the hook for any unrented rooms. To start, they blocked off 20 queen/king rooms for us at a discounted rate, and if those fill up they will automatically add more if they're available. Also, our rooms will be available to be booked up until 2 weeks before the wedding, which I love because by this point in time or guests will 100% know whether or not they plan to attend (pending any emergencies) so there's less pressure on them to commit and book 3 months ahead of time just to make sure they have a space.

If we didn't have lodging at the venue though, I'd definitely get two hotel blocks. For reference, we have about 150 guests in attendance.