how do hotel blocks work

You can do it now. I did mine back in January, but they couldn't put it in the system until a year before the date. You just block 10-15 rooms and they give you a code or a name for your guests to say they are a part of. Sometimes it will be discounted, sometimes not. The deadline to book is typically a month-ish before the wedding date. Most hotels will comp your room if you meet their minimum booked rooms. And if you don't book the minimum, no penalty SHOULD be on you. They'll just release the rooms to the public. Any hotel that is going to charge you for unbooked rooms is crap. DON'T EVER TAKE IT. The only thing they should charge you is your own room IF you don't make the minimum requirement.

We did it as soon as possible. A good hotel will not charge you. We booked Marriott and they simply had a cutoff date for people to book by and if the rooms weren't booked, they were released.

I have heard of some hotels asking that should the rooms go un-booked you pay for them but I think that's outrageous and would recommend not going with that.

The sooner you block the better though. We didn't block enough rooms and the hotel got full because it turns out it's a college football home game in the city directly south. Which means ALL hotels are booked.

If a hotel asks for a deposit that is a red flag. Never put down money, it should NOT cost you a thing. My hotel is holding them for free until 2 weeks before the wedding, then my discount ends and they go back into the general inventory. Also, if they state you have to pay for the unfilled rooms run away!

I blocked out rooms 7 months out that way when I sent out STDs at 6 months I could include the information. The more time you give your guests to prepare the better.

@ MrsStobe I wish I had thought of doing that with the STDs. Such a good idea!

It's good to ask hotels at least 6-9 months in advance, because some can fill up pretty quickly on certain weekends for school events, tournaments, other weddings, etc. I've called a few hotels already and the good ones will not ask for a deposit but they will usually hold a certain amount of rooms and room types that you discuss until usually 30 days before the wedding - then they're released to the general public. But make sure that you don't have to pay for rooms that nobody books!

We had 2 hotel blocks because we had quite a few out of town guests and they were at different price ranges. We did our room block about 9 months or so in advance. None of them required deposits. They just gave us a code to tell our guests so they could receive a special rate. We had rooms at the Holiday Inn and a local hotel. Since all the rooms in our Holiday Inn block were booked we received a honeymoon suite for free the night of our wedding. Our block was released a month before the wedding.

Thank you all so much for the info! Our venue has 30 rooms but I'm not sure how many they block for us so I will def call some more hotels today.