No hotel block...tacky/crappy?

I’m going to wait and maybe talk to out-of-town family about it. I think our guests will have significantly different price points for hotels and our wedding is too small for it to make sense to have 2 hotels. So I don’t think it will make sense for us.

Do you have a lot of out of town guests?
I think they're nice gestures but not necessary if there arent many who need it.
But if like 95% of your guests are OOT then it would probably make their trip a little smoother.

View Quoted Comment We have estimated about 170 guests and I think about 50 are OOT. (And of those 50, there is a lot of family with kids, so I am thinking around 20 rooms would be needed if everyone got a room.) Half of which probably will not come, as this is a surprise wedding and won't have a lot of prior notice. (Sending out invitations 3 months prior, but literally no one will know about this until they get the invitation.)

Many hotels will do courtesy block which cost you nothing. I would at least look into this so that your guests aren't contacting you to find out the closest hotels - and they will. Plus, it ensures that rooms will be available. I know our hotel and many others in the area sold out our wedding weekend due to other events happening and we had one couple who couldn't find a place to stay. They eventually did but planned on spending the weekend and had to do two nights in two different hotels.

View Quoted Comment Why would you not get blocks? They are free to book in most cases. And especially if your guests won’t have good notice it would be nice to lock in a cheap price for them now since it’ll be more closer to the date.

We didnt because we have family who will only stay at like Ritz carlton hotels, and others who would prefer motel 8! Also I actually am seeing a lot of our OOT guests getting air bnb places!

Don't do it!!! 65% of our guests are from out of town but we still decided to not do a hotel block. Here's why:

1. Every hotel block quote I received was more expensive or comparable to what was offered on discount sites like Hotwire and Hotels.com.

2. People are all about reward points and have personal preferences for hotels. People want to use their credit card points or earn hotel points!

3. Airbnb is so much cheaper and more fun. We booked 2 houses for our bridal party, their SOs, and close friends from out of town to share. One is on a lake with a dock, kayaks, hot tub, and fire pit. It's a great place for everyone to hang out and splitting $150 a night 12 ways is a steal - especially for folks paying airfare! We get more time together and can be loud and rambunctious! (We intentionally chose a property with no nearby neighbors.) Also, folks can bring food/drinks to share too!

4. Hotel blocks are not needed much any more. If you were traveling out of town in the 80's, yeah - you'd need a hotel block because you probably didn't have access to a local phone book. It's 2019 folks. People don't need help booking a hotel.

5. You really only need a hotel block if you want everyone to be in the same place as a strategy or if your venue is the hotel or very close to the hotel.

I recommend a courtesy block anyway. check out Kleinfield blocks!

I think it depends where you’re getting married. We decided to do one because we are getting married in a city and didn’t want everyone scattered everywhere. It’s a courtesy block so we have no financial obligation, no deposit is required, and guests can cancel 72 hours in advance, so if they find something better they can switch their plans. Most of my OOT guests are family that generally would not know where to stay in our city.

I looked into hotel blocks about a month ago, and literally every quote I got said I needed a deposit and/or would need to pay for rooms not booked.
I think there may have been one that was courtesy block, but it was an hour from the venue! That is too far, I feel...

:/

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Agree with this. We looked into it and decided against a hotel block for all these reasons; however, in addition to all the points mentioned by pp, the wedding was in an area with a LOT of options within 10 miles and at a time of year when availability isn't a problem. If your wedding will be in a location where things get booked up quickly and/or there is a major event competing with your date, I think you have to have a block (we were invited to a wedding cross-country on a holiday weekend in a major metro area where there was a national HS tournament that weekend; without the block we wouldn't have been able to find anything within an hour of the location). We did let our OOT guests know, even before the STDs went out about 6-7 months prior, that we weren't doing a block so they should use their preferred means of booking accommodations. It worked out great for us and very few guests stayed at the same places, so I think it was a good choice to let people do what worked for them. But, I think you need to think carefully about what options will be available for your guests.

EDT: Also, when we emailed OOT guests prior to the STDs and on the website (listed on the STDs) we listed the specific city names that would be relatively close to the venue so guests knew what to search for. The wedding was in a major suburban area where there are dozens of individual small cities, so for people from out of the area we didn't want them to choose something that was a lot further than it needed to be.

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I literally disagree with everything you wrote.

1. Every block price I got was comparable with discount sites. And even so, I would never rely on discount sites for actual booking anyway as the fine print says that reservations are not guaranteed and your room can be bumped without penalty. My FH is actually a high enough member of Marriott rewards points that if he needs a room last minute and calls a booked Marriott hotel to get it, they bump someone who booked on one of these discount sites.

2. You can still use your reward points and credit card points when booking with a block at our hotel. (A Marriott affiliate)

3. Airbnb is not more fun. I only use them when 100% absolutely necessary and would never in my life use it for a wedding. They aren't liability insured and again can cancel on you without warning and leave you stranded. There is SO MUCH that can go wrong with them. I don't know a single person who hasn't had at least one bad experience with airbnb.

4. Hotel blocks keep everyone in the same place. (So your 5 is correct). But that is very much needed in order to provide transportation for your guests (a MUST in my circle) and to make it easy for after party and hanging during the night before/morning of/afterwards.

I understand the view of those opposed; however we still choose to secure a curtosey block.

Despite there being a dozen hotels in the area by doing this we were able to have parking fees waived for our guests and a shuttle to/from venue included.

Airbnb isn't the best option as there wasn't anything close, unless guests were willing to drive 30-40 mins (add time for high traffic times)

We are only doing one hotel and AirBNB as an option. The reason we did it is because my fiance loves this hotel and it is really close to the venue. We live in a big city, so narrowing it down for guests is hard. Also, the hotel gives a MUCH cheaper rate for blocks (it went from $200+ per night, to $95 per night, much more affordable), our guests can be near one another, and there is a lot to do there, outside of the wedding. We are also a year out from the wedding, and the price is guaranteed to not go up. We are staying there too, even though we live 5 miles away, because it is so beautiful!

All of the hotels near my venue are already booked or wont do blocks during during the time I need. If I block, it will have to be 30+ minutes away. I'm not sure if guests will want to do that or find a small hotel around the venue.

Also the hotels 30+ minutes away, all do NOT do courtesy blocks.

I would do a complimentary block. Most hotels will do one that is 10-15 rooms, just to be nice to guests. Then you aren't responsible but are still being considerate to out of town guests.

I think it definitely depends not only on the area you are getting, but also time of year and what big events may be there. As PP you should be able to get a courtesy room block so you aren't spending additional money. If you just don't want to bother with the hassle of calling hotels and arranging it, here are some things to consider:

Are there a lot of hotel options in the area

Check out the Air BnB options and see if there a lot/places you think your guests would be okay staying in

Make sure there are no big events in the area at that time. Examples: If you live near a college and your wedding falls around graduation time or homecoming, get a room block, hotels will sell out quickly. Same if there any kind of big sporting events (I live near Boston, MA for example and it's impossible to get a hotel room during the Head of the Charles), or any other big conferences or events. There are obvious things like holidays or school vacation week, but there could be a ton of stuff going on in your area at that time that would cause everything to be booked up, leaving your OOT guests without accommodations, super expensive accommodations, or poor quality accommodations because they are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I think it's a know your crowd kind of thing. I'd get it if you were getting married at a hotel, it would make sense to get a hotel block there. But for us, the only reason we did a hotel block at a Best Western was because our wedding weekend is Memorial Day weekend, so things were filling up. But a lot of our friends and family have very particular tastes, points for certain hotels, or would prefer to get an Airbnb together. So we just got a hotel block for 10 rooms just in case other places were all booked.

Depends on where you live. We live I Charleston and are getting married on Father's Day. We decided to get a block. It was free and the price is really good. I like everyone being in one spot. We are even staying at the hotel, even though we live here.