Please help me understand room blocks

Are ou having your reception at a hotel? if so then theyshould block rooms for you. my hotel is blocking 10 rooms at a time. once those 10 are fille dthey open a new set of 10. if you are not having it at a hotel, you will need to discuss this with them and see what their policy is. they may hold a certainamount of rooms fo ryou for a certain amount of time, or they may just have all rooms open and your guests can reserve by a certain date with a discounted rate.

hope this helps

You shouldn't have to pay to reserve rooms...

Yeah i got a letter from the hotel im doing my reception at that i can set up room blocks, i have no idea what that means either lol i decided not to do it because i didnt know, theres 3 hotels near my reception hall and church so i figured my guests can just book themselves, besides some of the hotels are cheaper than the others.

I don't think you need to pay to reserve the block of rooms. The hotel holds them as a courtesy for you, and your guests pay for them as they reserve them.

And just meet with different hotelswith various price ranges and ask to talk to the manager and ask him if you can rexerve X amount of rooms, and do you get a discount, and tell your guests to refer to the 'your last name/his last name' wedding..

Thank you all so very much for answering what may have sounded like a "DUH" question!! I'm not having my wedding/reception at a hotel.

My reception isn't at the hotel but at a nearby venue. I have 10 rooms guarantee hold until a certain date (no financial obligations- even if I don't fulfill the 10 rooms). If you go over they should continue to give you a discount rate until the cut off date. Since I am the bride I worked out an arrangement to have a junior suite held for me at the same rate as the guest rooms.

You pay only if you want to. The deal is that is your guest get a discount because your even is generating bulk revenue for the hotel. Just call up one or two hotels and ask to reserve a room block. Negotiate the price by making sure there is a good difference between the going rate and discount. Just look it up online first so that you know you are getting a good deal. Its usually about 30 bucks difference more or less.

Thanks for asking such a great question. I've been wondering about this too

How early did you ladies reserve rooms? I like to do things early but we still have to finalize our guest list....

Ashley, you can do this once youbook the hotel fo ryour venue or you can do this just beofre youe invites go out so its ready fo ryour guessts

Some of the hotels said if we waited closer to the date, the rates would be cheaper since this is a slow time.

No u don't hsve to pay to reserve rooms. I have 9 rms blocked off and the have 48hrs before the wedding to reserve the rooms and if they don't they take the hiold off them

The hotel that I am having my ceremony and reception at when I spoke to them about room blocks They informed me that their wouldn't be a discount, and if the people didn't book the full amount of rooms by the deadline I would be financially responsible for the remaining rooms. At that point I just said nevermind to room blocks and will let my guests choose where they want to stay. I am having my wedding in an off season and there are hundreds of hotels to choose from. I did not want to break the bank over a bunch of hotel rooms.

Your question may have been answered already, but I do hope this helps.

Room blocks can definitely be confusing since so many hotels do things differently.

You are basically putting a hold on a certain amount of rooms (usually 10-12) for your guest at a discounted rate. Some hotels do prefer you to hold the rooms on a credit card, however you should not be charged. I suggest you find a hotel near your event location or somewhere close to you and your fiance and any other pre-/post-wedding events. Discuss the best room rates and specific deadlines as hotels request to have all room reservations by a certain date so they can release the unused rooms to other potential guests. When your guests confirm their reservations, they will pay for their own room and amenities (unless you decide to host their accommodations).

This is a great option for your out-of-town guests and "heavy drinkers".

Congratulations...I hope on your upcoming event is absolutely amazing.

-Chara Nicole

As PPs have said, you are not obligated to pay for the "block", it is basically a hold. One thing to be aware of however, your guests will probably also be confused by the term "block." I had to explain to my FH's aunt that we were setting aside rooms for people if they wanted to reserve them, but that we weren't paying for them!

To avoid confusion you may want to be specific in how you word the info on your accommodations. Rather than saying, we have blocked/set aside rooms at these hotels, you can say: "We have arranged special rates with the X, Y, and Z hotels. Please make your reservation by X date to ensure you receive the special rate."

I've had this issue with organizational banquets I have planned, and found that the above wording makes it clear that attendees need to both make, and pay for, their reservations themselves.

Well I did it super early (February) and the wedding isn't until October. But I only did that because my date was extremely popular in the area and I wanted to make sure my guest had a place to stay. (most are from out of town). You should be able to do it before you send out your invitations though. But discounts definitely depend on the weekend you choose. Mine is a holiday weekend.

Ive been selling hotel room blocks for 13 years. DO NOT go to a hotel that wants your credit card. They should give you a discount and a cut off date the rooms have to be picked up by, it's called a courtesy block. Some hotels do charge what is called Attrition, ask about it. DO NOT sign any contract with Attrition, that means any rooms not picked up you have to pay for. Also, make sure you guests are clear what date they must make their reservation by - once that dates comes and goes, they could be stuck paying twice as much for a room. It's best to ask the hotel if they provide reservation cards (which just outlines rate, # to call, and cutoff date), if not, ensure you insert it into the invitation.

This is a comprehensive set of articles that should answer most questions regarding room blocks: http://grouptravel.org/need-a-hotel-for-wedding-guests/

We used www.expertroomblock.com to set up room blocks for our guests. They were so easy to deal with and found out a great rate for our guests and even got us a sweet deal on our bridal suite. We did not have to pay to reserve the rooms and guests could cancel the reservations up to 24 hours prior to their check in date. We only paid $35 for research and proposal. I would highly recommend these guys! Best $35 we ever spent.

Thanks a lot, this really is a truly awsome article! Cool to read such a well-considered article! I just merged 3 PDF files with an online software. I used http://bit.ly/1Qv6OSo and it's very easy to use.