Reserving hotel rooms for guest

Definitely ask your local hotels how it works to have guest room blocks. If you have the budget to do welcome bags that would be super cute. If you have a wedding website it's helpful to put down the info about hotel there for guests

Room block details vary by hotel. Some make you pay for unused rooms, host an event onsite, or require a two night minimum reservation. Be sure to get all of the details in writing so they don't surprise you later.

Welcome bags are cute but can really add up. If your budget allows for it, then go for it!

I made a hotel block at our local hotel. They required a minimum of 10 rooms to aquire a discount. The more rooms the better the discount. I booked 20. They took all my information and they took down my Credit Card information but that's just to hold it. Each guest will be paying for themselves. Guests have until 1 month before the wedding to reserve rooms. Any rooms not booked from the block at that time will be released back into their main booking program. But as PP said, it varies by hotel.

As for a welcome bag? I thought about it but I just don't have the budget. If you do I think these are cute. or something like this site has a bunch of ideas. Good luck!

Agreed check with hotels to see what up front costs & penalties may be.

Welcome bags rags are a cute idea but you can save by ordering items online through Amazon or websites like that. Also check with the hotel to see if there’s a cost to distribute the bags.

My wedding is at a hotel, so they set up a block for us for no additional charge -- though they specifically mentioned that we wouldn't be on the hook for any unused rooms, which makes me think some hotels do hold you accountable for those rooms. Ours releases about a month before the wedding. We scheduled for 3 nights around our Monday December wedding like this: 10 rooms Saturday and Sunday night, 20 rooms for Monday night. All of my family is coming from out of town, so we'll already account for 1/3 or more of those Saturday/Sunday rooms just for my immediate family. Several friends already said they would rent a room the night of to make it an extra special night, which is cute.
The hotel said we can call and add more rooms easily.

I set up 2 room blocks for my wedding and didn't have to put money down for either. Room blocks are a great way to get a slightly lower rate for your guests. Make sure when you're shopping for room blocks that you ask if you'll be responsible for paying for any room that isnt booked. That's not the type of block you want. We chose two hotels to accommodate two different budgets. Then we put all this information on our wedding website, including the date that it expires. The hotel will give you instructions on how to have your guests book under your rook block. Each hotel has a different timeline, but at some point they also will release the unbooked rooms from your block back to their open inventory to be booked at their current rate. As a side note, I found that you get much better rates by calling or visiting the hotel directly, dont use one of those services that "guarantees the best room block rates". I was able to get much better rates by calling the hotel directly.

We're going to do welcome, I always appreciate them when I'm traveling to a wedding. They dont have to be fancy at all. Get a paper bag with handles, some cases of water, and some sweet a d salty snacks. Then put it all together based on the amount of ppl in the room.

My hotel makes us pay 80% of the unused rooms since our wedding is on a holiday and one of their biggest nights of the year, NYE. But that wasn't a problem for since we only blocked 20 rooms and they told us we didn't have to block anymore. As long as space was available they could still book a room for the guest rate under the wedding party name. 90% of our families are from out of state so it won't be a problem for us

We have a room block also but we’re not expected to pay for any in-used hotel rooms. Also we decided not to do hotel gifts.