Room Blocks- When to book

We're doing hotel blocks. Most rooms were filled, but for those that weren't, the hotel released them to the public after the deadline (1–2 months before the wedding) . So we're not responsible for paying if the rooms don't all get booked.

Tell the hotel(s) you're looking into that you want a courtesy block. They'll hold X number of rooms for you as a courtesy, any that aren't filled by the cutoff date will be released back to the public, and you won't be charged if any aren't filled. I've heard some people have better luck finding hotel rates on their own vs through a block, so I looked at it as more of a way to have everyone in a centralized location. Plus some people will have loyalty memberships at other chains, they won't book through the block, etc. so it's best not to agree to anything where you'll be on the hook for paying for unused rooms.

I wouldn't recommend signing a contract where you are responsible for paying for unbooked rooms. You can definitely find hotels that will just release the rooms to the public after a certain deadline. We did a hotel block but it turns out only 3-4 rooms out of 15 will be reserved. The rest will be released at the end of May and we will have 0 payment obligations. The discount was maybe 10% so not a huge discount.

I would go ahead and get a room block as soon as possible, particularly if there are any big events in Boston that weekend (festivals, Sox games, marathons, etc). As other posters have said a courtesy block, where you aren't financially responsible, is the first place to start.

At our hotel, they gave us a decent discount, it was about $40 off per night of the regular price.

We ended up needing many more hotel rooms than they would give us through the courtesy block for our guests, so we did end up signing a contract for a block where we would be responsible if we didn't fill at least 80% of the rooms. We looked at the guest list and counted up the people most likely to attend and used that for a conservative estimate for how many we would likely need so we didn't end up with rooms that we had to pay for.

Just for context, for our 100 our of town guests, we have 40 rooms total booked in block for our wedding in a few weeks. So at about two people per room, about 80% are staying at the hotel, with the remaining 20% staying with family or friends or at other hotels where they had points.

Thank you all!!! So helpful

Hello Kelly:

The sooner the better, especially if you know that some of your friends and family are huge procrastinators. My wedding is in Oct 2022 in Vegas and I started telling people in February via text messages. I gave them the booking links etcetera and then followed up with a Save the Data photo and typed up link for 3 different hotels and only 2 out of 50 people have made their reservations. You need to get in touch with Social Groups or Group Booking for at least 2 hotels. Give your guests a few choices as to where they can stay. Make sure that the hotel is not more than 10-15 minute ride from the church/venue what have you. Make things as convenient as possible. I am planning to rent a limo bus to carry my guests to the wedding and p/u from the wedding reception. Especially since I am having an open bar.

Good luck with everything. The more time you give yourself. The better it will be. People can be huge procrastinators.

Best.

Portia

Oh! Each person is responsible for paying for his/her lodging. There is a deadline for the discounted rate for the block of rooms. I did 10 rooms per hotel. Once the 10 rooms fill up, you can ask your Group Hotel Associate to give you 10 more rooms should the need arise.

Hope that your guests are a bit more swift than my friends and family are. They are turtle slow.

View Quoted Comment This is so helpful! Thank you!!