Room Blocks

With such a small group, I think you're fine. It may be worth contacting the hotels though, to see if they offer courtesy room blocks. I have blocks with 3 hotels (we have lots of people from out of town) but they're all courtesy blocks. Almost every hotel I talked to said they have no charge for blocks of 15 rooms or less, and you only have to sign a contract and put a credit card on file for larger room blocks. The only caveat is the reservations must be made 30 days prior to check in or else the unreserved rooms are released back into the hotel's general population.

I think a courtesy block is never a bad idea! It's free and at least gives out of town guests an option.

It should cost you nothing to get a courtesy block at a hotel - even if guests are familiar with the area, they may still want to stay at a hotel. Just contact a local hotel and ask if they can offer a special rate and a courtesy block. its a very thoughtful thing to do for your guests that takes very little time and no expense.

Since it sounds like a small number of people would need rooms, you can make suggestions and not worry with blocks.