screwed by room block?

This is why we chose not to bother doing a room block and I was actually going to post a thread here asking how necessary they are. I only have a handful of OOT guests so they can adult and find a room IMO. Glad you posted this and sorry it's happening to you! Just more added wedding stress

You should never book a room block with any sort of minimum! So many hotels offer courtesy blocks.

That this was always a hotel policy. After hanging up, I checked the website again, and sure enough, I can book 2 consecutive nights on that date, but not the 1 night I'm short rooms on. However, a co-worker and I tried to book 1 night stays in all different combinations: week nights, one weekend night, etc. further down the calendar. And the week after the wedding, we can book a room at this hotel for, you guessed it, 1 night. No requirement to book 2 nights. I released 3 of the rooms I had reservations for, because she said they have a better chance of selling them if I'm not holding them til the last minute. So this morning, I check again, and now there are no standard rooms available for the 2 night stay, only 1 bedroom suites. So basically, if there are my 3 standard rooms available on the first night, but not the 2nd night, it's not allowing you to book those standard rooms, so they'll always be unoccupied. I may be jumping to conclusions, but right now I feel like the hotel is going to create any combination of criteria that must be met to get to 100% occupancy, and at the end, I'm the one who is screwed.

ps. there is no 2-night min. clause in my contract. And I've printed out the "sold out" response I got from the general hotel website for the 1 night, as well as trivago showing 4 other sites do not have rooms available for that night. I also called hotel reservations and was told they are sold out on the first night, and she did not mention rooms are available with a 2 night stay...

I will not do a room block with any hotel that requires a minimum. We've budgeted for everything, but that. Since some hotels don't have a requirement we should be fine.

You should call again and talk to a manager or whoever handles the room block (or both!). I didn't realize hotels had minimums. The two I spoke to both did a courtesy block. If they aren't booked by a certain date they just get released to the public.

I'm sorry this is happening. I hope you can work it out with them.

We just made sure to use a block that doesn't have a minimum. Our agreement was that any of the 30 rooms we'd blocked that didn't end up booked within a month of the wedding would then be released to the general public. We actually ended up getting a lot of perks from our hotel due to the block.

We only did the block because we have alot of OOT guests who were ooing and ahhing over "the beach" and talking about staying for a few days and making a mini vacation out of it, blah, blah, blah. Come crunch time, everyone is trying to find a couch to crash on. Not cool. I've learned a lot about people and how little their word means during this planning period. Lip service, nothing more.

That sucks. I blocked rooms at two places but they are courtesy blocks. I can see why a beachfront hotel doesn't have them though - prime real estate etc. hopefully it works out!

I can understand why you wanted to be kind and do a room block and I'm sorry you're getting screwed. Our venue had a minimum and despite many of our guests traveling in from outside the country, we refused to be on the hook for that much money. We explained this to all of the travelers and they understood. We told them if they wanted a room there to book early. I hope this works out for you!

So sorry about this. We are lucky that our block is a courtesy block because we are doing a wedding package (ceremony & reception) at the hotel.

I'm in the hotel business, and yea, you're kinda screwed. It doesn't matter what room type is available for how long online. If the room sits open, they'll hold you responsible. Even if it's the penthouse suit, they could have upgrade someone to fill that inventory and sold the lower category of room. I don't know that the lack of 2 night clause in your contract is of any help either. We frequently put on 2 night minimums to protect the pattern of the hotel to maximize occupancy. Just because it's not required by your contract doesn't mean that the hotel can't restrict it based on what rooms are available when you waive the right to those rooms. If they were telling your guests there is a 2 night min, that'd be shady, because you contracted those rooms. But if they're just restricting the general public's ability to buy, that's within their right.

Sorry you're going through this though. Read your contract carefully for holes. Were you offered a chance to use attrition and reduce your block in the contract? Did anyone reach out to you about that?

This is what reviews are for. You should definitely review this hotel and state all of this in the review. It just sounds sketchy on so many levels.

That's why we didn't go a room block as either. Instead we decided on a nearby hotel that gave us an amazing group rate.