Wedding block question

That totally surprised and scared me!!! The last thing I want is to get stuck with a bill for unused rooms, lol.

We did the “courtesy block” with Marriott, where they hold the block until about 3-4 weeks from your date, then release the rooms at no charge. You don’t get any perks other than the points, but at least you get the nice rate.

Our first-choice boutique hotel did not offer the courtesy block (just the block you described), so we are just telling people to call them directly and to book there EARLY. We’ll include both choices with our lodging info.

Some hotels offer courtesy blocks and others don’t. In the city I live in there aren’t any hotels that do courtesy blocks so we chose to let people handle their own accommodations. I wouldn’t advise being on the hook for I booked rooms and it’s too early to get an accurate headcount.

Definitely just particular hotels! My hotel block allowed me to save 25 rooms each night, had no minimum, and I was not financially responsible for anything that wasn’t booked. That being said, guests had to book before a month in advance because that’s when they released the room block to sell any unsaved rooms. In my opinion that sounds a little too risky and stressful! If you’ve already booked the ballroom that’s fine, but you might want to consider actually making the room block somewhere else. Good luck though, that’s a tricky one!!

It was the first time I have really been upset over anything. I am spending a lot of money at that hotel(including to suites the night before and one the night of. You would think they would take better care of our guest. Just disappointing is all.

This is normal for a lot of hotels, although not all. My brother is getting married in a couple of months, and the hotel they chose has this minimum also. I tried to advise him to find a hotel that will do a "courtesy block" so he doesn't get charged, but he doesn't listen to me. Ok, then dude, don't come crying to me when you have to pay a bunch of money for unused rooms.

A courtesy block allows you to set aside a block of rooms at a discounted price for your guests to book. There is a deadline in which to book a room at that price, then after the deadline, any unbooked rooms are released back into the hotel's available rooms, and the couple aren't charged any kind of minimum. It's definitely the way to go if you can swing it.

I would just not block rooms - I wouldn't want to be on the hook if people didn't stay. I would list a few convenient hotels on your wedding website - but no need to block, people can handle their own reservations.

Some hotels will do a courtesy blocks but if your hotel is requiring a certain number and then holding you responsible for 80% I would likely not do a block. When you send out your save the dates you can send the information to people and tell them to book early to ensure they get rooms in that hotel

It’s into certain hotels, it’s usually the more upscale hotels that require this. We had one tell us this, and decided to go with another that didn't have this requirement, choose another hotel for room blocks!

It's standard. It's called Attrition. Some hotels do a courtesy block as other's have mentioned where you are not held liable for the rooms you don't pick up. We booked a Marriott and signed a contract guaranteeing X amount of rooms based on who we thought would book a room. If we don't fill the block then we are financially responsible for the rooms we didn't pick up. However, attrition allows you to drop 10-20% of your block before a certain cutoff date (typically 30 days before the arrival date) at no penalty. So instead of being responsible for 100% of the rooms originally contracted, you are only responsible for 80-90%.

We only blocked the night of the wedding and the hotel is honoring the group rate 3-days prior to that date and 3-days after, based on hotel availability. This significantly reduced the number of room nights we would be responsible for. Usually to get a group rate you need to book 10+ rooms.

Some hotels told us that. We ended up booking a complimentary block with Marriott & Wyndham. We had no financially responsibility.