There seems to be a ton of information out there about what happens if you don't fill a room block, but I'm very curious about people's experiences with room blocks that were filled and exceeded. Once your room block filled, were your guests still able to book at the discounted price (as long as there was availability)?
A little background on our situation: It will take our guests 4 hrs to travel to our venue (some may have to fly too), so it's a bit of a trek to get to. Our venue is also out in the middle of (beautiful) nowhere, with the next closest chain hotel being 40 min away, so it's ideal to book accommodations at the venue. The cost of the rooms at our venue is a little on the pricier side at $250/night with a 2-night minimum.
My conundrum is, given the nightly minimum and cost, I REALLY don't want to pay for any rooms that don't get filled, but I also don't want our guests to miss out on the discounted room rate... We're inviting 130 guests max, but it's so hard to estimate who's going to be a no-show, who's going to go for the cheaper but farther out hotel option, how many people are going to try to pair up and crash in the hotel rooms... We feel safe setting up a room block for about 30-40 rooms, but that definitely wouldn't cover all our guests. It would great if our venue would honor the discounted room rates for our guests, even if the room block filled and assuming there was still availability (we asked, we're just waiting to hear back), but is that a thing venues/hotels do? Has anyone else had experience with this?