Hotel Blocks?

[Measha]

I feel kind of silly, but I have NO idea how to go about this.

Do you wind up paying the hotel at all for setting up a block or?

How does it work? :bbredface:

[WebLady]

From what I understand you book a room for you and get the hotel to reserve a block or rooms (even just a few) for your OOT guests. I would guess you might have to make some sort of deposit in some cases and may have to pay a penalty if the rooms aren't booked. This may be harder/more expensive in higher end hotels and/or during peek times.

I would call around to some local places and ask how they do it.

[mitch]

I work in a Hotel and We take Block Bookings all the time.

I even booked six rooms for My own Wedding there.

Some Hotels ask for a Deposit on each room booked. Some need to know how many people are in each room so they know how many for Breakfast etc.

All You have to do is phone around for the best deal. Different Hotels have different policies.

Ours may be completely different to the US. But some things may be similar.

[PGDesigns]

We blocked rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn and have been very pleased so far. We blocked 10 rooms and did not have to worry about a deposit or paying a penalty if the room block was not filled.

[f77g4]

We've blocked 40 rooms at the Best Western for our guests. No deposit required. Also, the hotel takes them off the block a month before the wedding to save them not being able to rent them out to others.

[sandy03]

We blocked 20 at the Sleep Inn. I went to the hotel and spoke with the manager once before we actually reserved them and she was very helpful. She let me tour all the different rooms and gave us a great rate for reserving as a group and I guess because it's a small town and they aren't very busy, we have until 6pm on Check-in day to cancel the extra rooms! We had to use a credit card to reserve them but it didn't charge the card. I also got a print-out with all the confirmation numbers so I KNOW which ones have been blocked. I can't say enough good things about working with them so far!

I definitely suggest going in person to do it if you can because you can usually get some sort of physical receipt from them in case anything goes wrong with people trying to make reservations and the block not being there or whatever!

[RosieAngel]

I agree with the suggestion that you should go in person to do this. One of my friends went in person to one and phoned in her blocking on the other, and the one she called ended up accidentally booking another wedding in her reserved rooms, which sucked for everyone involved. I ended up sharing my room with a random guest that I had never met before because of this, though I ended up making friends with her!

[lillypad]

The rules seem to be different everywhere. We ended up not blocking rooms because most of the hotels here require you to pay for the rooms that are not filled. I did not want to be on the line for $1,000 of empty hotel rooms. I could see if you lived in a small town with one or two hotels that it would make sense though. Our wedding in is a massive tourist and convention town so I think people will be best off on there own and I just recommend a few places that were close to the location of the wedding at a three different price points.

[f77g4]

The rules seem to be different everywhere. We ended up not blocking rooms because most of the hotels here require you to pay for the rooms that are not filled. I did not want to be on the line for $1,000 of empty hotel rooms. I could see if you lived in a small town with one or two hotels that it would make sense though. Our wedding in is a massive tourist and convention town so I think people will be best off on there own and I just recommend a few places that were close to the location of the wedding at a three different price points.

I'm really glad that ours takes them off the block 1 month prior to the wedding and that I don't have to pay for any rooms not filled.

[FutureKelley]

We did not have to put any deposit down for blocked rooms. Our hotel (Holiday Inn), as f77g4, removes the un-filled hotel rooms a month prior to the wedding.

[tk93]

I'm really glad that ours takes them off the block 1 month prior to the wedding and that I don't have to pay for any rooms not filled.

Same policy is in place at my hotel. They're holding 35 rooms for our guests at a huge discount, with the option to add on more as needed until a month before the wedding. All unreserved rooms will be released to the public at full prices after that point. I arranged for the blocking via email with the hotel because I'm a strong believer that everything should be in writing. I have a signed contract from them as well stating the dates of the wedding weekend, the discounted prices, and the minimum number of rooms (35) they will hold for us up to a month prior to the wedding.

Other hotels I've contacted also had similar policies - none required me to put down a deposit.

[f77g4]

I have a lady that is helping with the wedding who works in the travel department of the company she works for and she is doing the dealings for me.

She works where my dad (and my mom used to) work and is friends with them. She's also our designated driver for the night for us and all the guests.

[savepaws]

We didn't have to put a deposit down. If that had been the case, I wouldn't have blocked off rooms because I have no idea how many OOT guests will actually be coming for sure.

The hotel we blocked will hold the rooms up until May 15 (our wedding is June 6). Any rooms that aren't taken, will be up for grabs for other people.

We called 2 hotels and one didn't block the rooms for us. One of our OOT guests recently called and tried to get a room under our wedding but the hotel said they didn't know anything about it. And it made us look stupid. So I would double check after you block off the rooms and make sure they really did do it.