reserving a block of hotel rooms

Thursday, May 22, 2014

 

Hi everyone! Today is another wedding post (to see all my wedding posts, click here). We have been making a lot of decisions lately -- but nothing really worth writing about. Since we last "spoke" we have reserved our rehearsal dinner space and I have been trying on wedding dresses! One thing we just accomplished was reserving a block of rooms for our out of town guests. I was not originally going to write about this, but it was such a pain in the @$$ that I decided to share my experience!

First, before you start calling hotels just be prepared to never actually get to talk to anybody. You will call a hotel and get put through to the front desk, who will transfer you to somebody, where you will leave a message and most likely never hear from them again unless you call back. Not kidding - this was my experience with five different hotels!

Second, you need to figure out what is important to you. The most important thing to us was to have a shuttle bus that would take our guests to and from the reception site. We did not want our guests to have to worry about a way to get home! We only considered hotels with a complimentary shuttle.

Here is a list of everything I made sure to ask about!

1. Price per room?

2. What amenities will be included for guests?
- Parking, breakfast, etc.

3. Is there a penalty for not booking enough of the reserved rooms?
- Some places require that 80-85% of the rooms you reserve must be paid for. This means that if you reserve 10 rooms and only 5 of them get reserved by guests you will be paying the cost of the remaining 3 rooms to make it so that 80% of the rooms are reserved. Others just say if 2 weeks out, the rooms are not reserved they become available to the public.

4. Can we add more rooms closer to the wedding date?
- We have a good guess of who all will need a room but we are not so sure how many people will share a room. We wanted to make sure that if we only reserved 10 rooms but we had 12 people call for a room, those extra 2 people would be given the same rate.

5. Anything for us if we book a certain number of rooms?
- Most hotels did not give anything here, but one told us that if we book the honeymoon suite $5 from each room reserved will go towards our bill. So 10 rooms booked = $50 off of our room rate for the night. Not huge, but every little bit helps!

6. Anything for us if we are rewards members? (Hhonors, Marriot Rewards, etc.)
- Again, most hotels do not give you anything here unless you are paying for the rooms or also having your wedding there. Still, it does not hurt to ask!

These are the main things I focused on when I spoke with the hotel representatives. I felt like I covered all the main topics and am very excited about our decision! I think we got a great rate for a room for our guests and I love that they will be able to get to and from the reception safely. We also booked a hotel without a penalty for only reserving a portion of our blocked rooms -- which takes a lot of stress away!

What things did I miss? Is there anything else you recommend asking? Let me know in the comments below!

Also, don't forget you can use code MEMORYOFUS at Enza for 40% off until 11:59 PM Monday and DARCY20 at White Plum for 20% off until May 28. And before you go be sure to enter the giveaway for a new phone or mac case from Clique Boutique!


a Rafflecopter giveaway



I would love it if you would follow me on GFC or Bloglovin'!

You Might Also Like

15 thoughts

  1. wonderful post, good to know ;)
    lovely greets
    Maren Anita
    fashion-meets-art

    FASHION-MEETS-ART by Maren Anita

    ReplyDelete
  2. There is so many things you need to think of before the wedding, I think it is great that you are sharing this with others who may be getting ready for their own wedding... great pointers :) Have a wonderful day Darcy :)

    By the way, I really like your name :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We had such a frustrating time with this too!! We talked to the manager who took care of all this and set it all up and even put down a deposit, and when I called back a month later they had no clue who I even was. It al worked out in the end, but what an extra hassle! It sounds like you have yours under control :)

    www.madeintheshadeblog.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Darcy this is a great post with helpful tips thanks for sharing.
    http://tifi11.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. when i was looking for prices, i would mention "big party" instead of "wedding"..when vendors hear "wedding", they see dollar signs. i would record their prices and then go back if i wanted more info with their information. sometimes they'd be mad that i didn't tell them it was a wedding but for real, what's the difference? same amount of people as a big party, right?

    -kathy
    Vodka and Soda

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ok I've ALWAYS wondered about this! Great advice!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ugh! I hated doing that too! I wish I had your advice then haha!

    <3 Shannon
    Upbeatsoles.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. I can only imagine how nerve wrecking would be this process :p

    http://cassie2fashion.blogspot.com/2014/05/say-bye-bye.html#comment-form

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great tips, babe! Happy Thursday!

    -Ashley
    http://lestylorouge.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those are such great tips to know before getting married! I will try to remember few of dose for the time they might come in handy! :)

    www.callmemaddie.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. When my day finally comes, all these tips you are sharing sure are going to come in handy!
    -Hannah
    sweeterthanserenity.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Darcy, I didn't think about these. This is so good and important to know. Thanks for sharing!
    http://www.averysweetblog.com/

    ReplyDelete
  13. coming from someone who worked in hotels (previously. not anymore.) and worked with the wedding room blocks, i understand. I always made sure to reach out because it was great business and blew my mind when i heard other hotels did what you described. definitely make sure you ask about courtesy blocks (rooms that are relased) so you are not bound in attrition. i hope it's great for you!

    ReplyDelete

Please note that if you choose to comment with your Google Account your name and email will be stored.