Room Blocking for Out of Town Guests

After calling hotel upon hotel about group rates for one of my brides, I just wanted to do a quick post on hotel room blocking for out of town guests.

In my opinion, it's an absolute must if you are expecting a good number of out of town guests. After all, they are spending the money to come see you get married, the least you can do is provide a block at a local hotel so they get a bit of a discount! This won't cost you any money if you do it right.

So, here's my advice- If you plan on blocking a large number of rooms, you typically have to sign an agreement and provide a credit card. You are then responsible for paying a certain percentage of the rooms if they don't get booked. Now, if you go in telling the hotel right away how many rooms you need (and it's a large number), they may not tell you about their courtesy block. Ask about this! Typically, a hotel will courtesy block (you won't need to sign anything) a certain amount of rooms. It's a good idea to start with this amount. Then, if all of the rooms get booked, talk to them about adding on some additional ones. Since your guests are showing a great response, they may add more rooms to your block without asking you to sign a thing.

Bottom line- If you can block rooms without signing a contract, do it. You never know what your guests will end up doing. Some may have hotel points, some might stay with family. You don't want to be locked in to paying for 20 hotel rooms!