You may notice something about our website: I am a bad, bad bride.
I decided that I didn’t want to deal with hotel blocks, and that everyone could put on their grown-up britches and book their own rooms. Why? Well, at work I coordinate the events our company goes to, and the company has a set amount they usually want to spend on hotels. The room blocks are always way more than they’re willing to spend, so they look elsewhere every single time.
My family is pretty cheap.
Mr. Hyena’s family lives close enough that many of them will just drive home after the wedding. Many of our friends are still in school or recently out of college and likely wouldn’t want to spend much for a place to stay. It seems silly to set aside a hotel block when I will eventually—inevitably—have to foot the cost for unused rooms. Plus, I’m lazy and I just didn’t want to bother. Too big a hassle.
Besides, this being a college town, there are tons of places to stay. And because we do want to help out our guests a little, we did list a few nearby hotels on our website, and I even Yelped them to make sure they had good reviews!
Are you setting aside hotel blocks? Am I an awful, awful bride?
You’re not awful. I was initially thinking of doing the same thing, but a)realized it would be really fun/convenient for everyone to be in the same place the night before and night of, and b)hotels always give discounts when you say you’ll bring a group in, so this was actually by far the cheapest option… worked out to be cheaper than other hotels in a way lower class. So it worked for me! But was definitely a pain in the butt to set it up 
I don’t think that you’re awful. You do what you can do. Some would think that not being there to personally pick up your guests at the airport would be inhospitable! You have to draw the line somewhere. With that said, I was able to set up a block of rooms using http://www.hotelplanner.com I just input the number of rooms we would like to reserve, where, and any additional needs and hotels bid on our business. That part was easy. Deciding was a little more difficult. Just wanted to share that site in case you (or others) didn’t know about it.
With our hotel block, we definitely don’t have to pay for the rooms that aren’t used. They just go away if no one has booked them by a certain date. I think this is how it usually works. People will be fine getting their own rooms, though.
I did have two different hotel blocks, but I didn’t have to pay for any unused rooms. It was very easy for me to work with the hotels; they just needed my information and gave me a rate that we agreed upon. Have you contacted any hotels to see if they would set up a block for you where you wouldn’t have to pay for unused rooms? At the hotels I used, my block expired about a month before the wedding, so I just had to make sure my guests booked their rooms before that time.
I agree with using hotelplanner.com! They bid on your block, give you the rates, and then they set you up. It was by far the EASIEST part of our wedding planning. We just chose the hotel with that was relatively close, cheapest rates, and who wouldn’t charge us for the unused rooms.
Best part was that they gave us a complimentary suite since we had more than 10 rooms booked! If that’s not incentive enough, I don’t know what is!
i am not looking forward to this! i’ll be having my wedding in hawaii, and boy are there price differences in hotels! i figure most of my friends won’t want to pay an arm and a leg for their hotel rooms, but i do think they’ll all want to be together… probably the same for the family. so do i pick a cheap hotel and hope the quality is decent? or pick a pricier but fancier and probably closer to the ocean hotel? yikes.
You’re not awful – I did a room block only because our wedding is at a hotel and it’s “included”. But I gave out the room information and left it alone – I wasn’t going to waste energy on making sure people had rooms because like you said, it’s time to put grown up panties on and just book a hotel room. Not difficult…so I thought. I can’t believe all the people who called me asking me to book rooms for them…oyyyy.
I don’t have to pay for any unused rooms either. If they don’t book 30 days before the event date, the rooms just go back to the hotel to book if they can.
Not a bad bride. Your method seems completely reasonable given your guests. I made Mr. Pony do this, which is the only reason we have a block of rooms
our venue has a attached hotel. We were told we were going to get a discount on the 129$ room rate. 3 months later it shot up to $220 a night-not including extra charges. Not to mention we had to fill 80% of the contracted rooms. Even saying we were going to have a huge group, saying we were going to move our other events (that we would be spending $ on), only made them move a few dollars. We didn’t go with a block with them.
Meanwhile, the hotel down the street is $64 with a block, has free breakfast, a free airport shuttle, and we don’t have to fill all the rooms. So we totally gave them our business.
The easiest block? The rental cars!
It’s fine. I blocked 35 rooms at a decent hotel (Hyatt Place, they’re great!), but it’s fewer rooms than our out-of-town guests will need. I know some of them will be looking elsewhere anyway. People are grown ups, they can deal with it.
I don’t see why you would have to pay for the rooms that were not booked. That is generally only applicable in business events not private ones such as weddings. Anyway, I don’t think it’s a big deal to not block rooms as long as there are no big events in town the weekend of your wedding (ours was a college football game day and hotels are booked a year in advance so we had to block off rooms). However, I just wouldn’t put anything on your website regarding hotels.
I blocked rooms at 2 hotels so that our guests would have options. I mostly did it because we have a lot of OOT guests who are unfamiliar with the area so I wanted to provide suggestions and if they want to stay at another hotel nearby that is their choice. We also don’t have to pay for any unused rooms they just get released 30 days before the wedding. They will also deliver our OOT bags for free!
We did a hotel block at 1 hotel. But… I waited so long to look into it that my mom just did it herself for me! Score!
Good decision!
Our wedding was in a strange location, and hardly any of guests ended up staying nearby, so I’m glad I too went the no-block route. I felt kind of of bad, but many of our college friends ended up staying in Fort Worth, our OOT cousins wanted to stay in downtown Dallas, his family stayed in the town his parents live, and my family stayed in the town my family lives. Whew. We would have ended up paying a lot.
i have to say that out of all the out of town weddings we have been to we never stay at the hotel with blocked rooms since there are always nearby hotels that are cheaper.
Im going to do what you did and just list a bunch with good reviews on the wedding website.
When I booked a block at the Marriott, I was told I’d be responsible for any rooms that weren’t booked up to 80% of the total block. But that didn’t apply with a block of 10 (the smallest) so I went with that, and they added more when it filled up.
I think it’s helpful to at least have the hotel blocked off. And you definitely should not have to pay for any rooms that are not used, all you’re doing is reserving a block of rooms for potential use.
We did the same thing. There is some kind of convention in town that weekend and no hotels would give us blocks, so I just said eff it and listed a few hotels at different price points on our site. I also listed which hotel we are staying at that night for afterparty purposes.
I did a block of twenty rooms at the hotels affiliated with our reception venue. We used three hotels that surround the reception hall. The reason I blocked rooms is
A) There will probably be a lot of drinking
B) They gave us a range of rates $45-$60/night
C) No contract. If the rooms are not booked thirty days in advance they are put back in rotation.
Mrs. Hyena, College Station, TX Age and Occupation: 23, Marketing Specialist Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Grad Student Engagement Date: January 8, 2010 Wedding Date: May 2011 Venue: Downtown 202 About Me: I'm a Texas girl who met my future hubby in high school, then headed up to Oklahoma for a college education (BOOMER SOONER!) before moving back to the Lone Star State to be with him. I love reading and recycling, Photoshop and reality TV, making lame jokes and then laughing at them, quoting movies, and Mr. Hyena most of all. I'm perpetually early and I like to get things accomplished. When my cat meows at me, I meow back. We're planning a laid-back, unintentionally DIY wedding with a cocktail-party vibe, and can't wait to celebrate our nuptials with our nearest and dearest!
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