Blocking hotel rooms...required??

[maroki13]

So, some of you may remember/have heard about the issues I've been having with one of the hotels I had originally blocked rooms with. Basically, their customer service is horrible and we've decided not to go with them.

Our other hotel is great and is the place we are having our reception. We've blocked rooms at this hotel.

In place of the hotel we dropped, I called around to other hotels. There is another hotel that is a super good deal...an Extended Stay America. The problem is, they don't accept reservations more than 4 months out. And they don't block hotel rooms or lock in prices. Their prices are lower than the rate we WOULD have gotten at the hotel we dropped, so I'm not too worried about the prices. So, basically waiting until they can take reservations and recommending their hotel would be too late for save the dates and too close to invitation time. It would be a waste to even send them out that late.

I originally wanted Save the Dates to go out before Christmas or immediately after, so that people would have plenty of time to plan. However, at this point we have only one hotel with blocked rooms and another hotel we would like people to stay at but no blocked rooms.

So, my question is...are blocked rooms really necessary? Or are people responsible enough and able enough to make their own lodging choices if we give them a list of hotels. I was thinking maybe we could give them a list of hotels and they could make their own decision about where to stay. Basically, it is going to be most of my family, and I think they will talk about where to stay and ask me or my mom for options. I'm thinking about just sending out save the dates with only ONE hotel with blocked rooms and just a list of other hotels they can choose from, based on rates and locations. What do you guys think? Maybe I'll make a poll....

[syringa]

Giving your guests a list of hotels should be sufficient. If they want to stay somewhere else, then they can, or they can make their own arrangements at one of the places that you suggest.

[Marrying_the_Good_Husband]

I like the idea of saying, hotel rooms are blocked at ____ hotel; other hotels in the area are ___ and ___. So they know rooms WILL be available at hotel A, but if hotel B is an obviously cheaper option, they can shop around and try their luck there.

[Heather]

Originally Posted by Marrying_the_Good_Husband

I like the idea of saying, hotel rooms are blocked at ____ hotel; other hotels in the area are ___ and ___. So they know rooms WILL be available at hotel A, but if hotel B is an obviously cheaper option, they can shop around and try their luck there.

Ditto. It was a necessity in my case...

[feb-bride]

I would only worry about blocking rooms if:

*Your wedding is taking place over a holiday weekend
*Your wedding is taking place in a location where the lodging options are extremely limited and there's a good chance that there won't be enough rooms available when the time comes for your guests to make their reservations
*You have a LOT of guests coming in from out of town

Otherwise, I think a list of hotel options is sufficient.

[whiddle]

Originally Posted by feb-bride

I would only worry about blocking rooms if:

*Your wedding is taking place over a holiday weekend
*Your wedding is taking place in a location where the lodging options are extremely limited and there's a good chance that there won't be enough rooms available when the time comes for your guests to make their reservations
*You have a LOT of guests coming in from out of town

Otherwise, I think a list of hotel options is sufficient.

My thoughts exactly....

[555Ann555]

I don't think the bookings should be needed, but if I was one of your guests coming from out of town I'd really like you to include a wee map showing how close each hotel was to the wedding site & to other places I might like to go, as well as having a rough guide to the room rates... I'd appreciate that you'd even gone to this much trouble let alone pre-booking a room for me!

[bebe]

We blocked rooms at the resort that our wedding was at, and sent a list of about 15 other hotels in the area ranging from economy (Super 8) to luxury (Hyatt at Incline Village). All of that information was included in the save the dates.

ETA: Our wedding was out of town, otherwise we probably would have just gone with a list of hotels in the area.

[Marge129]

We didn't block rooms off at a hotel for a couple of reasons:
1- A few families rented cabins (info was provided from us) so extended families could stay together.
2- There's a VERY wide range of hotel prices/ammenities in the area.

We sent out the info WAY in advance so that people had plenty of time to make reservations.

[labeadel]

We only booked rooms at the hotel where the wedding was taking place at, and included 2 other hotels as well on the Save-the-Date. And I sent out the STD so far in advance that I hadn't blocked any rooms yet, so I put on the hotel card that went with the STD's, Please contact Amy or DH at 555-555-1234 prior to making hotel reservations as lower rates may be available. Or something like that. I don't fully remember, but you get the gist. I just didn't feel comfortable blocking so far in advance.

[ladedah]

My concern is that all of my portion of the guests have to travel to where the wedding will be, so I wanted to make sure that I had enough information for my guests...and I didn't really feel comfortable blocking rooms so far in advance...so I contacted the Holiday Inn that is close to the reception site and negotiated a group rate (this may be what you are really talking about). I think the manager agreed to this because I suggested that I would probably be able to get all of my guests to stay there if I had a lower rate and that it would be approx 50 rooms of the hotels 61 available. They agreed and I didn't have to have any minimums or anything.