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As a former event director/sales manager at a hotel, that $104 rate is likely the PRE-PAID rate. We had a LOT of questions about that too. The pre-paid rate is great, but once booked, it cannot be modified or cancelled.
hotel blocks are for your guests' convenience and to ensure that they are able to get a reservation somewhere. it's a big misconception that hotel blocks are bargains. hotels are taking a risk by reserving a block for you, so they're not going to give you a rock-bottom rate.
@kitzy: This is definitely true. We hardly ever offered major discounts, since more often than not, less than 50% of the block was actualized.
On the advice of another I asked if they could do better than the initial price they quoted and they dropped it $20. So it doesn't hurt to ask and check if there are any other discounts that can be applied. The worst they can say is no.
We booked blocks at a Marriott and a Hilton. The Marriott gave us 10% off the regular room rate, and the Hilton wouldn't budge a penny. Depending on the area of town your wedding is in, and time of the year, the hotels don't really have any incentive to lower their rates as they will book with or without your wedding (that was the situation with us, at any rate). Sorry to not have more words of advice :/
I would block at the most reasonable (and acceptable) hotel. Let your guests know what the rate is if they ask, but also suggest priceline or another online site if they want to search it. I know our rate is not as nice as what they can find online, so our wedsite encourages our friends and family to check online before they book.
my hotel is only giving about $5 off the price too, however it also includes a free suite for the bride & Groom (yay) and a free shuttle for our guests to and from the venue to the hotel. In my opinion, this makes up for the insignificant discount :)
Thanks for this post! I have no idea about hotel blocks... ugh.. it's giving me a headache just thinking about it. I think I'll hand this over to my mom. :)
My fiance works for Marriott now and used to work for Hilton--the rates are generally set by corporate, and the sales department generally can't do a whole lot to change them. If you do find a lower rate online, you can usually bring that to their attention and see if they can do something to change it, but generally they may be able to match it, but not do much better. As a PP stated, these rates are based on time of year, and occupancy history. Also, make sure to ask when you create the block if the rooms will be released back to general census at any point in time. Our block is released back about 3 weeks before the wedding, so if our guests haven't made their reservation by then, they will have to pay the regular advertised rate and risk not getting a room as these hotels normall sell out nightly...
Thanks ladies for your input! I suppose I was mistaken in believing hotels gave better discounts for blocked rooms. I actually did contact the lady back asking for a rate of $100 including taxes and was denied. Oh well, I tried. :/
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I know there's been lots of topics started involving hotel blocks etc. but here's my question...
There's 3 hotels in the city we are getting married, the comfort inn, marriott town and suites, and the hampton inn. We didn't want to offer the hampton inn because it's beside a movie theater that can get ghetto and has lots of teens, cop cars, etc. there on the weekends. I contacted the comfort inn inquiring about a discount for 20 rooms. We were quoted $109. When I looked online the price is $105 for a saturday night in march....i just needed a close enough date to use as a test. Then when I put in our date the price online was $129. I get that there is a nice discount if my guests booked our wedding now. However, how do I not know come Aug. that when I look to book a room it's going to be listed as the online price at $109 also? Knowing our guests, no one is going to book now. They will wait until July or August and get a big discount of $4!
I hope I'm making sense. I get hotels want to fill their rooms so the closer to a date the cheaper the room will be. But a $4 discount is dumb!! I tried using that website that hotels make bids to you but that was a waste of time. They gave me hotels 12-25 miles away that would be inconvinent for my guests to stay at when there are 2 "okay" hotels in this city. Then I thought well perhaps because it's the comfort inn and not the hilton is why we are getting such a crappy rate. I have no idea but suggestions are welcome! I'm going to contact the marriott in the next few days and see what they give me.