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We are not. A lot of our OOT guests are family, so they will be staying with family near by, or close friends. It didn't seem logical. I also couldn't understand quite how it would work incase we blocked too many.
We are not making actual blocks at hotels, but on our invitations, we are sending hotel suggestions. One will be a higher-priced hotel for the rich folk, two middle of the road hotels, and two budget hotels.
We are not blocking any rooms for our guests. It just wouldn't work for us. We are having a relatively small wedding and, like your families, income varies drastically. Instead, we put a bunch of different recommended hotels on our website and included our website on our save-the-dates. We are also going to include an accommodation card with our invitattions that directs them to our website for more information.
Thanks for the responses, ladies. Glad to see I'm not alone on this. I hope no one thinks I'm being inconsiderate, but really, I think it'll be most considerate of me to not block and instead let them choose the hotel they're most comfortable with!
We have very few OOT guests plus our city isn't going to be crazy busy over Labor day (most people will be at lakes etc), so I doubt there will be a problem with finding a hotel. We listed suggestions on our website at a variety of price ranges to allow people to decide how much they wanted to spend.
I have never heard of hotel blocks before reading about them on WB. Our friends and relatives don't even know what one is, much less how to use one. As a guest, I have never felt like I was cheated because the couple didn't block a hotel. If anything, the accommodations are the guest's responsibility, no one else's.
The benefit of a hotel block is you lock in a rate (usually at a discount) for your guests. I don't see why you couldn't set up 2-3 small blocks at different level hotels. I set up one block because I want to provide transport but if I weren't doing that I would have looked for different price ranges. You can still suggest different level hotel but with the block, you guests are guaranteed rooms at a predetermined rate. I actually got a lot of quotes and ultimately chose my hotel by going through a website I found when looking for a bus. It's called www.busrates.com, look for the hotel planner. You put in everything you want and hotels make offers.
We might not. Our venue is right downtown and so I assumed we'd just block the nearest hotel and be done with it. But when I called to set up a block, they quoted me a rate HIGHER than the published rate on their website.... wha??? Same thing happened with the next hotel down the block. F that. I gave FI the job of calling around to all the hotels downtown to see if all of them are like that, and if so we're just going to list the closest hotels and be done with it.
we blocked hotel rooms at only a slight discount - but mainly because its a holiday weekend in a tourist town - i blocked enough for my wedding party to ensure they get a room to stay in and the rest of the family and friends can choose but i let them know where we are staying in case they want the same hotel.
we also put suggestions on the invite for accomidations - because if folks arent from the area, i dont want them to end up in some roach motel.
most hotel blocks arent much of a discount, its just ensuring rooms will be available for your guests. i would suggest that if anyone in your bridal party is OOT - maybe block out enough rooms for them? not necessarily the guests in general...
We are not blocking rooms in a hotel, but we did recommend a few on our wedding website. We're having a smaller wedding. In your case, I think making suggestions or blocking rooms at two different hotels (based on cost) might be good.
We're not blocking hotel rooms..we have only a few OOT guests, and we can make hotel recommendations if they ask, but we're not blocking at any specific ones.
Almost all of our guests were OOT as well. We had blocks at two hotels -- one was a nicer, more expensive hotel and one was less expensive and more family friendly (all suites with pull-out couches). That way people could choose which one worked for them.
The nice thing was we got a good discount at both hotels, so the nicer one, which is usually about $250-$300/night was $169. (This was not in NYC.) I don't think it's absolutely necessary, but you wouldn't have to choose just one hotel. There are so many hotels in NYC though, that if you don't have blocks, I would definitely give recommendations for where to stay, so people wouldn't be so overwhelmed in trying to book their travel.
If I were a guest I would wonder why you didn't, even if you were only saving me $20 a night of the regular price, I would really appreciate it. Even if they don't give you a price break (which is weird I have never heard of that before), it's nice to know there are rooms blocked and the hotel won't sell out, causing guests to find somewhere else in a city they may not be familiar with. You can do it at a couple hotels to get varing price ranges.
Nope. I looked into blocking out rooms at like, a Drury, and yet the rooms were CHEAPER on Travelocity than the group rate they were giving.
We blocked rooms at two hotels. For us, this was completely necessary because we are getting married on a holiday weekend. They provided us with good rate and if you try to look up the same hotel room out of the block it's currently $60 more. So, for us room blocks were necessary.
I think in general they are a nice courtesy for your guests. We have a lot of OOT guests coming to our wedding so they were grateful to have the room blocks in place.
We won't be making actual blocks of hotels because we don't have a lot of OOT guests, plus we live in a small town. You don't even have to make reservations to get a hotel room here, lol. I suppose some things in small towns are pretty awesome, although I typically dislike small towns because there is hardly anything to do.
We decided to block hotel rooms, but we didn't get any discount since our location is a major tourist destination during the summer. Even if you don't block rooms, I think it's nice to make some hotel suggestions, either in your invitations or on your wedding website. I would do a range of suggestions -- one high end, one budget, and maybe something in the middle too. It's just really nice for the guests, b/c then they don't have to do a lot of hotel research if they don't want to. They can just go ahead and book at one of your suggested hotels and be done with it.
Blocking a hotel is a good way to make the OOT guest's stay a little less pricey. Try doing a block at a national chain, they are usually easier to work with, and you won't have to sign a contract or commit any of your own funds. We did a room block and most of our guests chose to stay at that hotel, with a couple staying at a much more expensive place and some staying with friends who lived locally. We gave suggestions for a couple of other hotels too.
I think you should especially for NYC, which can be very overwhelming for people. One option is to get blocks at two different hotels of varying price/niceness. ITs not that much work and its a nice gesture for guests who are taking the time and spending the money to come to your wedding. Especially for those who don't know NYC, its helpful and they will appreciate being in a hotel with other guests.
Also one thing to think about - it might end up being a lot more of a headache NOT to block rooms as you might get a million questions from people about prices, hotels, locations, etc.
My dad works for Marriott, so he got us a pretty sweet deal. Even with that, we're blocking 3 hotels just to accommodate varying budgets.
Since we are getting married NYE we wanted to make sure that everyone had somewhere to stay. We only blocked at one place, and gave suggestions for others.
It took all of ten minutes to make a couple phone calls to 2 hotels near our venue. My side is way more casual and budget conscious than his - so I blocked rooms at one hotel for $80.99/nt and a nicer hotel for $119/nt. So far his family has all booked at the nicer hotel, and my family and friends have reserved at local campgrounds to pitch a tent! I think the little bit of effort it takes to make room blocks is worth it for those who don't want to have to think about where to stay. Those who enjoy the process of hunting down bargains will do that regardless. I did put a note on my wedsite to remind guests that sometimes online rates are cheaper and they should double check if they're so inclined to save an additional few dollars.
It's not necessary, but it's appreciated.
i don't think there is any reason not to. as PP said, it takes just a few minutes, most hotels give you a better rate, and it just makes things easier for your guests. it doesn't cost you anything so why wouldn't you??? we blocked at the ritz for 189 (high end) a marriott and a westin for 149/ (medium) and a renaissance for 109 (low but still very nice). for a major city, these are great rates that our guests probably would not have been able to get on their own. and if the blocks aren't filled, they are released by a certain date. there is nothing to lose. its a courtesy i think you should definitely do (now i wouldn't block with any hotel that is going to make you guarantee a certain number or make you pay for rooms that don't get filled, although few hotels do this anymore anyway).
Good to hear the wide range of opinions. I really do hear what everyone who's saying about just going ahead and scheduling a block or two, but we only have eighty guests, and like I said, they come from EVERY possible income level, so I don't think even two hotels would cut it (like, I know personally that I wouldn't want to stay in what my poorest relatives could reasonably afford but could never afford what FI's richest relatives would consider suitable accommodations, and I'm sure a lot of FI's relatives would agree, as, probably, would a few of mine), and having three different places for eighty guests seems a bit nuts. I don't want our guests to feel pressured into filling our blocks and then having, as a result, them whining behind our backs that our accommodations weren't suitable for whatever reason (I know it will happen, so many drama queens and kings on both sides of our families). I know that the world of NYC hotels can be overwhelming, which is why I think I'm going to make about five suggestions at various price ranges and let them know well in advance (we're going to have our wedding website, with this info on it, up a year and a half before the wedding, I think that's pretty reasonable) so they can get the best rates possible outside of a block (and I know some people have mentioned that their rate was barely or not at all discounted in their block), or look for their own place if they think we haven't provided suitable recommendations (I can just see my side of the family insisting they could have found a better deal on their own no matter how hard I work to find one, sigh).
I'm glad blocks have worked for a lot of people but I don't think they're going to be right for our families and our wedding. We're throwing them a pretty epic party in the best city in the world (at least that's what FI and I think :P) so I don't think that potential twenty dollar discount on the hotel rate is going to make a big difference in the long run or in their memories, at least I hope not.
Thanks for all the input ladies! It's definitely helped me hash out my thoughts on the matter.
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So here's the deal. I'm thinking that a hotel block wouldn't work for us. My extended family ranges from really poor to middle class and FI's extended family ranges from upper-middle class to mega rich (ironically, my parents are much more well-off than FI's, our families are kind of the respective black sheep of our sides, which makes the situation even weirder). I can't imagine finding a hotel that would suit the needs of both sides of our family, or even the entirety of either side of the family. The "costly, but reasonable given it's in NYC" hotel for my family would be a "dump" to FI's. Also, I am going into what I anticipate to be the busiest time of the next five years of my life and the headache of blocking a hotel in NYC frankly just isn't something I want to deal with on top of all the other wedding planning and everything else I need to deal with, even though all our guests will be OOT except for the FIL's. Maybe I can make recommendations of, say, four or five hotels in varying price ranges and give directions from the venue to each, but blocking just doesn't seem sensible.
Are you blocking a hotel for your guests? Why or why not? Will my guests think I'm a jerk for not going through the trouble of blocking a hotel? It just doesn't seem to make sense for our situation.