Post # 1
Member
1024 posts
Bumble bee
Our wedding is still about 7 months away and I’ve been calling hotels for the past month or so and no one has any availability due to some stupid car show.
Our wedding will be in a major metropolitan area…so it’s not like it’s some small town with 2 hotels.
What do I do? Really we shouldn’t need more than 5-10 rooms, since it’ll just be immediate family and a few friends that would need rooms.
How far away is the furthest you would drive for a hotel for someone’s wedding? 25 min too far?
Post # 3
Member
1784 posts
Buzzing bee
@lauraashley09: I would really prefer a hotel IN the town/city. But if you are providing transportation to guests then I would go up to 30 minutes but for me, anything beyond that is pushing it. 🙂
Post # 4
Member
7312 posts
Busy Beekeeper
- Wedding: October 2011 - Bed & Breakfast
If 25-30 minutes away was the only option, I’d have to be okay with it. If I’m traveling, that means I am highly motivated in the first place, soI would not allow hotel distance to deter me from attending a wedding.
Post # 5
Member
1024 posts
Bumble bee
@springbride23: I would prefer that as well, but like I said I have no option..
Post # 6
Member
1784 posts
Buzzing bee
@lauraashley09: I understand. That’s why I added ‘up to 30 minutes with transportation’ would also be an acceptable option for me. Depends if your guests are driving or flying, etc. Good luck.
Post # 7
Member
199 posts
Blushing bee
@lauraashley09: Oh hunny do I feel your pain!! I was told 10 months out that hotels are booked up in the city where my wedding is going to be held!!! UMM SAY WHAT!? Oh I totally feel your pain. Some stupid country festival is going on. It’s not a huge city with a lot of options but if I were you just try to get them all around the same location. you might have to reserve blocks at several different locations. When I made a block and people started booking the hotel called me back and increased the amount of rooms they would give me because I think they realized how serious I was about booking rooms. Best of luck and HUGS! I TOTALLY know what you are going through. It’s a panic attack waiting to happen. Breathe you will get it figured out.
Post # 8
Member
46335 posts
Honey Beekeeper
@lauraashley09: I live in a big city. It takes more than 30 minutes to get anywhere on a normal day for anything. It would not be a problem for me.
Honestly, I think today’s brides spend way too much time and energy worrying about things that their guests can handle on their own- esecially if you only need 5-10 rooms. People are used to making their own travel arrangements. If hotels are full they can stay at B&B’s.
I would simply contact the people you know for sure will be attending and give them a heads up to book asap.
Post # 9
Member
5195 posts
Bee Keeper
@lauraashley09: Are you able to provide transportation to your guests? I went to a wedding last year where the hotel was about 20-25 minutes away from the venue but they provided us with shuttle buses. I think up to a 1/2 hour away is fine if there’s a shuttle type situation like that. (And they don’t cost ALL that much – at least not here – we are paying $600 for 4 hours of shuttle bus service before/after.)
Post # 10
Member
261 posts
Helper bee
What would I want? 10 minutes. Walking distance would be nice.
I booked my hotel block a year out, and the only decent hotel that isn’t 20 minutes in the car didn’t have enough rooms left. So i did what I could, and my guests will be travelling to get to a hotel. I feel your pain–you can only do so much!
I wonder if they just won’t let you do a room block or if every room is actually booked? I know at my hotel there are two other weddings with blocks for that night, but every room won’t actually get taken. (Not that that helps with a block, but you could tell everyone to try to make reservations at the same more-convenient hotel) Good luck!
Post # 11
Member
417 posts
Helper bee
I had the same problem! It turns out my wedding is the same weekend as the city’s oldest, most popular marathon and it was almost impossible for me to book blocks of hotels because they didn’t want to give their rooms up with the potential of making more of of the run. I called literally every hotel in a 5-20 minute radius of my venue and there was only 1 that would let me reserve.
I didn’t want to go any further away then a 20 minute drive because the whole purpose of me reserving these blocks was so that people WOULDN’T have to drive and I didn’t want them spending a fortune on cab fare either.
Post # 12
Member
10453 posts
Sugar Beekeeper
As long as a cab would take me there at the end of the night for <$50, I wouldn’t mind.
Post # 13
Member
1024 posts
Bumble bee
Thanks everyone! I feel better.
Post # 14
Member
3520 posts
Sugar bee
@lauraashley09: I don’t know if you’ve tried this, but I just entered your wedding date, 5 rooms, and downtown Minneapolis into Expedia. It tells you which hotels have that availability, and at what average prices. If you find one with, say, 5 rooms available (and there are plenty), call them and book your block, saying you found it online and you know they have the availability.
That’s what I had to do for ours, as it coincided with teh Cherry Blossom festival.
Post # 15
Member
1348 posts
Bumble bee
@lauraashley09: Instead of calling everywhere you could also look online! I looked on Trip Advisor and found several nice/ not so nice hotels in Minneapolis available from the 19th-22nd. I know I can book 8 rooms right now at some of them. So maybe you could call those and ask about room blocking for you? 🙂 Just an option to have.
Also, I wouldn’t really mind being 20 to 25 minutes away. Anything more than that could get annoying… More than anything all of your family/friends will want to see each other and stay in the same place.
Post # 16
Member
666 posts
Busy bee
More for other brides picking dates for their weddings – it is good to check on the possible dates to see if there are any big conflicting events in the area. I also recommend checking the hotel(s) you plan to use for availability on the possible dates as well.
On ours, we came down to two dates we thought were possible. I googled the dates, checked the city calendar, etc, didn’t come up with anything big on either date. Then I went onto the website for the hotel I wanted to block and checked availability just as a member of the general public mght – one date had no rooms available! I phoned the hotel because I thought it was weird to be completely booked 7 months ahead and not on any big event I could find out about. Turned out that an automotive company was doing a private corporate function there and reserved everything! Not something that would show up on traditional sources for events. If I had picked that date without knowing, we’d have been out of luck for that hotel.
We ended up going with the other date just because the hotel had some (not a lot) availability…
If it is a big city I would really prefer to be close to the venue. A small city or something more rural I don’t think would matter as much. In a larger city you’ll have a lot of guests who don’t know the city and possibly don’t do a lot of city driving, etc.
Good luck!
