Check out these practical tips the folks over at Roomer shared with Triple B on blocking a hotel room for your wedding! I certainly wish I had read this list before my October nuptials last year in Charlotte. There was a Panthers home game, a furniture conference and a BBQ festival taking place in the same vicinity as my venue during my wedding weekend. Of course it all worked out in the end but a post like this would have saved me a bit of stress. Bookmark this page, forward the link to a friend or go old-school and print it out and stick on the fridge — you’re welcome!
1. Avoid events: Try and choose a date when no conventions, concerts, or other events are going on. Doing so can help you negotiate a good price with the hotel, as well as leave many rooms available to your guests. It will also make the hotel more comfortable for you and your guests on your special day.
2. Contact hotels in advance: Contacting the hotels in advance will allow you to get quotes from different hotels to work out the best deal. Some hotels might even allow you to cancel a certain percentage of the rooms last minute if you end up not filling them. You never know what people are willing to do when you give them enough notice and time to work out a package for you.
3. Create a cut-off day: Choose a specific date that guests have to reserve their rooms by. It is important to give your guests a deadline for them to contact the hotel. Otherwise, you could end up not being able to get your money back on the rooms that you are unable to fill.
4. Estimate: Do your best to calculate in advance how many rooms will be needed. Look at the amount of out-of-towners you are inviting and think, as best as you can, how many will attend. Add that to the friends and family who will stay at the hotel for convenience, and try to be as accurate as possible before booking the rooms.
5. Add a day before and a day after: If the wedding is on Saturday reserve Friday through Sunday because most guests will stay the weekend. Often when people come from out of town they will stay beyond the day of the event so try to guess how long your guests will want to stay. You can even call your guests and see how long they are planning on staying.
Should you end up with more rooms than you need, Roomer has your covered. This clever service helps people resell hotel rooms that they can’t use but already paid for — and we’ve all been there.
This is great advice. I booked a block of rooms at a near by Hilton for my summer nuptials. The hotel rooms close to my venue were very pricey as it is right on the beach. I found a hotel close enough but with a much smaller price tag. While not on the beach it is close to many shops and restaurants. The Hilton was very accommodating. I picked a cut off date that was the same as my RSVP date. They also let me call and transfer rooms to my guest name and will automatically cancel any rooms not reserved to avoid a fee.
@Nicole – Thanks much for sharing!