Hotel Blocks

It depends on the contract with the hotel, but courtesy blocks typically do not cost you anything to setup! The hotel sets aside a number of rooms (usually 10 or 20), and sets a room block reservation deadline (usually around a month before the wedding). Guests call and reserve/pay for their own rooms. Any rooms not reserved by the deadline are released back to the hotel for them to sell to someone else. Often times, room blocks are given a discount.

Just call the hotel and inquire about a room block. Blocks vary so much from one hotel to the other, so there’s no way to predict how each will handle it. Some are completely free of charge, some require a certain number of rooms to be booked or the couple is responsible for a portion (or all) of the cost, and some places will require the couple pre-book the rooms, then release them to the guests as they want them (and the couple has to pay for any that remain unbooked).

View Quoted Comment This is what scares me 😬

View Quoted Comment I am hoping for this!

View Quoted Comment Best bet is to call the hotels and ask what their policies are! Many hotels will do a courtesy block, so if the first one you call doesn't offer that (some do not), check with a few others in the area. Good luck, I hope you find one that works with what you're looking for!

View Quoted Comment Will do! Thank you so much!

Depends on the hotel's policy. Our hotel block was at a Marriott and we didn't have to pay a cent because it was a courtesy block. When you call the hotel, ask for a courtesy block. The guests who booked through the block got a nice discount on their rooms, but we weren't liable for any rooms that weren't booked

Our block was also with Marriott, and it was a courtesy block. We didn't have to pay a cent, our guests got a discount, and we got our room upgraded to a suite and comped, so we didn't even have to pay for our room. Just call them up and speak with them to see how they do the process.

View Quoted Comment The Marriott is who I'm trying to book with so this is great to hear! Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Amazing! The Marriott is the hotel I am trying to reserve with! Thank you so much!

It’s not Marriott, but I have blocks at two other big chains and one gave me a block of 20 rooms as a courtesy and the other 10. So, give Marriott a call. I could have reserved more, but that would have come at a cost to me if we didn’t fulfill it. The way I see it, “the early bird gets the worm” when it comes to this discount 😂😂

A courtesy block is usually a smaller number. If you have more guests from out of town, you may want to add more rooms to receive the discount. They are also often grouped near each other which should be fun. The hotel will give you a deadline date to book rooms for the group discount (which you will remind your guests via invite, website, text, etc). Thereafter, you will be liable for some cost of unbooked rooms. I would recommend you keep it low but applicable to your needs. Adding more rooms should be negotiable, but your guests just have to be planners and not last minute no-showers.

Definitely call and make sure you ask for a COURTESY block. Hotels often get requests for room blocks for things like conferences, sporting events, etc. where whoever does the booking knows how many rooms they'll need, so that person pays for all the rooms up front or gets charged for unused rooms. Like others have mentioned, courtesy blocks are usually 10-20 rooms that they'll hold as a courtesy, you don't have to pay for them either to be held or if they're unused, and your guests can book through a link, use a group code, or mention they're there for your wedding if they book over the phone. Any unused rooms will be released once you hit the deadline to book.

In my experience, the discount isn't that much, and sometimes you can even find better ones through other avenues. We only arranged one block for the sole purpose of trying to get as many people in one spot so we could coordinate a shuttle pickup/ drop off location.

View Quoted Comment That's what I'm thinking! Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Great advice! Thank you!

Thank you everyone for your advice! I finally got in touch with The Marriott and the courtesy block is no charge! 🙌 and they will upgrade our room to the suite! I'm so happy!

View Quoted Comment Awesome!! Glad everything worked out!

Hi!! I'm actually using a Marriott location and just signed my room block contract with them. You can negotiate for certain things if you want. For instance I got 2 welcome drinks added to all our rooms that are booked because I saw they offered a package that included that. I ended up not doing a block with breakfast because we are in an area that people can venture out and I did not want them pay and then feel they had to eat at the resort every morning. The biggest pain was giving a close estimate to the type of room our guests would need. For instance, an ocean view vs resort, or king vs queen. Then how many rooms needed overall. In our contract, we have until October to release rooms we will not need so that way we are not responsible for them. After that we are responsible for atleast 90% of what is left. So right now, we have 16 rooms a night being held for 3 days. That is 48 'nights' based on the number of rooms and nights. Unless we release rooms back to the resort, we have to make sure atleast 90% of the 48 'nights' are used. A $1,000 deposit was required but that will be applied to our room once we meet the contract requirements. For every 35 'nights', we will get one free night. We are also getting the suite they would've upgraded us to after the wedding for the resort rate our entire stay. Honestly, the room block was harder to work out than the wedding and dinner lol. Hopefully I explained it all for you but if you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to ask me!!