Blocking Hotel Rooms for Your Guests

One of the best parts of a wedding is having all of your family and friends under one roof, specially those from out-of-town. As a good host, it is always nice to provide guidance and block hotel rooms for their convenience. So... How do you do it? Below are five tips to help you get started.

1. Focus on the out-of-town guests. You can't control what the local guests will want to do (drive, Uber, spend the night, use points to stay at another hotel, etc.), but you know for sure that the out-of-town guests will need a place to stay.

2. Determine how many rooms you need. From the total number of out-of-town guests that you know will attend, subtract those staying with your local family members, and divide the total by two. That is the maximum number of rooms you need.

3. Reach out to the hotels. Once you select a couple of local hotels, contact them and ask:

• What is the minimum and maximum room block they offer?

• Do they offer a special rate for the room block?

• If the room block gets completely booked can you expand the room block?

• Is there a fee to hold these rooms? If there is a fee, what is the maximum number of rooms you can block without a fee?

• When will the room block be released (cut-off date)?

• How can your guests book the special rate?

4. Make sure you are not responsible to pay if the room block is not fully booked. One less thing to stress over.

5. As a courtesy to your out-of-town guests, send them the room block information before "releasing" it to the rest of your guests. That way those that really need a hotel can book ASAP.

(Bonus tip: Share the amount of rooms blocked and the cut-off date to create a sense of urgency among your guests.)

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