What the heck is a hotel block?
Unless you’re an event planner or plan trips for large groups of people on a regular basis, you likely have never dealt with “hotel blocks.” However, now that you’re engaged, you’ll probably hear the word thrown around a dozen times. But what are they? Do you need one?
A hotel block is…
A hotel room block is a block of rooms reserved exclusively for your guests. Typically after you sign the contract for the block, you are given a code to give to your guests for them to use when making their reservation. In most cases, to set up a room block doesn’t cost you anything and you don’t have to pay for rooms that don’t get booked BUT read your contract to be 100% sure.
You might need a hotel block if…
If you have a lot of out of town guests coming to your wedding a hotel block may be a super good idea. It relieves the guess work for your guests on trying to figure out the cheapest or nearest hotel near your venue. With a hotel block all of your guests are at one (or a couple) hotels and it makes it much easier to arrange transportation. A hotel block is also a super good idea if you are getting married in an area without many hotel choices as a block reserves a certain number of rooms exclusively for your guests.
But why doesn’t this cost money…
A hotel block usually is free to set up. You are basically loosely promising business to a hotel. Often the block will actually get a discount for your guests as well. The rooms are usually released if they aren’t booked by a certain date- usually a couple weeks before your wedding.
When should I call the hotel?
You definitely want your hotel block in place by the time you send out invitations (2-3 months prior to your wedding). It wouldn’t hurt to set up a hotel block 5-6 months out and no later than 3 months.
If you don’t have many out of town guests or guests staying in hotels, looking for an Airbnb for a couple out of town guests is usually a good idea too.