Hacienda Tres Rios Brides Post Here!

Hi sorry if this has already been posted! I am very interested in having my wedding at HTR. Did you girls go through a TA to get your wedding date set up or HTR's website? Thank you for your help!!

Welcome Hinna!
If you already have a TA, you can definitely utilize her to contact the resort. Otherwise, I'd suggest emailing Allibe who is one of the wedding coordinators at H3R. She's really good at responding to emails. Her address is:
[email protected]

Thank you so much for the information!! I will talk to my TA tonight..

I'm so happy you both loved your site visits! I can't wait to get down there and see it.

 

Becks ~ That's funny about the perks... I'm a little concerned b/c we just sent Allibe our signed wedding contract, and it didn't have the perks listed in at all. But I'm hoping we can take care of that with the group contract... Did you sign one of those as well? Am I understanding correctly that you reserved your rooms through the resort, and didn't have to sign a group contract guaranteeing a certain number of people with a deposit per room to receive the group rate and perks? Or did you just do that directly with Allibe/Luis?

 

Would you guys mind sharing info about your contracts, so I can compare with what we've got? I'm not sure how to post mine on here....

The contract that we were presented with kinda grouped wedding stuff and group contract stuff all into one document. We paid a $1000 deposit which will go toward our stay or wedding expenses but are not required to put any other money down in order to 'block' rooms. When you block rooms, you are taking them out of inventory and securing them for your guests. If you don't need all of the rooms, you just have to release them by a certain date and you don't have to pay a penalty.

We also asked TA Jill to see what rate and perks she could get with a group contract through one of her travel vendors but haven't heard back yet. At this point we plan to block rooms with the resort to secure their price but give our guests the option to book with the TA if that is better or cheaper for them at the time. We're just waiting on a corrected contract from Allibe.

Hope this makes sense and isn't too confusing!!!!

Becks do you know when the date to release the rooms is?

 

We have 25 rooms reserved for now and I think they will be booked but in case they are not it would be good to know when we have to release them.

 

Our contract had a group block of 10 rooms in it, but this past weekend we asked Luis to add more just in case.

 

Luis told us the group block is just for the rooms but they can be booked in any way (hotel, travel agent, online, etc).

OK, well at least I haven’t signed anything with anyone yet about my guests rooms, so I can hopefully secure some perks with that. I was wondering exactly what you said: what if some guests don’t choose to book through Jill? I just emailed Allibe to find out what happens. I wonder why Allibe’s contract didn’t include blocking rooms, must be because we’ve been working through Jill. Thanks for the good info!

 

I’ll let you know when I hear back..

I agree...it's super confusing.

I've been weighing the option of doing a group contract through Jill versus blocking through the resort while giving guests the option of booking individually through Jill if that suits them better.

I'm still trying to sort out the details of the H3R contract, ie when rooms have to be released, etc but got an email from Allibe today saying that she talked to Jill, is going to send me a new contract with just wedding info and that the group contract will be booked through Jill's travel agency. (Also, I bet that's why your contract didn't have room info...b/c you're with Jill too)

Honestly, I'm a little confused about what went on and will talk to both of them on the phone tomorrow but I just hope that there hasn't been any big misunderstanding. Jill said that Allibe was confused as to why I'd be trying to get rates from two different sources, but isn't that the natural thing to do...research all options to find the best match for you and your guests?? I just figured that was smart.

Anywho...Jill's been awesome and I definitely plan to work with her. We'll just have to sort out the best way to do it. Sorry for the rant!

Oh, by the way...the group contract actually had slightly lower per/night rates and she said that the 'perks' would be exactly the same. Unused rooms would have to be released 71 days prior to departure. The big difference seems to be that we would need to pay a deposit of about $100 per room in order to secure them. That money can later go toward paying for our stay, but it's a lot of money out of pocket now.

Yeah, I feel pretty confused by it all too. I’m waiting right now to get Jill’s group contract, she said she received it today. I haven’t heard back from Allibe. I asked her what happens if we have guests that don’t book through Jill, should we have a group block too? I do think it’s smart that you’re researching all the options – I personally went on expedia, cheap tickets, etc to try to compare prices once I got what Jill quoted me! I guess the reality is that we really have no idea how this works with the travel agent vs. resort contracts, and it’s our responsibility to take care of our guests.

 

My info from Jill BTW was the same, you get 71 days to release the rooms, and it’s $100 deposit per room. I think the deposit is much higher but in the long run I feel good about it because of the benefits to working with a TA, like not having to answer anyone’s questions about passports, flight info, emergencies, and all that. We definitely don’t need to deal with that stress when the time comes closer! And knowing that there is the cancellation policy in place, and the money will be put toward our costs makes it easier to accept. My biggest concern is the 10 room minimum for the group rate, if for some reason (which is highly unlikely) we don’t get 10 rooms booked, I’m not sure what happens at that point, maybe they all go back to individual rates? Eek. I also would feel bad going through the resort if that takes away Jill’s commission (I have no idea how this works) because she has worked her butt off on researching stuff for me, and I’ve been bugging her literally every other day LOL. Then again, if my TA hadn’t done so much work for me, or was unresponsive to emails or something, I wouldn’t feel bad at all about doing that.

 

So I guess guests have to book through Jill regardless of whether it’s with the group rate or individual? I’m still concerned though, what happens if some guests don’t want to use her? I can recommend it on the STDs and website and all, but I feel like there will always be a couple of people who go their own route. Hopefully the group rate prices convince them, since they are so much better. If they don’t book with her, I guess they won’t count toward my 10 rooms (that worries me).