Room Blocks?

This is a question for all the ladies that have already booked their wedding resort or have had experience with blocking rooms.

 

I don't understand exactly what blocking is. Does is cost me money? What does it mean? I'm guessing that it is a way to hold a room for my guest. Do I get this money back once guest reserves their room? Can someone please give me a detailed explanation of what blocking is and how it works. I get the gist of it, I'm just not really clear on all the details of it. Thanks ladies!

Well every resort has a slightly different plan. With the Hilton for example we have blocked ten rooms for two nights each. In order to do this we've put a 10% deposit down on the rooms. In the end after the guests have reserved their own rooms the money I've put down for the deposit will go towards paying for the food/drinks etc. etc.

 

I know at Dreams you reserve a certain number of rooms and at certain points you release a certain percentage of the unbooked rooms back to the hotel to try. Then as you get closer you do it again...

 

Tammy-Host is the expert on all this. She helped me with my room block at teh Hilton.

i thinking blocking rooms is a must when having a destination wedding...it breaks my heart when people don't do this and their friends and family decide the do want to come but there are no rooms left for them

 

kash is right, each hotel has its own policies on blocking rooms...you usually do pay either a % or a set amount for each room you have blocked...then you have a set amount of time the hold is for.

If not all of these rooms are reserved, do you get any $$ back? I am just having a real hard time guaging how many people will actually stay at the AI I choose verses just trying to find a cheaper option.

well, usually the deposit $$ is about what it would cost for you to stay there...so it is sort of like just paying for your room with that deposit money...whatever extra comes back to you..

we also thought we would have alot of people choose to stay somewhere cheaper BUT we ended up using all of our rooms so we had people that were forced to stay elsewhere...

also, the AI rate is not much higher than non-AI in PV for the same class...about a $40 per night difference...

That's good to hear. My FI just told me his brothers were talking about looking for a villa for them to all stay in. Other friends have made comments about finding "less expensive" places to stay. I am really hoping to sway them with gentle comments about how it will be nice to all be in one place, and make transportation easier, etc. I may also include the wording to persuade people to stay at the AI in my STD - it's posted somewhere on this forum.

 

Sorry girls ... I strayed off topic!

What was weird about the Hilton's policy was that we put 10% down but they said her were responsible for the rooms we blocked - not the full price but some percentage... hmmm let me check my contract...

kash, her eis the clause you are looking for in your contract...

 

it is the same thing with dreams...they release 10-15% of unused rooms in phases to minimize damaages but they expect you to release all nused rooms by may 15 to not incur any loss of your deposit.

Is this the Hilton? I denied the room block b/c I was told that if the rooms were not booked then I was responsible for a sick amount of money. If I knew I could release, I would have taken it.

the way i read the clause is you are allowed to release the rooms...and any rooms not released by x-date you will be penalized for...this is the same with other room blocks...i think if you give them enough time to sell those rooms you will be ok...but the contract isn't clear...there are alot of ambiguities.

 

here is the clause from the room block contract...they ask you to release the rooms in phasing to avoid penalty.

 

here is the performance clause on the room block NOT the beverage/food: