Poll: Guests not staying at resort

We put the day pass info on our website as well because there were a couple hotel options within the Iberostar, but there were even limitations with that on who would need a pass and who wouldn't. We spelled out all the details on the website regarding which hotels needed them and which ones didn't and the price as we could not afford to cover the passes for a lot of people. We would be OK with a few, but didn't want it to get out of hand. For the people that have booked so far only one family is not staying at the resort because she has a time share, but already told me she was OK with paying the pass since it was her choice not to stay there. You always have the option of paying for the passes later so I would just let your guests know the costs up front, and if you don't have a lot to pay for you can just let the WC know in advance that you are paying for thier passes.

I would let them know ahead of time but ask them to pay. Its their choice whether they would like to stay at a different resort. You are offering them the option to stay at yours and they chose not to.

We decided that if people did not want to stay at the resort we chose, they could pay the fee.... Our resort is adults only, and it is the only one on the beach that people have to pay to get into with our sting of resorts, because it is strickly adults only

We are fortunate that with the exception of two people all of our guest are staying at the resort. The couple who is not staying at the resort had already booked the trip to Jamaica for their 1 year anniversary and as luck would have it they were already going to be in Jamaica the day of our wedding. So we will pay for them to come onto the resort for the wedding day.

I made it clear on our wedding website that there are other resorts nearby, but that there is a daily fee for coming onto our resort if guests stay elsewhere.

 

Our photogs are the only ones who have chosen to stay at another resort ... so they are responsible for the fee. But try negotiating with the resort for lower rates.Our Day Pass fee is $95 from 10am-6pm and $95 from 4pm-11pm so our photogs (two of them) would need 2 passes each on the wedding day and one each for the Rehearsal Dinner and one each for the TTD session ... so I am negotiating with our WC to get a single rate pass for the wedding day at least and perhaps meeting the photogs off-resort for the TTD.

If you can't pay for it all then you have invited too many people.

I think when planning a wedding home or away you must budget the costs to make sure your guests are actually able to attend your wedding. Can you imagine inviting people to a wedding at home and hoping you can afford to accomadate them for example like asking them to pay for their plate, or charging them a cover fee to enter your wedding venue, it would be awful.
We defnitely made sure that in case people stayed somewhere ese we would pay for them to actually attend our wedding considering they had spent thousands to actually get to our location, and I would assume if they were staying elsewhere, like Rachel said, then chances are they couldn't afford to stay on your resort, I certainly would not penalize them for that. I have strong opinions on this, I just feel that we do all sorts of things such as oot bags to make our guests feel welcomed, and then to do such an unwelcoming thing as charge a covercharge for your wedding seems kind of crazy to me, again just the opinion of someone in your big picture who really doesn't matter:)

Oh I would however be careful of paaying for some guests passes and not others, it will always get out and then you will have people upset and hurt wondering why they didn't measure up. I think you should pay for all or none.

I picked up the fee for the 6-8 guests that didn't stay at Dreams. Because we were already paying for their dinner, I want to say it was about $45 per person.

oh, this was just for the welcome dinner the night before the wedding ... my actual wedding was offsite!

My reception is at a villa, not a resort, so I don't have this issue, but I would pay for the guests' day passes. They are already spending so much to attend the wedding, I would feel funny asking them to pay.

I do not plan on paying. I totally see the other side to the argument too. I actually agree with it for certain cases. I just want to explain my feelings about it. here are my reasons for not paying:

~We picked one of the cheapest hotels in the area & worked very hard to get our guests good rates for travel. I do not think they could do it for cheaper unless they stayed somewhere pretty crummy & ate at cheap places. I've made it so easy for people to say they can not afford to go without feeling guilty.

~Our guests are not spending thousands. They are spending $600-$800. It was going to be less until airfair prices shot up this summer. I have gotten so many responses from people that they can't believe how cheap the trip is.

~I really want us all together. I am so excited about the group vacation aspect of a DW. I feel that if someone stays somewhere else they will regret the did that. They will miss out on so much & I can't see how they would save any money. I actually think in the end it would cost more even without the day pass fee.

~Honestly, if people are not staying at our hotel I would rather they don't go. I wanted a small group of no more than 30 people & preferably closer to 20. I want this to be a great group vacation that brings our friends & family together. If people are staying elsewhere, we'd only see them the day of the wedding. I want us to have an entire weekend together. I'm planning my wedding with the idea that it's a group vacation that includes a wedding, unlike many people who are planning the wedding primarily. I don't feel this means I am not taking the wedding aspect seriously. I've just never been into ceremonies & weddings, so I chose a DW because I'd rather put together a group vacation.

If I was doing anything extravagant for my wedding, I might feel differently. I'd rather pay for day passes than decorations, flowers, champagne. But, I'm doing everything really cheap & simple. Also, if I picked an expensive hotel I'd feel differently. Or maybe if we were in an area that had cheaper hotels nearby.

When the actual day comes around, if there are a couple people who need a day pass, we probably will pay it. if someone had a situation where they won a free stay at an area hotel, we'd offer to pay for the pass. But, it would really hurt my feelings if friends come to the wedding and chose to stay without us to save maybe $25 per day. Why go so far & spend $600-$800 only to miss out on the majority of the fun? if all they want to see is the ceremony, I feel like they might as well just watch the video. I want the wedding to be filled with our closests friends & family who want to enjoy the entire weekend with us.

So I think a big part of the divide comes down to what someone wants for their wedding. For me the staying together in the hotel is a huge part of it.