Room Blocks and Deposits

[Tennyt1]

I decided not so commit myself to a hold a block of rooms....and I'm glad that I didn't.  A lot of people that I expected have not booked and my wedding is 8 weeks away.  Anybody who is planning on coming can pay their own deposit.  And so far it is working out just fine!

[adales]

Our TA required $100 down for each room and then it is credited back to our stay.  I think this is completely normal and it has worked out fine in our favor.  We held 25 rooms in our block and so far more 16 have been booked and we still have over 4 months until our wedding.

[mpweddingplan]

This seems like common practice, and I am perfectly ok with it.  You aren't really putting down a deposit FOR your guests.  You are just giving the resort a good faith deposit in exchange for them holding 20-30 rooms for you.  That money is going to be used to pay for your room anyhow. 

 

If you reserve a room block through the resort (instead of a TA), they ask that you pay for your stay (bride and grooms room) in full in advance...as a deposit on the room block.  It acutally ends up being more. 

 

[shan0487]

this is good to know! thanks ladies!

[TropicLover]

Wow I'm learning so much!  Thanks ladies!

[Maritza919]

I know from my experience I had to put down a $300 per room. At the end of the it will be put towards my stay. I probably won't spend as much but I am going to put it towards my mom and brothers rooms. It's almost like I paid for their stay upfront. Which is good being family of the bride it's nicer to pay little by little. At the end all the expenses can add up.

[JayKay]

We had to put down a $200 deposit per guest by a certain date to secure our group rate.  My parents decided they would pay for a certain amount of deposits, as we still don't have final number of guests but pretty sure.  The money for the deposits will be used towards their travel and any unused deposits will be refunded to them.  The cost of the deposit will then just be paid by each guest with the rest of the cost.  The travel agent we are using does this all the time so we aren't worried about loosing money or anything like that.

[traceysteve]

I'm going to ask my guests to put the $200 deposit down themselves. I like the idea of commitment on their part. I may be willing to help a couple of people out, but definitely cannot afford to put deposits down for everyone, along with the reception.

[DramaticAnnie]

I am booking on a cruise ship so in case anybody was wondering about that, I had to put a $500 deposit to book myself and my future groom's cabin, before I could book the wedding, and then the wedding had to be paid when booking, which was a big chunk of money but I worked it out with my travel agent that she paid for the wedding on the company's cc, then I paid her in installments for the next month for that cost.

 

For my guests, they could hold their room for $60, but the full deposit is $250 per person, which I told them all to have in by the end of May 2011 (wedding is April 2012, the cruises all have to be paid by January 2012).

[swojdyla]

I'm in the same boat right now. I'm just worried about losing money if all the rooms don't get filled. Plus the date they gave us is just like a month away and I feel like most guests wait until the last couple months to book.  I just feel bad because I really want to get people the best rate possible.