Free trip for every 16 people - what to do?!?!

[torilynnsmith]

Ok, so I have a question that I am turning to all you wonderful Brides (and grooms) for some feedback on.  When FI and I first started looking at group rates we were told about the "free" trip for every 15/16 people that book.  Originally we said, oh we will spread it out between all our guests and take $100 (or less) dollars off each persons trip.  I totally forgot about this until today and when I emailed my TA we have this opportunity too.  SO here is the question..... Do FI and I take the "free" trips or do we spread it out?  This would open up about $3000 in our budget for extra OOT stuff, DJ etc.... but I don't know what is right and what is wrong!  

 

     Thank you thank you thank you in advance!!!!

[anichols8]

I think it's TOTALLY up to you.  I know that doesn't help much but, I believe I have something similar, 1 free room for every 5 paid rooms per night...and we are anticipating 15 rooms...so if it works out that's three free rooms per night.  It is my thinking now that I will cover my mom and sister's room with that and then just let it play out and see if there is someone that I really want there that needs some help getting there. 

 

Of course, I am very early in the planning process so if I go over budget I may revisit the idea.  I never considered spreading it out amongst all of my guests...hmmm.

[janette34]

We have a similar deal, for every 12 rooms booked one person goes for free.  Since we got a great group deal (1359 taxes in) we decided to use the free room for ourselves to allow us more money in our favors, oot bags, etc.  We are just a few people short of getting a third person for free, but if that happens we have decided to put it towards one of our guests who is going, but will struggle to pay for her trip.

[clgriffi7]

My fiance and I have the same deal - pay for 5 double-occupancy room and get the 6th free.  We are using the first free room for our photographer that we are flying in the from the US.  If we get a second room free (it looks iffy at this point), we will likely keep the money to help us pay for the extra per person costs above our package (20 ppl).

 

I don't think it is wrong to keep the money for yourself if it helps you provide a better wedding for those same guests!

[torilynnsmith]

Thanks ladies..... I still am not sure what we will do.  I feel that if ANYONE found out they would not be impressed.... BUT like you said, it allows us to provide a better wedding for our guests!

[kellygrrrl]

tori - I say TAKE IT. you are under no obligation whatsoever to give the money back to the guests who were fully aware of the pricing before booking. sure, it would be a nice bonus if you get to your destination and someone hands you a $100 bill, but you know what I would do? give it right back to the bride and groom (and I'm very thrifty). it's your incentive for having so many people book, not an extra fee they were charged. it is fully yours, and I think you should be able to spend it how you wish (and that people would be delighted to hear that because so many of them came, they were able to furnish part of your expenses!) if I was one of your wedding guests and found out about it, I would think of it as a gift to you and would be happy for you to have it.

 

in our situation, we have several close people (FI's mom, sister) who may not be able to afford the vacation (read: not my slacker friends who don't manage their money well ; ). in that case, I may try to allocate some of the money to them ($1000?) to help offset costs, but it would also depend on the final bill.

 

but it's YOUR money to use however you see fit, and you should be congratulated for bringing such business to the travel agent/resort. you should be proud to have (and spend) it - no regrets!!  : )

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by torilynnsmith 

Thanks ladies..... I still am not sure what we will do.  I feel that if ANYONE found out they would not be impressed.... BUT like you said, it allows us to provide a better wedding for our guests!

 

[torilynnsmith]

You just made me feel sooooo good about it!!!!! Because of our rate (pretty low), and getting a free trip for every 16 people we would only be take $75 or $80 off the trip... I feel like most people wouldn't feel like that is anything.  If it were $100 I would be more inclined to give it back!!!! Thanks

Originally Posted by kellygrrrl 

tori - I say TAKE IT. you are under no obligation whatsoever to give the money back to the guests who were fully aware of the pricing before booking. sure, it would be a nice bonus if you get to your destination and someone hands you a $100 bill, but you know what I would do? give it right back to the bride and groom (and I'm very thrifty). it's your incentive for having so many people book, not an extra fee they were charged. it is fully yours, and I think you should be able to spend it how you wish (and that people would be delighted to hear that because so many of them came, they were able to furnish part of your expenses!) if I was one of your wedding guests and found out about it, I would think of it as a gift to you and would be happy for you to have it.

 

in our situation, we have several close people (FI's mom, sister) who may not be able to afford the vacation (read: not my slacker friends who don't manage their money well ; ). in that case, I may try to allocate some of the money to them ($1000?) to help offset costs, but it would also depend on the final bill.

 

but it's YOUR money to use however you see fit, and you should be congratulated for bringing such business to the travel agent/resort. you should be proud to have (and spend) it - no regrets!!  : )

 

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[IslandBride201x]

We have a similar situation, but with 2 'perks' so to speak.  We are being offered $25 for each adult that books, and then also for every 20 people that book a free trip.  What we decided to do was have the TA take the $25 off of our guests' price, and then we will take advantage of the free money towards our trip for 20 people booking.  This way we figure we are passing along some savings to our guests, but will have some incentive to our trip as well.  20 people is a lot of people to book to get our incentive, so it seemed fair for our guests.  At least we thought so.  We are not advertising to anyone that we get any kind of incentive though, so no one should ever find out. 

[torilynnsmith]

Wow, that's great!!!! What tour operator are you with?!

Originally Posted by IslandBride201x 

We have a similar situation, but with 2 'perks' so to speak.  We are being offered $25 for each adult that books, and then also for every 20 people that book a free trip.  What we decided to do was have the TA take the $25 off of our guests' price, and then we will take advantage of the free money towards our trip for 20 people booking.  This way we figure we are passing along some savings to our guests, but will have some incentive to our trip as well.  20 people is a lot of people to book to get our incentive, so it seemed fair for our guests.  At least we thought so.  We are not advertising to anyone that we get any kind of incentive though, so no one should ever find out. 

 

[IslandBride201x]

We are using a TA through AAA.  The free trip is actually the average cost of the 20 people who book, so it will not cover 1 of our trips, but it is money towards it.  Since we are passing along some of the savings, I'll take any little bit we can get... 
 

Originally Posted by torilynnsmith 

Wow, that's great!!!! What tour operator are you with?!