Wedding Would it be a complete scandal if I didn''t have hotel room blocks?

[goldenstar]

Hello,

I''m nearing the 6 month mark and am having problems with hotel room blocks.

The wedding is in late April in Napa Valley, which is about 2 hours from where most of my guests live. It''s definitely a hotel hot spot. The guest list consists of about 80 couples/families. So far I''ve contacted 3 hotels and they all require sizable deposits to block the rooms. The deposits range from $1000 to $3000! The deposits are refundable after the wedding date but might be withheld if I incur any penalties. I am definitely not okay with tying up a few thousand dollars of our money.

With all the strict policies and high deposits, I''m tempted to forgo the room blocks altogether. I realize that this is risky since my guests might be scrambling around to find rooms. Ideally, everyone would be able to get a room if they book early. I''ve already booked a few rooms for close family members so I know there are rooms currently available for a reasonable rate. But I realize that some (or many) people might wait until the last minute. I have a big guest list and its a popular place to visit so rooms might be hard to find.

Another problem is that I feel it would be hard to estimate how many guests will actually attend. It is a semi-distant locale and I think the economy might affect our acceptance rate. But then again it may not. It will be a risk for me to block off rooms because I might end up with more than I need, and then have to pay penalties.

So my questions is: Can I forgo the room blocks? I will make sure that our wedding website has plenty of accommodation ideas and will EMPHASIZE the importance of booking rooms early. I will also make sure that the bridal party and key family members get their accommodations in order.

I don''t want to be the rude hostess and turn off my guests. What should I do?

 

[Haven]

We had a really difficult time when trying to determine how many rooms we''d need to block, and whether people would use the hotels we chose, anyway. SO, we did not block rooms for our wedding. It was fine. We called or wrote to our OOT guests and asked them if they wanted help booking rooms, and not one of them took us up on our offer. It would certainly not be rude to forgo blocking hotel rooms, so don''t worry about that. Just be open to helping anyone who has a difficult time figuring out where to stay.

 

[neatfreak]

I think it''s fine as long as you let people know ahead of time and far in advance that they need to book their own rooms and that there are no blocks. But this can be done easily in an email or on your wedding website.

 

[marchswallowbird]

We ran into the same problems with room blocks in Yosemite Valley. They wanted a sizable deposit and there were tons of rules and restrictions that left us at risk of forfeiting a lot of money. So we didn''t do a room block even though rooms there can book up almost a year in advance. Instead, we fast-tracked the finalization of our guest list and I sent out save the dates uber-early (13 months before the wedding), together with all the info on hotel options so people would know to book ahead. Of course, this worked because we''re having only a small wedding of immediate family and close friends.

 

[newbie124]

Hey goldenstar,

I''m getting married in Napa in April, too! Our date is April 17, so might be before yours.

I was struggling w/ the same issue and ended up just doing a small block of rooms at the Napa Travelodge. It''s not the most glamorous place, I know, but I had a lot of family members worrying about hotel costs in the area so I wanted them to see that there would be at least one affordable option. And then on our website I listed a bunch of other places in the area w/ a range of prices.

I also picked Travelodge b/c they had the most lenient policy. No deposit, no minimum booked rooms...it was really easy and I also didn''t want to have to worry about being financially responsible for any unbooked rooms.

 

[Gypsy]

Yeah, skip''em, you never know what people will decide to do in this economy. We thought we''d at least have 10 rooms. Nope 6. Most people just opted for long drives (and our wedding ended fairly early at 10) or stayed with relatives, friends, etc. Just be prepared for people to leave a little earlier to accomodate longer drives.

 

[goldenstar]

Thank you everyone! I feel a whole lot better. I''m just going to skip the room blocks. In my situation it would just be a nightmare. I would be happy to help those who encounter difficulty and I''ll put loads of useful info on our website.

Newbie, I think I''m going to call the Travelodge. I also want to offer an affordable option. We''re getting married on a different weekend, so don''t worry-- we won''t take your rooms!

Thanks for the tip!