Wedding Room Blocks
We will walk you through the steps of how to book hotel rooms for your guests.
Let's Get Started
A wedding room block is a block of rooms reserved for your wedding guests at a hotel. Most times this block of rooms is reserved at a discount for your guests but only if you book your rooms early enough. Most hotels will only offer room blocks within a year of your wedding date.
When deciding which hotels are best for your wedding, your guests will want a variety of options and price points. If possible, I encourage couples to book 1 Marriott, 1 Hilton, and 1 Hyatt. If you can, you may also want to provide different price points but around $200 a night is the average for a room block rate in Greenville, SC.
How to Book a Hotel Block
After you have decided which hotels are best for your guests, you will start calling to the hotels. You can also try reaching out through contact forms on their websites but most of the time, these are going to a generic lead form that is not monitored so talking directly to the hotel sales team is best.
Courtesy vs. Attrition
When speaking with the hotel sales team, you are going to request a room block for 10 rooms for the day before your wedding and the night of your wedding- typically Friday and Saturday night. It's also important to let them know you are only interested in a "courtesy" block of rooms. Some hotels only offer room blocks with "attrition" which means you are financially responsible for a certain percentage of the rooms that do not book.
Here is a list of my favorite hotels in downtown Greenville that offer courtesy blocks:
Westin Poinsett
Courtyard Marriott
Hyatt Place
Aloft Hotel
Homewood Suites
Contract
When you receive the contract from the hotel sales team, make sure to read the contract carefully to make sure your wedding information is correct.
Cutoff Date
On the contract, you will see a room block "cut off" date. Typically, this is 45 to 30 days before the wedding. It's important to write this down so you can include it on your website for your guests.
Guest Booking
After you have secured your contract with the hotel, the hotel will send you a link for your guests to book. You will then add the link to your wedding website under "Travel and Accommodations".
Here is an example of what the description of the link should look like on your website:
"We have chosen the Aloft Hotel by Marriott for one of our wedding room blocks. Conveniently located in the heart of downtown, the Aloft is only a few blocks away from our reception venue.
The room block cut off date is Tuesday, October 8th, 2024 so please make sure to book your stay before then!"
Shoulder Dates
If you have guests coming in before the wedding or may need an extension to their stay, most hotels will extend the room block rate to those "shoulder dates". For example of the room block is for Friday and Saturday night, the rate may be extended through the hotel for Thursday and Sunday night as well.
Gift Bags
Some hotels allow for you to drop off gift bags for your guests to either be handed out at the front desk or they can be delivered directly to their room. Hotels may charge a fee per bag of $2-$10 just to cover the time it takes for the gift bags to be delivered and kept secure in their back room.
Check out our note about "Welcome Gift Bags" for tips and tricks about what to include in your gift bags.
Your guests will greatly appreciate the efforts you have taken to secure rooms for them. Take everything in stride and when you have questions, ask your planner or coordinator!
Photography courtesy of Kendra Martin Photography
