Blocking hotel rooms for out of town guests

every hotel has a different policy. generally - if rooms aren't booked by the date specified (a month before generally) they are simply not held for your guests anymore. but some hotels will hold you responsible for them. check out more than one hotel - ask about that policy specifically and have them put it in writing!!!

what area are you looking in for hotels?

I am in the process of blocking rooms myself. Here is my understanding of the rules. Let's say you call the Marriott and tell them that you would like to block 15 rooms at their special 'wedding rate' for your February 13th wedding.

You may have two options as to when the rooms get released, depending on the hotel (most hotels just follow the first policy):

1. Any unbooked rooms in your block will be released approx. one month before the wedding AT NO CHARGE TO YOU.

2. If you want to keep the block until closer to the wedding, you may have to guarantee some percentage of the rooms, in which case you would be financially responsible for unbooked rooms under the percentage. (For example, if you had to guarantee 50% of the rooms and only 5 got booked for your wedding, you would have to pay for the remaining 2-3).

A few other caveats and questions to bear in mind:

1. Some hotels (I just found out that the Melville Marriott does this) require a guarantee if you are blocking a very large number of rooms. They were willing to book up to 20 rooms for me without a guarantee, but anything over 20 rooms required a financial guarantee for 50% of the rooms.

2. Some hotels charge a fee to distribute welcome bags (that you will provide) for out of town guests.

3. Some hotels charge a fee for extra (more than 2) people in the room.

I have to say that the nicest and easiest hotel I've dealth with so far is the Hampton Inn Commack. I spoke with Susan there.

Thanks for the clarification!

And some hotels (like Radisson in NJ) will not tell you that the double bed rooms and queen bed rooms are located on totally different floors!!! I am still furious over this