Is this cost right at Windwatch / cost of shuttle

Okay question....

75% of our guests are out of towners (and we're having 250 guests), and a lot of my family from Long Island wants to stay in the hotel anyway. That means we're looking at somewhere between 70 and 100 rooms.

The Hyatt Windwatch quoted us for October 25, 2008 at 139, even with us guaranteeing something like 70 rooms. We have lower rates at other places, but its such a lovely hotel with great ambiance I want to choose it.

The other problem is that we are trying to provide transportation for our guests from the hotel, to church, to reception, then back to the hotel. Some hotels (the Marriott in Islandia) will build the shuttle service into the hotel rate.

The Windwatch doesnt seem to be able to build that cost into the room rate, so we will have to pay for it ourselves.

What have other brides done? Does the rate sound right at Windwatch? What would you do?

OK it depends on what you are looking for. I knwo classice transportation has nice prices for shuttles. I also know that the bar usualy says open late for weddings. But many weddings use that hotel, so it could be crowded. The other hotels that build in transportation use a 10 passenger shuttle, so be careful of that too. Didn't realize that when I booked my hotel, and needed 2 trips, which would've been fine, if rush hour traffic hadn't gotten in the way! Some of my family missed the ceremony. Now take all these things into consideration and then see which direction you want to go in.
Did you try the Marriott by the hotel, a buddy of mine used that hotel 2 years ago and they loved it. Good Lucck, take your time, ther is no rush and haggle, haggle, haggle. The owrse thing they can say is no!

I have some major issues with them. Although yes, the hotel is gorgeous...the shuttle thing was a major issue, as well as the fact that the price we were quoted for our block is ONLY $5-10 less than the current rate right now.

We had the opposite problem b/c we did not have that many guests staying at the hotel (around 10 rooms) and they would only block if there was a 10 room minimum. It was a tremendous amount of stress for us b/c we were worried about meeting the minimum...otherwise we were obligated to pay for any unused rooms. Then to find out that the current room rate was only $10 at the most MORE than our 'block rate' we were really angry!!! Plus the hotel was recommended by our hall, so there should have been more of a discount.

Also make sure you know that the bar closes at 1am...that was another thing that changed after we had blocked the rooms

I too am getting married at the Bourne and 'prefer' the Hyatt Windwatch over the other hotels we looked at, however, we were pretty impressed with La Quinta in Bohemia. They don't provide shuttle service, but the rates are significantly lower and the hotel is much closer to the Bourne Mansion. Plus, the bride and groom stay for free.

We have not made our final decision yet, but we are leaning towards La Quinta.