Overnight accommodations

Hey Corina! I'm glad you got so many helpful answers in here! What did you decide to go for?

Hello,I have a room black for 5 rooms in case someone would likes to use it and the best part is they get it discounted. I say it's a good idea and you can also let your guests know as some may be happy to stay the night.

Our wedding is inside a hotel so we blocked off 20 rooms at a discounted rate for them. There's another hotel within walking distance from that hotel as well that we will be using too as we have a lot of people coming in from out of town. It doesn't hurt to contact these hotels to see if they can offer you a discounted rate. I haven't heard of them offering a shuttle though. But again, doesnt hurt to ask if they offer it!

Yes, you can block and they may ask for a credit card but nothing will be charged unless there's a caveat in the agreement for unsold rooms. However, they generally just ask you to release by a certain date. I'm only holding 10 rooms but they said they'd extend the rate beyond that if needed.
My wedding will also be out of town (20 min) and I confirmed with the venue coordinator that local taxis from Winnipeg will drive out there so it shouldn't be an issue.

I'm just putting my comment in here so I can come back to this conversation... I totally did not know you could do this. I thought you'd be paying for the rooms for them! I didn't realize that hotels even did this!

Hey Corina!

I would go thru your guest list and look at how many people you would think will be staying. Then i would contact the hotels and ask them how it works to book a block of rooms and the pricing breaks they will offer your guests.

I've booked with two different hotels

One hotel offered a lower rate and set aside a block of ten rooms for our big day and 15% off the standard rate. Even if we only have 6 people book with our discount code, they are still offering the discounted rate. At 14 days out, the block closes

The other hotel we booked a block at gave us ten rooms and all ten need to be booked for the discounted rate to apply or our guests will be charged the standard rate, or we can choose to pay the difference so the guests still get the discounted rate....silly i know....we will have no issue hitting these ten rooms as you can literally see the place from our reception

I would contact the hotels and talk to the special bookings person and see what all three hotels offer before you decide how many and where to book your block

Good luck!

I think it's a great idea to reach out to a couple local hotels to see about room blocks! Some hotels do ask you to meet a minimum number of rooms and if you don't, they will charge you for the unsold rooms so I'd recommend not using one that requires it.

Local hotels usually do this no problem!! And some hotels will provide a shuttle if a certain number of rooms are booked with them.

I contacted 3 hotels for prices and I picked something that was mid-rnage but included a nicer breakfast and a free shuttle (in fact 1 to the venue and 2 back at night!) They did not require ANY money down from me (just some wedding information so they could secure the block and gives guests a name to quote when calling to book the price), and a little over a month before the wedding any rooms that were in the block that did not get booked just get released. The rates weren't REALLY discounted (I could find the rooms for close to the same cost on sites like Expedia), but with the added value of the shuttle it is completely worth it for our guests.

My guests are ecstatic that they are getting a free shuttle and we hit the minimum rooms in about 2 weeks after invites went out!

All in all I HIGHLIY recommend calling around and seeing what hotels offer near your venue. Especially if they don't charge anything to hold the rooms, there is absolutely no harm in doing it!