INSIGHTS : UNDERSTANDING ROOM BLOCKS
If you're having out-of-town guests at your wedding, they'll need a place to stay, so reserving hotel room blocks is the best way to ensure your guests are not crashing your Bridal Suite! Room blocks can be a bit confusing and quite frankly difficult to gage quantities and needs. Room blocks can also seem daunting because there are a variety of ways of handling them so our BLI team has some helpful insights for you to consider as you navigate your own room block agreement.
First, know who to contact. You will be working either with your Catering contact for the room block or they might refer you to a Group Sales contact in the hotel of your event. Should you be contracting outside of your event hotel then you will need to speak with someone in the Group Sales department to assist you.
In general there are two types of Room Blocks :: Courtesy Block and a Room Block Agreement.
A courtesy block is one where there is no signed financial agreement between the hotel and the client and are likely less than a rack rate which is the rate found on the website of the hotel (a reference for you to compare). Courtesy blocks are typically 10 rooms or less per night but do check with the your hotel on the max they can provide.
Room Block Agreements are a contracted financial agreement between the hotel and the client which usually has an attrition rate that the client needs to meet. Attrition is the percentage of rooms that must be booked per your agreement - usually at mid range hotels attrition is 80 to 90 percent and high end hotels 90 to 100 percent. Attrition can also be calculated as daily or cumulative - Daily attrition is calculated based on each contracted nights room pick-up where as Cumulative attrition is calculated for the attrition pick-up for all the nights you have contracted. If you can get a cumulative attrition then your room pick up can be high on one night and less on another as long as it adds up to your attrition percentage. Room Block agreement rates can be negotiated a lot less than your rack rate from the internet based on the number of rooms you are contracting and how busy of a weekend it is for the hotel and city. When trying to calculate how many rooms to contract our suggestion is to have your attrition percentage meet the rooms you are sure to book and anything above that amount is extra but also nothing you would be financially liable for. Also consider asking if the rate apply to outlier days before and after and if those need to be contracted.
Another aspect you want to ask what other fees, like resort fees, taxes, city fees, and parking fees are applicable above the cost of the rate along with finding out the variety of rooms that are available to you - Standard Rooms, Executive Suites, Presidential suites and the rates for those room. Typically the hotel will provide a link that you can put on your site for guests to book along with a name they can use if they decided to call in.
Lastly when booking a room block agreement we have provided some concessions you can ask for - lower rates for the parents stays, suite for the couple for the weekend, can breakfast be included in the rate, cumulative attrition, lower parking and resort fees. We can assist you with your room block needs in every aspect just contact us at events@bluelotusinsights.com