How to Book a Wedding Hotel Block With Ease

Want to ensure your loved ones have a smooth, enjoyable experience at your wedding? A wedding hotel block, also known as a hotel block for wedding guests, is a great way to build a positive guest experience. It doesn't matter if you're focused on out-of-town wedding guest etiquette for your local celebration or are planning a destination wedding, your guests will need a place to stay. Securing a hotel room block makes booking accommodations convenient for guests while also easing the stress of wedding planning and transportation details for the couple—a win-win all around. Plus, it's a more fun experience for your guests to stay within a block of rooms with other attendees so they can mix and mingle late into the night.

While it's not difficult, it can be time-consuming to make a wedding hotel block, and there are some important details to consider. That's why we created this easy-to-follow guide to hotel blocks for weddings. Whether you contact the hotels directly or use a convenient booking platform like Engine, you'll find everything you need to know to make it happen.

In this article: What Is a Hotel Room Block? | How Do Hotel Blocks Work? | How to Block Hotel Rooms for a Wedding

FEATURED VIDEO FROM THE KNOT

Plus, Hotel Room Block Etiquette:

• How Many Rooms to Block for a Wedding?
• Do You Have to Pay to Block Hotel Rooms?
• When to Reserve a Hotel Block for a Wedding
• How to Share Hotel Room Block Information With Guests
• How to Negotiate a Hotel Room Block Contract

What Is a Hotel Room Block?

Like many other wedding terms, the room block meaning might feel foreign to newly engaged couples. A hotel room block is a group of rooms a hotel sets aside for an event at a pre-negotiated group rate to be booked and paid for by the attendees. As Lisa Jaroscak, owner and lead planner of Elegante Weddings & Events explains, "a wedding room block is a secured amount of rooms that are contracted with a property to have a controlled rate for your guests."

Why Block Hotel Rooms for a Wedding?

With all this talk about blocking rooms for weddings, why do you actually need to do it? "Room blocks are one of those behind-the-scenes details that can really impact your guests' experience," notes Michelle Durpetti, founder of Durpetti Events and owner of Gene & Georgetti Steakhouse. Let's dig into the perks of wedding room blocks.

The convenience for guests is a major plus. According to The Knot 2024 Guest Study (which surveyed over 1,000 adults who attended at least one wedding last year), 35% of guests responded "always" when asked how often in the past year they'd booked the hotel recommended by the couple. And 51% responded "some of the time."

Notably, a pre-negotiated room rate is a big perk. According to the same study, 85% of respondents said that price was the most important factor when they were deciding where to book accommodations for a wedding. Hotel deals for wedding guests? Yes, please! "The value of a room block is the security that the room rate is locked in," says Cathy O'Connell, co-founder of COJ Events. For example, the hotel room block platform Engine boasts that it can "save your guests up to 22% on accommodations with Engine's exclusive room block rates—making it more affordable for loved ones to share in your special day."

Additionally, while you're securing the room block, more bonuses or upgrades may be able to be negotiated with the hotel property. The hotel may offer a hospitality suite that can be used for storing wedding items or even as a meeting place for guests. Additionally, some hotels may offer a complimentary room (or room upgrade) for the to-be-weds. Some other perks may include: early check-in or late check-out, free Wi-Fi, turn-down service, and wedding welcome bag distribution to the rooms (sometimes for a fee). While perks offered by hotels for wedding guests vary from property to property, it's worth inquiring about what's available when you're reserving hotel blocks.

How Do Hotel Blocks Work?

In short, you block rooms, guests book those rooms, and then everyone's accommodations are in a centralized location. Sounds simple, right? Here are the nuts and bolts of how that all comes to be.

Design: Natalie Romine

To start, you must figure out how many rooms you need, based on your guest list. Tracking your guest list on The Knot Guest List Manager is a great way to take stock of your attendees and evaluate how many folks (such as out-of-towners and wedding party members) will require a place to stay.

You'll also need to decide how many nights are necessary for the wedding hotel block. Think of wedding weekend festivities like the rehearsal dinner, welcome party or postwedding brunch as events that may require extra nights.

With this key information settled, it's time to actually research room blocks. There are a couple of different ways to do this, which we will discuss below. Then, once you've inquired with hotels, they will let you know what kind of room block options they are willing to offer you. From there, you will agree upon terms and they'll get the block set up based on where you land.

As soon as the room block is set up, guests can start booking their accommodations. With room blocks booked directly with a hotel, the process for guests to book will vary (which can lead to having multiple processes if you're securing blocks at a few hotels). Some hotels create a unique booking URL that couples can put on their wedding website for guests to use. Other properties may create a code that guests will need to provide when booking either online or through the phone. Alternatively, if you secure your hotel wedding block with a travel management platform, like Engine, guests will book through one centralized platform.

While the room block is active, you can stay close with your point of contact at the hotel to get up-to-date information on who has booked and how much space remains in the block to plan accordingly.

Pro Tip: If the type of wedding venue you've selected is a hotel, the process may look different and will likely be agreed upon during the initial venue booking stage. Plus, guests will likely stay predominantly in that hotel as opposed to elsewhere.

How to Block Hotel Rooms for a Wedding

In official terms, you'll be submitting RFPs (requests for proposal) to properties to negotiate the hotel block for your wedding accommodations. Couples generally secure room blocks at more than one hotel so they can offer guests options at multiple price points. If you're doing the heavy lifting of negotiating the room block on your own, you will need to submit RFPs to each hotel manually. Alternatively, you can use a travel management platform, like Engine, to cut down on some of the manual research. Furthermore, some full-service wedding planners may even handle the room block creation process on behalf of couples as a service.

Contact Hotels Directly

To reserve a wedding room block for your guests, you'll want to narrow your search to just a few properties to contact. Many hotels have inquiry forms on their websites or an email listed for their sales department. Alternatively, you can give the hotels a phone call. When you contact the property, give the room block coordinator the dates you expect your guests to be there, plus any special requests. Ask the hotel contact what the process will look like moving forward—do they provide regular updates on room bookings by your guests so you can add more if needed?

Work With a Travel Advisor or Wedding Planner

Did you know that travel advisors aren't just for honeymoons? Many wedding travel agents offer room block services. Additionally, some luxury and full-service wedding planners include a service of making hotel blocks for wedding clients.

Use Engine

We get it, you're not a hospitality professional, so it might be time to enlist a travel management platform created for this very purpose. If figuring out how to book a block of hotel rooms sounds like a hassle, save yourself time by using Engine. This platform provides white-glove, end-to-end service to alleviate the stress of accommodations from couples' plates. They have an exclusive network of over 750,000 premium properties worldwide so both guests and couples can find accommodations that suit their needs. Plus, Engine has a dedicated team to provide personalized support from booking through checkout—how great is that?

How Many Rooms to Block for a Wedding?

The ideal number of room to block for a wedding depends on the type of room block you're securing as well as how many guests are traveling from out of town for the event. Keep these tips in mind when considering how many rooms you should block for a wedding.

Design: Natalie Romine

Consider the Availability of Alternate Accommodations

The reality is that a hotel room block isn't required for every wedding. As O'Connell points out, "if you have a smaller guest count a room block may not make sense as the guests might not fill the minimum number of rooms. It's also not a good idea if the wedding is in a heavy Airbnb area and guests are likely to book houses instead of hotel rooms." However, according to The Knot 2024 Guest Study, the majority (54%) of guests say that hotels are their preferred accommodation for a wedding.

Evaluate How Much Travel Will Occur

Are most of your guests local to the wedding location or will nearly all of them be traveling in from out of town? Jaroscak emphasizes that how many rooms should be blocked "depends on if the wedding requires your guests to travel or if you think people are going to want to avoid driving home after the wedding if they are local."

Calculate How Many Rooms to Block for the Wedding

When it comes to calculating your specific needs, Durpetti suggests to-be-weds "plan for 80% of your guest list to need accommodations—then reserve enough to cover that number, split across your hotel options." To be on the safe side, Jaroscak encourages being more conservative with contract blocks. She suggests folks take the number of rooms they anticipate needing and then "reduce it by 20% and that is what you should use when securing an attrition block."

• How Many Rooms to Block for 50 Guests? Location Wedding: Courtesy: 15–30, Contracted: 10–15; Destination Wedding: Courtesy: 20–40, Contracted: 15–30
• How Many Rooms to Block for 100 Guests? Location Wedding: Courtesy: 30–60, Contracted: 20–40; Destination Wedding: Courtesy: 40–80, Contracted: 30–60
• How Many Rooms to Block for 150 Guests? Location Wedding: Courtesy: 45–90, Contracted: 30–60; Destination Wedding: Courtesy: 60–120, Contracted: 45–90
• How Many Rooms to Block for 200 Guests? Location Wedding: Courtesy: 60–120, Contracted: 40–80; Destination Wedding: Courtesy: 80–160, Contracted: 60–120

The Potential to Add More Rooms

While this is dependent on hotel availability, and you might not get as steep of a discount, adding more rooms later down the line is a possibility to keep in mind. You might be eager to establish a room block early at a great rate, but if you feel uncertain about how many rooms to book you can err on the safe side. Then, as the block gets closer to filling up more rooms could be added. As always, speak with your contact at the hotel first to get a sense of what adding additional rooms might entail. Hotels in some of the best destination wedding locations book up quickly so this is generally considered a riskier option.

Do You Have to Pay to Block Hotel Rooms?

Does it cost money to block hotel rooms? Sometimes, but not always. That's because there are two main types of hotel room blocks and one may cost you money while the other is complimentary.

Types of Hotel Room Blocks

"A courtesy block typically reserves rooms without financial obligation to the couple—unused rooms are simply released after the cut-off date," explains Durpetti. "Contracted blocks, on the other hand, often require a minimum number of rooms to be booked or the couple may be financially responsible for unused rooms. Each hotel has different policies, so it's crucial to understand the terms before signing anything."

Who Pays for Hotel Blocks?

For contracted room blocks, who's on the hook for paying if the rooms aren't filled? Traditionally, the bride's family pays for the wedding party's accommodations, so any hotel room block fees will fall to them. This doesn't mean the family must pay for each guest's nightly hotel room rate—only VIPs, if their budget allows. As you're building your wedding budget, the possibility of a hotel room block expense is something to keep in mind.

When to Reserve a Hotel Block for a Wedding

Now that you've estimated the number of rooms, timing is your next key consideration. "Ideally, begin securing room blocks 9–12 months before the wedding, especially for popular cities or peak seasons," says Durpetti. She continues: "Hotels book up quickly, and early planning ensures better rates, availability, and peace of mind for your guests." Notably, O'Connell adds that a room block should be set up before save-the-dates are mailed "as the first thing people want to do when they know the wedding is happening is book their travel."

How to Share Hotel Room Block Information With Guests

It's kind of hard to book something you know nothing about, right? After all, communicating with wedding guests is important throughout the entire wedding journey. Here's how to go about sharing hotel booking details for the wedding with guests.

Hotel Block Wording for Wedding Invitation

While hotel block information won't go on the main invitation card, the wedding invitation details card is a great place to communicate details about accommodations.

Design: Natalie Romine

The main thing to keep in mind is that wedding details card wording should be succinct so guests don't feel overwhelmed and forget anything important. As such, if you have just one hotel room block (with simple booking instructions) you can include that on the details card. However, it's generally best to direct guests to your wedding website and then spell out the specifics more granularly on the wedding website.

Photo: The Knot

Example with hotel specifics:

A group of rooms have been set aside at the [enter hotel name and and address]. Please book rooms by [insert date] to receive a discounted rate. Call the hotel directly to book—please mention the [couple's names] wedding when booking.
[insert hotel address and phone number]

Photo: The Knot

Example directing guests to the wedding website:

Please visit our website for accommodation information.
[insert website link]

Hotel Block Wording for Wedding Website

File this under: what to include on your wedding website. A good way to communicate your hotel block information is to include it on your wedding website. That way, all your guests will be well-informed and can easily click to learn more about the accommodation options available.

Photo: The Knot

Hotel room block wording example:

Thank you for making the journey to celebrate with us!
We're delighted to have family and friends from near and far coming to our wedding. To help you find accommodations, we have reserved a block of hotel rooms for [insert number] nights from [insert date] to [insert date] at the [insert hotel name(s)].
If you wish to book a room at a special group rate that we've negotiated on your behalf, visit this website [insert link] or call [insert phone number] before [insert a cut-off date] to ensure you have a place to stay, as space is limited. [If required, provide a reference number.]

How to Negotiate a Hotel Room Block Contract

A room block contract is one of the many wedding contracts you'll likely need to sign during the planning journey. However, there's certain terminology you'll need to understand when reviewing the contract terms for a hotel block. Read your hotel room block contract carefully before signing, and be on the lookout for the following clauses. Additionally, it's always a good idea to ask the hotel questions about the wedding block in case you come across any terminology that confuses you.

Deposit

A hotel room block deposit is the amount of money (if any) you have to pay the hotel to reserve the room block, and the terms that need to be met to get your deposit back. In order to avoid this fee, look for hotels that don't require a deposit for a room block.

Cancellation Policy

The cancellation policy outlines the conditions under which you can cancel rooms and any financial penalties associated with your cancellation.

Allowable Shrinkage Clause

The allowable shrinkage clause is the percentage of unbooked rooms allowed without penalties. Target Percentage: Between 10–20%.

Attrition Clause or Minimum Commitment

The attrition rate, in a contracted block, refers to the percentage or number of rooms that need to be filled to avoid paying a penalty fee.

Target Percentage: Between 80–90%. For example, if your attrition rate is 90% of your contracted block of 20 rooms, and your guests only book 16 rooms, you are financially responsible for 2 rooms.

Mitigation Clause or Resell Clause

If your hotel room block contract includes a mitigation clause then the hotel must attempt to sell your unused rooms so you can avoid paying attrition for them if they're sold to other customers later. In short: You shouldn't be paying for rooms other hotel guests are paying for.

Cut-Off Date

This is the date that rooms in a block that aren't reserved will be released back for booking to the general public. The typical cut-off date is 30 days before check-in.

Additional reporting by Diane Hall and Chapelle Johnson