Most of us don’t have much practice making group reservations. Group reservations can be helpful if you are hosting a reunion, or if you are traveling with your extended family and want to stay close together. However one of the most common reasons to make group hotel reservations is that you need hotel rooms for your wedding guests.
Part of planning a typical wedding is finding and reserving a place for your out of town guests to stay. Many brides choose to reserve one or more blocks of hotel rooms so that the guests can stay at the same hotel in a location convenient to the wedding and reception.
Recently my future daughter-in-law asked me to help her out with wedding planning by reserving a block of hotel rooms. Having never done this, I did a bit of research to figure out the best approach to take. This post shares with you my process to negotiate a good price for a block of hotel rooms.
My Process to Reserve a Block of Hotel Rooms
Here is how I booked 10 rooms in a luxury boutique hotel in a popular tourist area for $49 less than the best available rate per room. I was able to get a bunch of extras included with the lower rate – such as: free hot breakfast (made to order omelets – yum), wireless internet, courtesy shuttle, free parking, use of the Gold’s gym across the street and free drinks in the evening.
Pick the location(s) you want to explore.
The bride wanted her guests to either be close to the airport or to the area’s prestigious plaza area, but I checked locations close to the wedding and reception as well.
Understand what you want.
Terms
Typically hotels would rather sign a contract with you where in you are responsible for a deposit and for a certain number of rooms actually being rented (called attrition in hotel contract speak).
Since we weren’t sure how many of the out of towners would actually show, we didn’t want to commit to any financial obligations. I learned that hotels will do what they call a ‘courtesy’ block if you are willing to have your guests book reservations pretty far in advance.
Our terms:
- No deposit
- No attrition clause
- Guests can cancel reserved room up til 6pm the day of the reservation
- Hotel won’t release rooms more than one month ahead of the wedding
Prices and amenities
The bride and I set a loose framework for pricing – we tried to keep it under $95 but still get a nice hotel. For the extra amenities, we tried for a free room for the bride and groom, free breakfast, free wireless internet, free transportation to the wedding and wanted the normal hotel amenities such as in room coffee, workout center/pool, free premium cable and etc.
Typical things you could try for include: Shuttle Service; Free internet; Distribution of your goody bags at check in; Restaurant perks; Complimentary room for bride and groom; Complimentary breakfast; Private time for pool party; Complimentary meeting room for your guests to hang out in; A promise that the guest rooms would be close to each other; Signage - if the hotel has an electronic board – ask them to put up a congratulations to the bride and groom message.
Get multiple bids.
Once you know the dates, location and number of rooms you will want, it is time to go get bids from multiple hotels.
I used the internet to find the hotels from which I wanted bids. As I was searching for information on the hotels, I came across a website called Group Travel which promised to submit information to multiple hotels in the area and get bids back from the hotel sales staffs. I used this service (which was free) after creating an account. They only required my email id and a password to create the account. This website also had many helpful resources on how to go about reserving a block (typically 10 rooms) in a hotel.
Once I submitted information (date of the event, number of rooms, city), I immediately started getting bids listed for my event (on their site). I received about one email a day until I told the site to stop the bidding. I was able to include extra comments in my information to say that I wanted a courtesy block, a complimentary room for the bride and groom and etc.
At the same time, I researched individual hotels in my area by reviewing their internet sites, then calling and speaking with the group sales manager.
Build a comparison sheet.
I am a spreadsheet person, so I built myself a spreadsheet with a row for each hotel. It included the hotel name, location, phone number, contact name, price, each desired amenity and an area for comments.
I used this to compare the bids on price, location and number of amenities offered as well as on contractual terms.
Negotiate.
Here are some tips:
- Try to talk to the decision maker instead of a clerk – you won’t be able to negotiate with the clerk. Be respectful, expect to spend some time getting hooked up with the correct person. Explain what you are looking for and tell them why you chose to call their hotel (a little flattery never hurts).
- Don’t tell them what you want to spend (they WILL ask), instead, get their offer first. Find out what amenities they are including (or not including) with the price they quote and what the terms are.
- Always try for more than you think you can get. Don’t be suckered into following ‘the rules’ (there really aren’t any!).
- Let your reaction show or be heard. If they charge too much or don’t offer what you want say something like, “Wow, that’s not what I was expecting”.
- Wait for hotel to make offer, don’t tell them your budget. Let them know you are talking with other hotels and comparing deals.
Make them compete with each other.
Once you have an initial round of conversations under your belt, your spreadsheet should have the correct contact name and phone number, a price range, the terms under which you may have to operate and the amenities included or excluded.
Ask each person to send you their offer in an email. This gets it in writing for you and gets them to invest time in your transaction. People often are more willing to negotiate if they have time invested in you.
Select several of the hotels as potentials and then start calling them back. Let them know that you have offers from other hotels. Start negotiating the price down or the amenities up or the terms looser for you and/or your guests. To get lower pricing, ask if there is a more affordable option and mention that another triple star hotel is offering xyz for $.
Don’t let on that you are too interested and make them believe that you are not the decision maker. This will give you time and room to negotiate further if you chose to do so.
In our case, one of the Group Travel website hotel bids was fairly attractive to start. I included this with several others from the various locations and shared them with my future daughter-in-law. She had used the hotel bidding via Group Travel and actually knew one of the owners. However, she was very flexible and left it up to me to chose.
I sent an email to the hotel she had used and indicated that the bride really liked the hotel but that we were getting very attractive offers from other 3 star hotels in the area (which was true) and asked if they had any flexibility on price or amenities included. The hotel came back with an offer of $89 a night per room for either a queen or 2 double beds and included all amenities we had requested, except the complimentary bride and groom room. However they did offer their honeymoon suite at a discount ($159 instead of $209).
Solidify your selection.
Review, revise and sign any written agreement or contract needed. Ask what special instructions you should give your guests. Verify that the rooms are actually blocked.
I had to deal with a different person to actually block the rooms, than the one with whom I had negotiated. Luckily I had the offer in writing as the new person tried to change the price, amenities and terms in the final written agreement. I simply forwarded the written offer back to her and asked for corrections to the written agreement prior to signing it. She quickly apologized and sent back the corrected one.
Negotiating a reduced rate for a block of hotel rooms can take a bit of time and effort – but it is a nice courtesy to offer to your guests.
Have you negotiated group rates for hotel rooms at discounted prices? What tips can you offer?
Now what I need is a website that will send me bids on rehearsal dinner reservations – anyone know of one?
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