Hotel Room Blocks and the Clause That Bites

A room block holds hotel rooms for wedding guests at an agreed rate. The important variable is not the rate but who carries the risk if the rooms go unsold.

Two structures with very different exposure

A courtesy block holds rooms with no financial obligation. Unbooked rooms are released back to the hotel by a cutoff date and the couple owes nothing.

A contracted block guarantees a number of rooms, usually at a better rate, with the couple responsible for a share of any that go unbooked.

The second structure is where couples get hurt, because the guarantee is signed a year out when nobody knows how many guests will travel or where they will choose to stay.

Attrition is the clause to read

An attrition clause states what percentage of the block must be picked up and what the couple owes if it is not.

The charge is typically calculated on the shortfall, and it is real money for rooms nobody slept in, billed after the wedding when the budget is closed.

Terms vary by property and are negotiable, and the negotiable parts are usually the percentage, the cutoff date and whether unbooked rooms can be released in stages.

Guests do not behave the way blocks assume

Blocks assume guests book into them. In practice many book elsewhere, using loyalty points, a cheaper rate found online, or a rental home.

A block rate is not always the lowest rate available, and guests who check will find that out, which undermines the premise the block was built on.

Blocking fewer rooms than you expect to need is the safer error, since most hotels will add rooms if the block fills, while unsold rooms cannot be undone.

The cutoff date does real damage

Rooms are released back to general inventory on a stated date, commonly a few weeks before the wedding, after which the rate and availability are gone.

Guests who respond late find the hotel sold out or priced at a rack rate, which produces complaints directed at the couple rather than at the hotel.

Publishing the cutoff prominently, and reminding guests before it, is the only defense, because nobody reads a date printed once on a website months earlier.

Multiple properties and shuttles

Blocking rooms at more than one price point serves a mixed guest list better than one block at one hotel, particularly where guests differ widely in budget.

The complication is transportation, since a shuttle serving three hotels needs three stops and a longer run time, and that cost rises with each property.

Choosing hotels clustered geographically keeps the shuttle short, which matters more to guests than any rate difference of a few dollars.