Block booking

Do you know people actually want to stay over?

We've got exclusive use of our venues and have 8 rooms, one of which will be ours. Then we've looked at our guest list and decided who to offer the rooms to. We looked at it as who is really important to us and who we would like to have breakfast with the next morning!! For example I'd happily sit for breakfast with my sister and her husband but wouldn't fancy sitting for breakfast with a friend's 'plus one' that we'd never met. So that's how we decided to allocate rooms to first off and then spoke to them to see if they wanted to stay. We're not asking for money for them to stay but if we were they are all people that I'd quite comfortably have the money conversation with. It'll be fine, if they don't want to pay then they won't stay. Simple as that I would think.I would suggest talking to them, rather than putting it on the invitations.

We have already sent Save the Dates out along with details on accommodation and the majority of those people have directly contacted the hotel and reserved rooms.

Since we sent the Save the Dates out we have now block booked all rooms under our name and so people need to contact and pay us directly which is where i am finding it difficult to find wording to express this ?

This sounds like a great plan, our problem being we have 37 rooms and the total bill is rather large and as we have block booked all the rooms we really want people to book rooms and it to be as clear and easy as possible.

Aha! I see! hmmmm...... well I guess there's no easy way to write it. How about something like 'please rsvp, along with payment for your room, by .....2010' or something to that effect. It says you're expecting to receive your money when they send the reply, without being so blunt as to say please give us the money!

I would say something along the lines of " we have reserved all the rooms at the venue for our guests that wish to stay, to keep inconvenience to a minimum you just need to RSVP whether you intend to stay & we will contact you to discuss payment" You could then if possible have a tick box on your RSVP's for whether they want to stay or not & include the room rates in your info so it's clear what the cost would be.

I like the idea of the RSVP's i don't want such details on the full invite as I think it's very distastful.

How about this - We plan to coordinate room reservations and payments for all our guests.

what I'm trying to minamise is the confusion about the day guests having originally contacting the hotel for reservations and as it stands now they have to pay us directly - i wonder if people may get confused or am i thinking too much ??

Arghh !!

Personally I'd just put on the invitation

"Should you wish to stay overnight at the venue the cost per room is £xx. To book a room please contact the bride and groom direct"

We only have 10 rooms at our venue which we have allocated to the bridal paty, however, we went to a friends venue last year and they had exclusive use with all the bedrooms. their invites simple said,

"If you wish to have a room at the venue, please send a cheque for £***, made payable to the venue to the bride and groom"

then the B & G just gave them to the venue but they managed it all them selves, you could explain that you have pre booked the rooms so please make the cheque payable to you.

you may need to add in small print that even if they have contacted the venue, they still need to send payment via you!

hope that helps!

I dont think theres a particuarly nice way to say it. It just has to be said lol.

Just something like the other girls have suggested. Or you could ring people up you would like to stay and simply say ''we'd really like to offer you first refusal on the rooms at the hotel on our wedding night'' then tell them the cost and when it needs to be paid by and see what they say.

x

• The evening could be quite late so if you wish to retire to a venue we have selected please contact me for more information.

• Well, here it is. I have arranged that some rooms are avaliable for those who wish to stay over. If you are interested contact me for the info.

• I have arranged various rooms to be avaliable for the guests of my wedding. If you are interested in staying in one of them please contact me for further details.

Just some ideas I came up with, hope they help.