What's your opinion on the room block??

[BecBennett]

So I'm up to doing the dreaded room block

What has everyone found is best? Booking out lots of rooms, then if needed filling them with Diser's reservation numbers?

Or, onl booking a conservative amount of rooms, advising your guests to get in quick, and just believing that there will be accommodation somewhere for them to stay at?

We're only having roughly 30 guests, and a lot of them will probably stay in holiday houses, or in DTD resorts so I'd prefer to just make up 25 nights in the room block, and no more, and hope that they'll be able to find accomm that suits their budgets and tastes, and possibly even still get away with the free night...

 

[pezaddict231]

We have a guestlist of about 100, I think our final count will be around 70 or so. I guaranteed 50 rooms and blocked 65 I think. I thought about doing more but not everyone will stay on property or use the block. Plus as long as there is availability at the resort they will give your guests the rate, even if the block is full.

We also encouraged our guests to book in advance, although not many listened, but I have not heard of anyone having problems so far.

 

[helloirishkitty]

I blocked the minimum amount of nights, 25, with our guest list of 70. I only think around 40 will come, and I know many of them will stay off-site. If I was wrong, as long as there are rooms available, they'll get the discount

 

[puente0629]

We have 48 guests coming (so far, could be less) but I have always been the person that rather have a lot left over then not enough. So I blocked a total of 12 rooms for 68 nights, a lot of our family and friends will be making this their vacation (i.e. my parents are staying 9 nights, SIL and BIL are staying 7 nights, my brother is staying 8 nights, etc.). i know that 95% of our guests will be staying inside Disney World which will make it more convenient to get to the parks, wedding venues, and events.

I think 25 nights is perfect if most of your guests will be staying offsite but if I were you I would call or email each family and ask them what their preference will be, also let them know that because they are wedding guests they receive special room rates and how convenient it is to all of your events and theme parks, you might be surprised how many people might change their minds.

 

[girli565]

We have a lot of family staying off site and a few of our friends too, so when I mentioned this to my sales person she told me that they could just waive the requirement if we weren't going to fill the block. I'm glad we did waive it because out of 25 nights booked we would have only filled 18 including ours and the few people staying on site.

Maybe you could talk to your sales consultant and see if they can waive it or lower it.

 

[erin.w]

I asked most people what they were planning on doing: when they were going to arrive, etc. I told them it was for planning purposes of other wedding events (welcome dinner, etc.). Prior to that I "guessed" which resort I thought each family would choose. And encouraged people to stay on property for the night before and the night of the wedding at the least (so that we may provide them transportation to the days events and back to their resort). Everyone was open to that and surprisingly most people are planning on making it a vacation and are thankful to be able to get the discount for their whole vacation. Most are staying Saturday-Tuesday or Wednesday with the wedding being on Monday.

 

[BecBennett]

Thanks everyone, I'll leave it small then and send through what I've got

 

[limedelsol]

We are having a small ceremony with 18 guests, so when we announced our plans we asked everyone what they wanted to do. Everyone has since jumped on the bandwagon, so I have had to add onto my room block 3 times, but I would rather add and add rather than over book