Group Booking???

[meghanmbm]

Hi ladies, I am hoping one of you out there has the answer to my problem. I am getting married at the Vallarta Palace on 8/8/09, They offer many ammenities if you book so many room ie guests book the rooms. If you have 10 room you get a free cocktail hour ect, the more you book the more you get. I have a bunch of verbal "yes's" from family and friends, but a lot can happen in a year and the ecomony isnt the greatest as of right now. The palace needs me to give them a number of how many rooms i want them to "block" for my guest. I cant get a straight answer from my travel agent as to if we would have to pay for those rooms if not all the people we expect to show dont. Has anyone come acrossed this problem? If so please share some advice.

[TammyWright]

ok, this has been discussed at length in other posts so i will be brief. there are pros and cons to doing a group block:

 

pros:

• the rooms are blocked off for your guests. this is important if you book at a resort that is very popular. i have a wedding that did not do a group block and only about 1/2 the guests were able to secure rooms.

• the rooms at blocked at a set rate.

• your guests can make payments instead of paying in full at once

• there are usually perks associated with a group block: free site visit, upgrades, free events, VIP status.

cons:

• you need to put $$ deposit upfront to secure the rooms.

• there are penalties if you do not book x-amount of rooms

out of all the groups i have done (and i have done alot) i have only had 1 bride/groom penalized for not fullfilling the group cpntract terms. this was 100% their fault as they chose to hold the unused rooms they had until the end instead of releasing them (their friends and family promised that they would book but ended up not booking). even though this was their fault, i was able to get the resort to waive the penalty.

 

i have not had a group yet :knock on wood: pay a big penalty like the one you posted above.

[vallartavows]

Here's how the Vallarta Palace group booking worked for me:

We purchased one room in full (our room), which allowed our guests to not have to pay until 2 months prior to our wedding. By paying early for our room, it held our block of 25 rooms at no additional charge.

Then each guest booked their room through VP guest reservations directly (through our TA), so that it could count toward our total number of rooms (and we can get the promotional deals). Hope that helps!

[ErikDaGenErik]

i just entered a contract with Moon Palace regaridng group bookings. here is what i know:

 

1) there is NO penalty if the rooms are unused. they just release them to the general public.

2) you could request an extension up to 2 weeks prior to the end date.

3) there's a 3 night minumim for each room. BUT if you have a guest staying for 6 nights, that could equivalent to 2 rooms.

 

make sure you ask if Vallarta Palace honors room nights instead of rooms booked. it's so much easier to get your free functions with room nights rather than rooms booked.

 

Moon Palace and Vallarta Palce are the same company so i'm assuming the same contract stipulations apply.

 

hope this helps.

[Queenie77]

Tammy's right on the money with her info. We've held a block of rooms for our group at Vallarta Palace, and the release date is very reasonable. Just keep in touch with your guests, keep an eye on your deposit/payment dates for your guests, and the room release dates. Vallarta Palace does have room numbers or room nights they consider when looking at which perks you've earned. That helps if you have people in your party staying longer than 3 days - it might get you to your perks faster than considering room nights only.

[montegobay09]

We only had one week to get a sale price so we sent our emails and phone messages to check our wedding site which told them if they planned on going they needed to put down a deposit. We ended up covering the deposit for a few people who we knew were coming but couldn't come up with the deposit on such short notice but it worked out better that way. Now if they back out it's their own deposit that they loose.

[montegobay09]

I mean lose....oops spelling mistake!

[K&Rwedding]

I booked 20 rooms at the Dreams and had to put down a $2000 deposit. We weren't committed to those rooms though. That was just to hold them. After our 20 rooms got filled they still honored the price for our additional rooms. No finance obligations from us.

I felt this was the best way. Once we book 30 rooms bride/groom stay is free.... We also receive our 2k back after the wedding.

 

Check out the Dreams I have a great TA I am working with who has contacts there.