Booking Hotel

duracell_bunny

Hi. I'm new to all this arranging a wedding lark.

We have a church date reserved and need to get a hotel booked for that date also. Is it possible to just put a deposit down on the hotel and then (say in five months or so) sit down with them and put together a package or should be book for their basic package and then barter/decide the menu and extras etc a few months before the wedding?

My oh is freaking out at the thought of having to decide the package to include the menu etc already - he doesn't even know till he gets home in the evening what he wants for dinner that day!

We want a specific date and I'm worried that if we wait any longer there won't be any hotels available anywhere near our church. On the other hand, if we have to decide everything this earlier on then there won't be a wedding at all cos he is freaking out big time.

lazygal

Most places need a booking deposit of say €1000 to hold the date. The rest is paid in agreed installments once you have a rough idea of numbers, menu, drinks etc. We're not paying the final amount until the day after our wedding.

duracell_bunny

Thanks for that. I might actually manage to get him to look at places with me this weekend now!

lazygal

We're choosing our menu next weekend-we've a rough idea what we want but going to play hardball and negotiate, even though we've only paid a deposit of €1500.

SSFG

duracell_bunny wrote: »

Hi. I'm new to all this arranging a wedding lark.

We have a church date reserved and need to get a hotel booked for that date also. Is it possible to just put a deposit down on the hotel and then (say in five months or so) sit down with them and put together a package or should be book for their basic package and then barter/decide the menu and extras etc a few months before the wedding?

My oh is freaking out at the thought of having to decide the package to include the menu etc already - he doesn't even know till he gets home in the evening what he wants for dinner that day!

We want a specific date and I'm worried that if we wait any longer there won't be any hotels available anywhere near our church. On the other hand, if we have to decide everything this earlier on then there won't be a wedding at all cos he is freaking out big time.

Most hotels will ask for a deposit in order to secure the date. We booked the hotel and negotiated a price for the wedding package. But regarding the choice of menu, we don't have to do that yet. we could, if we wanted to but the hotel said we can do that at our leisure.
On the other hand, if you have a particular date in mind that you are stuck on, then you should get the hotel organised sooner rather than later.
It is a bit overwhelming at the start (god the pressure of just picking a hotel had me in tears..in the end I let himself pick!!), but I swear once the church and hotel is done you will feel much better and then you will hit your stride you'll be grand!!
Good luck, and enjoy it!!!

isainmdom

hi here this is what we did when booking our hotel,pick hotels in your local area ,we went for hotels within an hours drive of the church which there were a few,we then got in touch with these hotels by email or meeting them at wedding fairs asking them for there wedding packages,some had these on there websites.we then asked which of the hotels we had shortlisted had the wedding day free,we were only ever going to go with one or two hotels off the list,we then found the cheapest hotel on the list which would cater for the number of guests we were expecting and went in and negotiated with them ,it was just roughwork as in the price for say 200 guest or expected numbers ,price of a choice for starter or dessert,corkage,then the price of there set menu eg meat/fish.meat poulty or otherwise,and whats included in the packages,ie tea coffe on arrival chair covers,tea coffee and snacks later on centrepieces bar extension to name a few,once something was agreed on the price of each ,we wrote them down,once we got home we emailed the agreed prices back to the hotel we had been at and got a confirmation email from them to say they had recieved the email and the prices were correct,this was to have written proof and not just hear say when going to another hotel,no deposit paid

once this was done we went to the two preferred hotels and got a feel for the places ,the first place we didnt get a great feel from,the second place which was our first choice from having being at it from other weddings and functions we liked the wedding manager and got the tour of the place,function room where guests would sit on arrival,honeymoon suite and so forth,at this point we double checked the date was free and asked for it to be provisonally booked ,which they agreed to do so for a period of two weeks for free,and would let us know if anyone else was interested in that date during the two week period.no deposit paid yet.we then had a sit down on that day with the hotel manager and sold our business to them as in a lot of the guests would be travelling to the wedding so staying over and booking up rooms in the hotel,eating in the hotel the next day and so forth.we had an idea on menu at this stage,asked for beef and monkfish which wasnt on set menu and asked for a price for this,they then told us what they would offer us in the hotels packages and what the prices were,once these prices were on the table we negotiated about what they would reduce them by,we werent going to rush into anything so we then left to have a think about it to weigh up from the prices we recieved where we could get some reductions by comparing it to the other hotel,this took a bit of head bashing but once we had a set idea in mind where we would look for reductions we arranged another meeting with the hotel,met with wedding manager and talked numbers bringing along the quotes from the other hotel as proof.once we were satisfied with the reductions which ranged from corkage,hotel room rates, price for bar extension ,price for choice of starter ,price of set menu,price of teas coffee food later on to name a few it was at this stage we again wrote down the negotiated prices and left.we then emailed the prices to the hotel and what the package included,once we recieved a confirmation email agreeing the price and details of the package was correct that we went into the hotel to pay a deposit to secure that date.the only reason we did it this way was that once a deposit is paid at a hotel its a lot harder to negotiate using an outside source to compare against.its not an exact science its just the way we went about it,best of luck with your hotel search

BC

Most hotels will provisionally hold the date for you for about 2 weeks free of charge. To secure the date (and prevent someone else from taking it) you need to pay a deposit which could be a few grand.

I would ensure you have agreed terms & prices at the time of paying the deposit, otherwise there is nothing to stop the hotel increasing their prices after you have signed the contract. You don't have to go down to the detail of the actual menu choices, this is usually done a couple of months before the wedding but you should have a fair idea of things. E.g are you going for corkage, what price will that be. Prices for any extras like chair covers, price of bar extension etc.

For our contract we agreed roughly what we wanted (not the package, ordering separately off the menu, corkage etc). We got a guarantee of 1 wedding per day and we got agreement that if the prices changed in the hotel, that our prices would not increase but if there were reductions that we would get them.

Its up to you how much you agree up front, but be aware that if you don't get things included in the initial contract then the hotel may change their prices/packages/whats included whats extra etc. The brochure is just a brochure, not a contract. Also, if you want to negotiate on any prices you need to do it before you sign the contract, otherwise your bargaining power is gone.