A room block is the single most consequential contract in a destination wedding, and almost nobody explains it before a couple signs one. Here is what you are actually agreeing to, what attrition means, what happens when guests drop out, and how the comp rooms everyone promises you are really calculated.
A block is an agreement with the resort to hold a set number of rooms for a set set of dates, at an agreed rate, until an agreed date. In exchange for that commitment the resort gives you a rate your guests could not get individually, plus concessions: complimentary rooms, upgrades, a private event venue, sometimes the entire wedding package.
Two things follow from this, and they are the two things couples are usually surprised by. The rate is only protected inside the block. And the commitment is real, which is what attrition is about.
| Term | What it means | Why it bites |
|---|---|---|
| Block size | How many rooms you are holding, usually expressed in room nights rather than rooms. | Concessions are almost always tied to room nights. Thirty rooms for five nights is a very different commitment from thirty rooms for two. |
| Cutoff date | The date unbooked rooms are released back to the resort, typically 30 to 60 days out. | After the cutoff, late-deciding guests pay public rates, which are usually much higher and sometimes sold out entirely. |
| Attrition | The percentage of the block you may release without penalty. Commonly 10 to 20 percent. | If you hold 100 room nights with 10 percent attrition and only fill 70, you may owe for the shortfall below 90. |
| Deposit schedule | Staged payments, often at signing, then at intervals until final payment 30 to 45 days before arrival. | Deposits are frequently non-refundable but transferable. Which one yours is should be in writing before you sign. |
| Comp room ratio | Free rooms earned per volume booked, e.g. one complimentary room per fifteen paid. | Calculated on rooms actually booked, not rooms held. Hold a big block and under-fill it and the comps evaporate. |
Couples hold a block sized to their invitation list rather than to their realistic attendance. Destination weddings do not get the RSVP rate of a wedding at home, and Indian weddings in particular carry long invitation lists where a meaningful share were never going to fly. Hold a block you can genuinely fill, then add rooms later. Almost every resort will let you grow a block. Very few will let you shrink one without cost.
There are broadly three models, and the one you choose changes both your risk and how your family feels about the wedding.
The most common arrangement. Guests book their own rooms inside the block using a link or a code. Your exposure is limited to the attrition clause and the deposit.
More common in Indian weddings, particularly for the immediate family and for guests travelling from India. Cleaner for guests, and it puts the whole block risk on you.
Couple covers a core set of rooms, everyone else books their own. In practice this is what most of our weddings end up doing.
These are two separate contracts and they get confused constantly. A group block is with the hotel and covers accommodation. A group air contract is with an airline and covers seats. They have different deposit schedules, different name deadlines and different change rules, and one does not imply the other.
Group air becomes worth doing at roughly ten or more passengers on the same routing, and it becomes genuinely valuable when your guests are departing from three or more cities. It buys you a fixed price, a later name deadline than individual tickets, and the ability to change a passenger without repricing the whole booking. We once moved a student to the next day's flight for a change fee alone, because an exam had been scheduled on her departure date, and we had booked with a carrier flying that route several times a week for exactly that reason.
If a resort will not answer these in writing, that is information too.
