The first thing you must think about is reserving rooms at a local hotel for your out-of-town guests. The worst thing that could happen is when your guests try to call around for a hotel room a few months before your family reunion, to only find out that all the rooms in town are $500 per room per night or even worse all rooms in town have all been taken by a large convention or sporting event. This is why it is very important to reserve a block of rooms for your guests at special rates at one or two select hotels with plenty of time before the big event. At most hotels the minimum number of guests rooms required to make a block is 10 rooms per night. If you are looking for over 30 rooms per night, another good idea is to split the group blocks among two to three hotels. This way your guests can have a choice between different locations and prices.
You want to get your family member's interest in the family reunion and generate excitement among them. Advance preparation is the key. Start by selecting the perfect location. Our technology is perfect for this as it allows you to search multiple reunion locations at the same time. You want to find a reunion location that is central so that every member of your family has an easy time getting there. You also want to make sure the location has enough attractions and things to do for all ages so that every member of the family, young and old, is excited about the trip. The worst thing that could happen is when you try to call around for a hotel room a few months before your Family Reunion, to only find out that all the rooms in town are $500 per room per night or even worse all rooms in town have all been taken by a large convention or city wide event. This is why it is very important to reserve a block of rooms for your Family Reunion at special rates at a hotel in the perfect location with plenty of time before the big event. At most hotels the minimum number of guests rooms required to make a block is 10 rooms per night, but if you are using any banquet space at the hotel sometimes that number can be less.
To accomplish this goal you may not want to start blindly calling hotels in multiple locations. You will not be doing your family or yourself any favors by reserving blocks at the first rates the hotel will quote. You also do not have all the information on the hotel, and it is important you get organized detailed descriptions of all amenities before you make any decisions. First step is to see what rates are out there on the Internet. A great source we have found for easily comparing different hotel Internet rates is HotelPlanner.com (
www.HotelPlanner.com). The best thing about their system is that it is free and very easy to use. All you need to do is put in your family reunion location options and dates and HotelPlanner.com will do the rest. It will allow you to search hotel group rates in multiple cities at the same time in a clear and organized approach without Hotel bias. It also puts you in control of sorting through this information by location, price or Hotel Brand names. They will also assign an account representative to you that will help make sure your hotel deals are not only the best, but they will help with the reservation process as well. The reservation process is very important because even if the room rate is very low, the deal may include a very strict cancellation policy, a high cash deposit, or other hidden costs such as mandatory resort fees. The HotelPlanner.com Account Representative will be more than happy to help through these and all of other issues you may encounter. After choosing your hotel they will set up a special online booking website just for your Family Reunion free of charge. This will help you keep track of your family members as they confirm with your hotel.