What is a hotel room block?
A room block is a group of hotel rooms held for your event at a group rate. A courtesy block holds rooms until a set date with no commitment from you. A contracted block is a signed agreement where you carry the risk for rooms that go unbooked (Engine, courtesy blocks). That’s a group-booking company’s plain-language explanation, not a legal standard, so read your own contract.
What do the terms mean?
These definitions come from a hotel industry glossary and one university’s guidance for its departments (glossary, Brown University guidance).
- Cutoff date. The date the hotel releases unused rooms in the block to the public. The hotel holds the block and the group rate only until then.
- Attrition. A clause meant to make sure your group fills the rooms it agreed to by the cutoff. An attrition fee is the penalty for unsold rooms.
- Attrition rate. The percentage of the block you must fill, typically by a set date, to avoid a penalty.
- Comp rooms. Complimentary rooms the hotel gives based on the number of rooms your group buys. The ratio is negotiated in each contract.
- Group rate. The rate for rooms in the block, typically lower than individual rates because of the volume.
- Pickup and rooming list. Pickup is the number of rooms actually occupied out of the total reserved. A rooming list is the roster of people who need rooms. Rooms can be booked from a list you supply or by guests booking one at a time.
What should you ask before you sign?
Brown University’s guidance for its own departments suggests these, and they hold up as plain questions (Brown guidance). It’s one institution’s advice and not an industry standard.
- Don’t ask the hotel to hold more rooms than you expect to book.
- Avoid attrition that starts the day you sign.
- Ask for a cancellation schedule, so you don’t owe the whole contracted amount if the event is canceled or gets smaller.
- Ask whether attrition also applies to food and beverage minimums.
- Ask whether the rate is commissionable or net. Brown’s guidance says a block guests book for themselves should use commissionable rates, and a block the organization pays for should be net.
Where do you start in DC?
Destination DC, the city’s convention bureau, takes meeting requests for proposals through an online form and forwards them to matching hotels and venues (Destination DC meetings, request form).
The Cvent planner guide has a chapter on room block management, which it calls one of the more time-consuming parts of planning (Cvent planner guide). No official industry source gives typical attrition percentages or cutoff lead times, so ask each hotel what it requires.
Should you double-check this?
Every hotel writes its contract a little differently. Read yours closely, and ask the hotel, or someone who reviews contracts for you, what the terms mean for your event before you sign.
Planning the photos?
For rooms and dates, see Downtown DC event venues, National Harbor event venues and DC’s 2027 calendar for event planners.
