Getting my guests abroad

JKB2016

Hi

My partner and I are looking to get married in Greece next summer. We found a place we want to get married, been in touch with a wedding planner, found the resort we want to stay, have the cost for the wedding etc

The issue/concern we have is all our guests getting booked into the resort. We`ve looked on travel agent websites and they all say one room left or two rooms left at certain hotels/apartment blocks and the only places left with decent availability are five star locations with big costs attached.

My questions are -

Do travel agencies advertise less rooms to make people panic into booking holidays quicker? I`ve been told this before but unsure if it is true.

Are there any travel agents on here who can help out with group bookings?

Thanks

richardw

How many rooms can you book on individual hotels' websites?

agrinnall

JKB2016 wrote: »

Are there any travel agents on here who can help out with group bookings?

Not likely, and probably against the forum rules, so why don't you just go to a good independent travel agent in person and ask them if they can help? Or if the wedding planner is based where you intend to get married ask them if they can recommend anyone who can deal with it locally.

WAYT

JKB2016 wrote: »

Hi

My partner and I are looking to get married in Greece next summer. We found a place we want to get married, been in touch with a wedding planner, found the resort we want to stay, have the cost for the wedding etc

The issue/concern we have is all our guests getting booked into the resort. We`ve looked on travel agent websites and they all say one room left or two rooms left at certain hotels/apartment blocks and the only places left with decent availability are five star locations with big costs attached.

My questions are -

Do travel agencies advertise less rooms to make people panic into booking holidays quicker? I`ve been told this before but unsure if it is true.

Are there any travel agents on here who can help out with group bookings?

Thanks

They may take an allocation of rooms from a particular hotel or group. So they may not have control over all of the rooms in a given hotel. So if there is a hotel/villa of which you like the look, contact them directly.

Forget about any cash or wired payments abroad. Credit card deposit is ok. Of course you can pay them cash on arrival once you have access to the product.
Don't forget to negotiate, money saving style.

Placitasgirl

Agencies such as booking.com etc normally have an allocation of rooms at a particular price and once they're gone they're gone. However you may still find rooms on another site or with the property direct.

If you're looking for a number of rooms greater than what's available on the likes of Booking/Agoda/Trivago I'd be tempted to contact the property direct to enquire about a group booking rate. If the property is available from one of the well know tour operators you may also find they'll offer a group rate.

lea2012

If you are looking for next year you may find that a lot of smaller properties aren't yet on sale.

I used to work for an online travel company and often contracts weren't signed off and loaded on to the system until oct/nov.

We got married abroad and we gave our guests the invites with extra info for airlines, accommodation nearby, info on things to do in the area and a little card with useful Greek phrases too. Everyone booked their own holidays and we all managed to get into properties next door to each other so I'm sure you will be able to find somewhere.

gettingtheresometime

Will your guests, who you think want to go, actually want to go?

JKB2016

Thanks for the replies.

agrinnall - I didn`t realise it was against forums rules, apologies.

WAYT, Placistasgirl- Cheers, I will look into that, contacting hotels direct.

lea2012 - That`s the kind of info I need, I didn`t know some sites have accommodation loaded Oct/Nov.

gettingther... - haha yes, we have a confirmed list of 44 adults & 8 children with a second list of 15 people who maybe coming but are unsure yet to work commitments/finances.

IAmWales

JKB2016 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

agrinnall - I didn`t realise it was against forums rules, apologies.

WAYT, Placistasgirl- Cheers, I will look into that, contacting hotels direct.

lea2012 - That`s the kind of info I need, I didn`t know some sites have accommodation loaded Oct/Nov.

gettingther... - haha yes, we have a confirmed list of 44 adults & 8 children with a second list of 15 people who maybe coming but are unsure yet to work commitments/finances.

Plans change, especially for so far ahead. Do the research on where has availability but let them do the bookings themselves. Don't leave yourself open to a position where you've got unpaid for rooms.

JKB2016

Yeah, we`re not booking for our guests we were just concerned about the availability in the resort because most hotels/travel websites are saying one room or two rooms.

We hope to find a number of hotels that can take our group, let them all know the details and tell them to get booking.

Gloomendoom

Another option might be to rent whole houses rather than individual hotel rooms.