Room blocking roadblock

Hotel blocking. I wasn't going to write about it because I had kind of a crappy experience. But the lovely Laura of Lucky in Love recently wrote a post about it and inspired me to write my own. Amy from Little Miss Wedding Planner also wrote a fantastic guide to blocking rooms. Definitely check that out. Anyway...here we go.

Originally I figured that booking rooms for our guests would be a relatively painless and easy process. Find a hotel, confirm the date, negotiate a rate, and book it. Done and done! I even knew what hotel we wanted to use and we planned on it serving as our Plan B picture location if the weather was crappy. HA. Right. If only it were that easy.

In early December we set up a meeting with the sales coordinator to discuss logistics. She was a lovely person and the hotel rooms were lovely as well, but there was a problem. Our wedding is at the end of May. The end of May is not only a very busy time for weddings, but also the middle of the NBA playoffs. Here in Cleveland we have a little team called the Cleveland Cavaliers. On the team are a few players you may or may not have heard of: LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal. The playoffs (and winning a championship) are a pretty big deal here in C-town.

The sales coordinator told us in no uncertain terms that they could only give us X number of rooms for X dollar amount (a RIDICULOUS dollar amount, to be exact) because they're anticipating the Cavs being in the playoffs. So let me get this straight: how much you're charging my guests is based on 1.) the possibility of the Cavs being in the playoffs and b.) the possibility that there will be a playoff game in Cleveland on those exact nights. Mmmmkay. Let me just add that there is no way of actually knowing ANY of this because the schedule for these things cannot be made until the NBA knows exactly who will be in the playoffs.

Obviously, we chose to look elsewhere. I didn't appreciate that they were putting a hypothetical event above my set-in-stone wedding. Do I think that the world should stop for my wedding? Of course not. But I do think that my wedding should get the same amount of respect as a basketball game. Their lack of customer service lost the sale. If you'd like to know what hotel I'm talking about feel free to ask and I'd be happy to let you know :)

Next up...the fabulous hotel where we blocked our rooms!

Did you have a hard time blocking rooms for your wedding? Also, have you had fairly decent customer service experiences throughout your wedding planning or have there been difficulties in that area?