Hotel Room Block Glossary for Planners

Room blocks and their types

Room block: The rooms a hotel holds for your group on set dates, with a room count for each night and a negotiated rate. The contract that creates it also sets a cut-off date and, usually, what you owe if the rooms go unused. Contracts also call it a group block. What happens when it isn’t filled is covered in our room block attrition guide.
Allotment: Strictly, an allotment is an inventory deal: a hotel gives a tour operator, wholesaler or travel agency a set number of rooms a day over a season, and the agency hands back what it can’t sell by a release date. An event block covers one event’s dates. In practice the two words are often used for the same thing, so read the terms written next to them rather than the label.
Guaranteed vs non-guaranteed block: In a guaranteed block you pay for the rooms whether or not they are used. In a non-guaranteed block the hotel holds the rooms until the cut-off date, and rooms without names go back to the hotel. Most event contracts sit in between: the block is held until a date, and you pay if pickup falls below an agreed share.
Courtesy block: A block the hotel holds at a group rate without asking you to commit to filling it. There is no attrition clause: rooms not booked by the cut-off date go back to the hotel at no cost to you. In exchange the hotel usually holds fewer rooms and may offer a smaller discount. It suits events where guests book and pay for themselves; when you place invited guests in rooms yourself, nothing guarantees the rooms will still be there.

Dates: cut-off, review, shoulder

Cut-off date (release date): The date the hotel puts rooms without names back on general sale. After it, new reservations are taken only if rooms are left, and whether they keep the group rate depends on the contract; some switch to the hotel’s going rate. Releasing rooms at cut-off usually doesn’t reduce what you owe under the attrition clause. More in cut-off and review dates.
Review dates: Agreed points before the cut-off where you look at pickup with the hotel and can shrink the block without a penalty, usually by no more than a set share. The hotel gets rooms back early enough to resell them. They are often worth more than a bigger attrition allowance.
Shoulder nights: The nights just before and after the event’s main dates: speakers who arrive early, a team that leaves the morning after. Blocks are usually smaller on these nights. Hotels often extend the group rate to a few days either side; get the rate, and whether those nights count towards your pickup, in writing.

Filling the block: pickup, wash, attrition

Pickup: The room nights actually used from your block, usually shown night by night. Attrition, comp rooms and the block the hotel offers you next year are all worked out from it. It comes from the hotel’s stay report after the event, not from your registration list, so ask for guests who booked outside the block to be matched and counted. That is one of the credits that lower the bill.
Wash: The part of a block the hotel expects won’t be used: late dropouts, guests who book outside the block, colleagues who decide to share a room. Hotels estimate it from past events. Some don’t take the whole contracted block off sale, or trim it before the cut-off when pickup lags. Ask the same question when you request a block: how many rooms did this group really use last time?
Attrition: The share of the block that goes unused, and the contract clause that sets how much of it you’re allowed. With a 20% allowance you must fill at least 80% of the block; below that, you pay for the missing room nights. It can be counted across all nights or night by night, and the gap between the two can be large. Try your own numbers in the attrition calculator.

The stay: no-shows, departures, lists

No-show: A guest with a reservation who never arrives and doesn’t cancel. Hotels usually charge at least one night, as the contract sets out. The night is billed, but nobody slept in the room, which is why planned, actual and billable nights need to be kept apart.
Early departure: A guest who checks out before the reserved departure date. Some contracts charge an early departure fee for the lost nights; in some, the fee is waived if the guest changes the date at check-in. Ask for these fees to be credited against attrition, or you may pay twice for the same night.
Rooming list vs booking link: A rooming list is the names file you send the hotel: who stays in which room, with whom and on which dates. You hold the rooms and decide who goes where. With a booking link, the hotel gives you a group-rate link, each guest books their own room and the bookings come off the block. Corporate events where the organizer pays for the stay usually run on a rooming list.

For a file that’s ready to send, use the free rooming list template. In EventProgrammer, each hotel’s rooming list comes from the guest records, and after the event the reconciliation report puts planned and actual nights side by side.

Rates, comp rooms and billing

Rack rate vs group rate: The rack rate is the hotel’s published, undiscounted price; few people pay it, but other rates are quoted against it. The group (contracted) rate is the nightly price fixed in your contract for rooms in the block. Check which rate the contract uses for attrition and no-show charges, and what late bookings pay after the cut-off.
Comp rooms (comp policy): Free room nights the hotel gives for a number of paid ones, written as one per so many room nights. They are usually earned on rooms actually occupied and paid for, not on the size of the block, and unused ones usually have no cash value. See free rooms and extra nights.
Master account and incidentals: The master account is the bill the organizer pays: typically room and tax, group meals and meeting rooms. Incidentals are guests’ personal charges such as minibar, room service, laundry or parking, and they usually go on the guest’s own bill. Tell the hotel in writing which charges go where and who may sign to the master account; otherwise a guest’s minibar can end up on the company’s invoice.