A room block is a set number of hotel rooms per night that a hotel holds for a group under one contract, at an agreed rate and on agreed terms.
How does a room block work in practice?
A room block starts in the RFP. The agency asks for rooms per night, and the hotel replies with a rate and the terms for holding them. Most hotels define a group as 9 or 10 rooms per night under one contract. Below that, they treat it as individual reservations.
A strong RFP includes a night by night room block pattern with the peak night flagged. A 40-person group seldom needs 40 rooms every night, because arrivals stagger and a few people extend. Ask for "40 rooms, three nights" and the hotel quotes the peak on all three, so the agency commits to rooms that will sit empty.
Engine reports that group blocks on its platform are booked a median of about six months before arrival, long before most attendees confirm.
What does it cost when pickup falls short?
Once the agency signs, it owes the hotel for the block. Hopskip says most contracts require you to fill between 80% and 90% of your contracted block, and that penalties commonly run between 50% and 80% of the room rate for each unoccupied room below that threshold. Hotels call the shortfall attrition.
Take a 30-room block with an 80% threshold: the group must pick up 24 rooms. At 20, the agency pays for four empty rooms at 50% to 80% of the rate each.
In our view, most of the risk sits between signature and arrival, when names change and someone tracks pickup by hand. Hotel RFP software vs spreadsheets covers where that tracking breaks down.
GatheroniX tracks block pickup against the threshold in the contract, inside one workflow that runs Requests, Offers, Contracts, Attendees and Payments. Request a demo.