If you're new to the event industry you know that hotel contracts contain a lot of information.  If you're like me, you have a department that handles reviewing contracts.  However, when it comes to the block itself there are some key details that you will need to hone in on.

• Type of block.  You need to be on the same page as the hotel when it comes to your room block.  The hotel will need to know if you will be providing a rooming list or if you will have participants make their reservations individually.  There is a difference when it comes to how the block is setup in the system.
• Name of the block.  If your participants are the ones making the reservation they will need to know what code or name they should reference online or when they call in.  I have had the name of the conference as: Spring Public Defender Conference, but the hotel block called: UNC School of Government.  This can be confusing to participants if you're not specific.
• Meeting your block. Exceeding your block and not meeting your block can both prove to be problematic.  It is important to know how many rooms you have for each night and how many room nights need to be reserved to meet your block.  
• Attrition - If you are in an attrition situation (meaning you don't meet the minimum in your block) you may need to pay the difference in revenue for what you initially blocked.  Typically, hotels will require 80% attrition.  This means that you need to book 80% of the room nights you blocked.
• Room nights are the number of rooms x the number of nights you need.
• Example:  You have 25 rooms on Tuesday night, and 75 rooms on Wednesday and Thursday night.  Therefore, you have 175 room nights.  If attrition is 80%, you need to book a total of 140 room nights.  This means you can fill Wednesday and Thursday alone and meet the requirements.  It could also mean you have 20 booked rooms on Tuesday, and 60 on Wednesday and Thursday. 
• If you don't meet your block you would pay the balance.  If you had 20 rooms Tuesday, and 55 rooms on Wednesday and Thursday (total of 130 room nights) you would be responsible for paying the cost of 10 room nights (10 rooms x price of one room + tax).
• Exceeding your block - If you meet your block you don't have to worry about paying for rooms that aren't used.  However, if you still have participants that need rooms they may have to pay for the rooms at a higher rate.  This is a situation that I often find myself in when booking conferences.  Because my room block is tied to the space I'm using at the hotel, sometimes I am able to get additional rooms at a reduced rate, and other times I'm not.  In these situations, it is good to have a back up plan.
• Recently, we met our block for the Spring Public Defender and Investigator Conference.  I was able to add 10 rooms to the block early on.  However, when the block was filled a second time, the hotel was not able to honor the rate that we had negotiated.  
• My back up plan was to find another hotel nearby and setup a courtesy block.  I was able to successfully do this and add 15 more rooms at a reduced rate for my clients.  Once this block fills up though, the number of options I have decreases.  The closer you get to the conference, the more difficult it can be to find additional rooms, even at neighboring hotels.

I find that hotels are really fantastic to work with.  If they can accommodate your requests they absolutely will.  However, I always go in tiptoeing.  Someone once told me:
You don't want to be known as the group that makes 1,000 requests after the contract is signed.  A request here and there is more than fine, and most likely a hotel will accommodate, but too many unreasonable requests can certainly get you a reputation as a planner.  I've heard those stories from hotels and usually these types of clients are not their favorites.  In this business, your reputation is everything, and I like to try and keep mine on the favorable side.

What other things have you learned while working with hotels and room blocks?