Group accommodation is the part of wedding planning nobody enjoys. It is also the part that quietly determines whether the night runs long or ends at nine. Here is the order we would do it in.
Step one: work out who actually needs a bed
Not every guest does. Start with three lists rather than one.
- Must stay: the wedding party, immediate family, anyone getting ready on site, and anyone travelling from interstate.
- Should stay: guests driving more than an hour, and anyone you would rather did not drive home after the reception.
- Will sort themselves out: local guests and anyone who has already told you they are making other plans.
The first two lists are what you hold rooms for. The third is what you send a link to.
Step two: hold rooms early, and hold slightly too many
Book the accommodation as soon as the venue date is locked. In a wedding region the accommodation near the good venues fills on the same weekends the venues do.
Holding a few more rooms than you think you need is usually cheaper than the alternative, because bookings can generally be reduced closer to the date but rarely added. At De'Vine Escape, group bookings can be adjusted up to 14 days before arrival, subject to availability. If the booking falls below 5 rooms the group rate stops applying.
Step three: understand what you are being quoted
Group accommodation is quoted, not priced off a web page. The quote depends on the date, the number of rooms, the number of nights and what else is happening in the region that weekend. That is why you will not find a fixed group rate published anywhere, including ours.
Ask any venue three things: what the deposit is, whether it comes off the total or sits on top, and what the cancellation window looks like. For reference, our deposit is $300, it goes directly toward your accommodation cost rather than being an extra charge, and full group cancellations need at least 30 days' notice.
Step four: match rooms to people
Room types matter more for weddings than for ordinary stays, because you are allocating them to named people.
- Twin rooms take two people who are not a couple. At De'Vine Escape there are 16 of them, each with two queen beds. These carry most of a wedding party.
- Queen and King Spa rooms are what couples and parents want. There are 3 of each here, so decide early who gets them.
- Accessibility, pets and early arrivals are exceptions worth flagging when you request the quote, not the week before.
Step five: hand it to the guests cleanly
Send guests one message containing: the property name and address, the dates held, how to book their own room against the block, the cut-off date, and one contact. Put it on the wedding website as well as in the email, because half of them will lose the email.
We will help you put those details together in a form you can forward, which is step four of our wedding booking process.
Step six: confirm arrival times a week out
The single thing that causes problems on the day is guests arriving at unexpected hours. Self check-in solves most of it. Early check-in requests are the exception: early check-in may be arranged for selected rooms, subject to availability, so raise them in advance rather than on the morning.
A short checklist
- Rooms held as soon as the venue is booked
- Deposit paid and cancellation window understood
- Room types allocated to named guests
- Booking details sent to guests with a cut-off date
- Special requests, pets and early check-ins flagged
- Final numbers confirmed at least 14 days out
To start a quote, use the form on our Weddings page.
Stay in the middle of the valley
De'Vine Escape has 22 rooms on ten acres in Dixons Creek, about a five minute walk from Fergusson Winery and an hour from Melbourne.