Florida Keys Wedding Room Block: What You Are Actually Signing

Courtesy versus contracted, attrition, cutoff dates and what happens to rooms nobody books. The earliest deadline on your calendar, explained before you sign it.

By Michael Willis · Last reviewed 2026-09-10.

This is the earliest deadline you have

Hotels set wedding room blocks nine to twelve months out. Most couples first think about it at six months.

That gap is the whole problem. It is earlier than the band, earlier than the florist, earlier than almost any creative vendor you will book, and it arrives before most couples have accepted that they are planning a wedding at all.

In the Keys it bites harder than elsewhere, because the properties that can absorb a fifty room block are few, and the ones that can are also hosting somebody else's wedding.

Other guides on this site mention the block in passing. This is the whole of it.

Courtesy block or contracted block

This is the first real decision and most couples are never told there is one.

A courtesy block holds a set of rooms at an agreed rate without you guaranteeing them. If nobody books, nothing happens to you. The trade is a weaker rate, a smaller allocation, and a shorter hold.

A contracted block gets you better terms because you are personally agreeing to pay for rooms nobody books. That is the entire reason the rate is better.

Under about twenty rooms, a courtesy block is usually the right call and the exposure is not worth it. Above that, the terms start to matter enough that a contract is worth reading properly rather than avoiding.

Attrition, which is the word that costs money

Attrition is the clause that says what happens to unsold rooms.

If you contract fifty rooms with eighty percent attrition, and thirty rooms get booked, you are liable for the gap between thirty and forty. That is a real invoice, arriving after your wedding, for rooms nobody slept in.

This is why blocks are normally sized at about half your guest rooms rather than all of them. Not half your guest count. Half the rooms you expect to be needed. Guests who miss the block book direct, which is a slightly worse experience for them and a considerably better outcome for you than paying for empty rooms.

Size it small and add rooms if it fills. Every property would rather release you more rooms than chase you for unsold ones.

The five questions to ask before you sign

Ask all five in writing. Venues answer them plainly when asked early.

How are unsold rooms released, and when? There is usually a cutoff date, commonly thirty days out, after which unbooked rooms go back to the hotel. What you want to know is whether they go back with your liability attached or without it.

How is pickup measured? Pickup is how many rooms actually got booked against the block. Some properties count only bookings made through the block link. A guest who calls the front desk and books the same room may not count toward your pickup, which means you can be charged attrition on a room that was sold. Get the counting method in writing.

Are resort fees and parking inside or outside the block rate? In the Keys this is not a small number. A quoted block rate that excludes a forty dollar resort fee and parking is not the rate your guests will pay, and they will notice on arrival.

What is the cutoff date, and can it move? Guests book later than they say they will. A cutoff thirty days out against a block set eleven months out is a long time for nothing to happen and then everything to happen at once.

What is the policy if the wedding is postponed? Ask before you sign, not after. The answers vary far more than you would expect.

What a block does not do

It does not always beat the public rate. Sometimes it does, sometimes a rate on a booking site is lower on a given night, and anyone who promises otherwise is selling you something.

What a block actually buys you is different, and worth more than a few dollars a night:

Your people are in one place, which makes the welcome party, the shuttles and the morning after possible. They book through a link instead of a phone call. The property knows a wedding is arriving. And you understood the terms before you agreed to them rather than after.

What your guests are spending regardless

On our stated three night planning assumption, and using Tourism Economics data published by Visit Florida Keys and Key West putting Keys hotels at $345 per night across the 2025 fiscal year at 72.8 percent occupancy: two guests sharing a room spend roughly $520 to $630 per person on lodging.

A block negotiated for April is a different conversation from one negotiated for June. Across the chain in 2026 those months ran $419.72 and $290.13 respectively, and a property with a full April has no reason to move on terms.

Add about $140 per person per night of non lodging spend per the Monroe County Tourist Development Council visitor study, and airfare of $387 into Key West, $346 into Miami or $269 into Fort Lauderdale per the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and a traveling guest lands around $1,200 to $1,400 for the weekend.

Those are published averages, not quotes, and they move.

What we handle

Property shortlists matched to your group and budget. Courtesy versus contracted, and which your headcount actually calls for. Attrition terms, cutoff dates and pickup method, read and explained before you sign. Guest booking links. Accessible rooms named at contract rather than at booking, because they are the first inventory to go. Ground transport that follows from wherever your guests end up.

Travel is arranged by an independent travel advisor affiliated with Fora Travel. Fora Travel is registered as a Florida Seller of Travel, registration number ST43973. The advisor may earn commission from travel suppliers.

Rate figures from Tourism Economics and Smith Travel Research via Visit Florida Keys and Key West, the Monroe County Tourist Development Council and the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Published averages, not quotes. Contract terms vary by property; nothing here is a substitute for reading yours.