The wedding industry, like many others, stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most events were put on hold in early 2020, and two wedding seasons passed quietly, with few celebrations taking place. However, as the 2022 wedding season approached, travel bans began to ease, and businesses started to open again, leading to a massive boom in industry demand. Couples who put their celebrations off for months or years clamored to find a wedding venue, book vendors, reserve room blocks, and do it all before someone else beats them to it.
This post will show hotels why you make fantastic wedding venues, and discuss why ignoring weddings could cost your property valuable revenue. We look at the positive impacts wedding bookings can have on hotel performance, review actionable strategies for attracting more weddings, and explore how every hotel—big or small—can benefit from a wedding business boost. Whether you’re new to weddings and events or are familiar with them and looking for ways to grow your venue’s potential, you’ll find insight, ideas, and helpful resources below.
What makes a hotel the perfect wedding venue and how do I become one?
The Wedding Report estimated that 2.47 million weddings took place in 2022, a massive increase from the year before. This increased demand and revenue for many businesses in or adjacent to the industry, including hotels.
The wedding boom’s ongoing impact on the hotel industry
Hotels saw a 55% increase in 2022 wedding RFPs compared to pandemic lows. Hospitality professionals can expect the trend to continue, as Wedding Report estimates that 2.24 million weddings will occur in 2023. Many hotels have expanded their services to capitalize on the wedding boom, but some hoteliers don’t view their property as a wedding venue. They may feel held back by the number of guest rooms at the property, a lack of flexible event space, or the additional services required to host weddings. Luckily, hotels are just as diverse as weddings; they come in all shapes and sizes, which is just one reason why they make excellent wedding venues.
What makes hotels such great wedding venues?
With more than 130,000 hotels in the U.S. to choose from, there’s a hotel out there to fit every couple’s style and budget. Some hotels offer affordable wedding experiences for cost-conscious couples, while others host full-scale, luxury weddings. Intimate mountain-top lodges, small-town branded hotels, and lavish five-star resorts can all serve as top-tier wedding venues, each offering unique services and experiences.
From elopements to well-attended affairs, engaged couples can find a hotel wedding venue to accommodate their specific needs and vision. In addition, hotels have the unique ability to supply many of the various goods and services weddings need, such as:
- Overnight rooms for out-of-towners
- Suites for wedding party preparation
- Event space for the ceremony, reception, or other wedding events
- Communal space where guests can gather
- Food and beverage service (limited or full)
- Guest activities (e.g., grill, pool, fitness center, or outdoor lawn games)
- Built-in décor and attractive interior design
- Shuttle service or airport transportation
- On-site event staff
- Impeccable customer service
The most successful hotels have mastered the art of customer service. Venues with staff that maintain composure and overcome objections with a smile are infinitely valuable during high-stakes, high-stress events.
Hotels are also the ideal venue for destination weddings. Couples can wed and honeymoon in the same exotic destination, letting the hotel take care of all the planning. Many destination hotels offer on-site wedding planners who work with couples through the entire planning process. Partners can arrive, relax, tie the knot, and enjoy all the trappings of a luxury destination wedding.
How do wedding bookings benefit hotels?
Selecting a wedding venue is one of the most significant and expensive decisions engaged pairs make during the planning process. On average, couples spend between $12,343 and $14,006 on the venue alone. They use approximately 45% of their overall budget to cover venue costs like rental, setup, linens, food, drinks, and other incidentals.
As hotels are pre-equipped with many of the goods and services required, they have a unique and enviable opportunity to meet the needs of engaged couples. In addition to increasing profits, incorporating wedding venue-style services can help hotels:
- Increase occupancy
- Capture market share
- Expand audience reach
- Boost brand awareness
- Book more special events
- Improve their local profile
- Strengthen their venue reputation
- Outshine the competition
Because wedding venues and guest rooms are typically reserved well before the big day, booking wedding blocks can help hotels improve forecasting reports by building a solid base of future business. For example, filling 20% of the hotel with wedding groups every weekend in May could allow your property to raise rates on remaining rooms and maximize ADR opportunities.
Wedding season is the busiest, most crucial time of year for many businesses, such as florists, bakers, pastry artists, and event planners. Things can get hectic, and the wedding vendor community in many locations is tight knit. If you’re looking for a way to get your foot in the door of a crowded market, start by identifying the right kind of wedding business for your hotel.
Wedding opportunities for every type of hotel
No matter your star rating, service level, or size, your hotel can find opportunities to benefit from wedding business. In addition to accommodating out-of-towners and other wedding guests overnight, hotels can host a variety of wedding events (depending on their size and service level), such as:
- Ceremonies
- Receptions
- Rehearsal dinners
- Bridal showers
- Engagement parties
- Welcome parties
- After-parties
- Bachelor/bachelorette parties
- Day-after brunches
- Honeymoons
Even if your property sits off the highway, miles from the next nearest venue or destination, you can still target wedding business with a bit of creativity. For example, you could market the hotel as a convenient place to rest for travelers headed to popular venues accessible from the same highway.
10 tips to help hotels book more weddings
If you’re looking for ways to attract more engaged couples and wedding planners or boost your reputation as a wedding venue, follow our top tips.
1. Give couples what they want
Keep soon-to-be newlyweds at the forefront of your mind. Put yourself in their shoes, and imagine what couples want from a wedding venue. With inflation tightening wallets everywhere, the cost of getting married may have increased, but wedding budgets haven’t. Affordability and flexibility are sure to be at the top of every couples’ hotel wedding venue checklist.
2. Market your hotel as a wedding venue
Create mobile-friendly marketing materials, like photos and videos, to attract wedding business. Promote special event services by listing your hotel on Cvent’s Wedding Spot, the venue-only sourcing platform thousands of engaged couples and planners have used to find the perfect place to say, “I do.” Build a beautiful event venue website to advertise event layouts, amenities, guest room features, and hotel services, like spa, valet, and shuttle offerings.
Your hotel may only be able to accommodate overnight guests and shuttle service to nearby venues. That’s okay! Roll with it. Create marketing materials highlighting the wedding venues on your route and a special welcome package to offer wedding blocks. Brainstorm potential benefits the staff could provide wedding groups to make their stay more convenient while upselling hotel offerings.
3. Create appealing wedding packages
Design specialized stay packages that include overnight accommodations, breakfast, transportation, and complimentary meeting space onsite that wedding guests can use to congregate. Add romantic honeymooner’s package, bachelorette experience, and farewell brunch special options that are certain to send guests home feeling satisfied. Offer all-in-one wedding packages that help take the stress off distracted engaged couples. Provide a steeper discount for couples who book their wedding event and room block simultaneously.
4. Show off your event spaces
Bring events to life online with interactive floor plans. Showcase indoor and outdoor spaces, and invite couples to move through different event layouts to get a feel for what your hotel offers. Highlight rave reviews from previous social event contacts or weddings, if available.
If you’ve never hosted weddings before, schedule a “staging day” and book a photographer’s services. Cycle through various wedding setups to highlight different layout options and event styles. Capture captivating photos for use in hotel marketing materials and online content.
5. Send targeted advertisements to wedding planners and couples
Serve ads to thousands of planners and drive wedding bookings with Wedding Spot Advertising™. Invite planners to view your hotel in photorealistic 3D. Accurate three-dimensional renderings of your property enable planners and hands-on couples to visualize every aspect of their event, down to the finest detail. With Cvent Event Diagramming, hotels can show eager couples and particular planners what the big day will look like.
Check out more top wedding trends for 2023
6. Get to know your local wedding community
Building a strong reputation within your local wedding community can lead to future business opportunities. Introduce yourself to local wedding professionals, and prove that they can count on your hotel for reliable venue services. Refer wedding blocks who contact you to reliable community partners, and ensure that every wedding client referred to your property receives excellent service. This will help your hotel solidify its standing as a wedding venue and foster trust with other businesses in the community.
7. Build a network of dependable vendors
Growing a reliable network of wedding vendors and service professionals benefits the hotel, the vendors, and the clients. In addition to boosting event success, partnering with trusted industry professionals can increase the potential for future cross-promotional opportunities, boost local word-of-mouth marketing, and drive direct referrals from vendor partners. If you’re new to hosting weddings or struggling to locate vendors in your area, find trusted service providers through Cvent’s Vendor Marketplace.
8. Strengthen your social media presence
If you don’t already have them, create social media accounts for your hotel on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more. Post regularly and engage with your audience. Respond to user-generated content, answer questions, and respond to reviews to strengthen your online reputation as a trusted hotel wedding venue. Join popular wedding groups, follow relevant pages, connect with local vendors, and keep up with shifting industry trends.
9. Host a wedding expo
Organize a bridal show or wedding expo to rebrand your property as a hotel + wedding venue and promote your wedding services. Invite local businesses to participate and steadily promote the event on social media.
10. Provide personalized wedding experiences
Provide a better guest experience by personalizing your events. Create custom group pages for wedding block reservations. Couples can promote the custom URL on their unique wedding website, making it super simple for guests to book hotel reservations. Decorate the block page with photos of the couple, match their color scheme, or design the page to match their wedding theme. Set up a welcome table for wedding guests or leave personalized welcome baskets in each of their rooms.
Establishing hotel wedding venue operating procedures
Create a set of standardized operating procedures (SOPs) that detail how your hotel will oversee wedding blocks, events, and booking procedures. Schedule a meeting with hotel managers; gather and answer various wedding-related questions, such as:
- Will you implement noise restrictions or cut-off times for on-site events?
- Will you institute a room assignment policy for wedding groups?
- Should you place a cap on the size of wedding room blocks?
- Will the hotel provide vendor services or outsource them?
- What is your target rate for wedding groups?
- Will you serve alcohol during receptions? Do you have the required licenses?
- How will you alter group room block contracts for weddings?
Weddings are cheerful, celebratory affairs that often include drinking, dancing, food, and games. They can become very noisy and leave a mess afterward. Request a deposit for meeting and event spaces to help recoup potential damage. Establish a post-event checklist that staff can use to inspect celebration spaces after the wedding wraps.
Become the premier hotel wedding venue in your area!
When demand is high, it can be challenging to capture the attention of travelers and planners sourcing in your area. In crowded markets, hotels have an even harder time standing out, but you can become the go-to wedding venue in your area by outshining your competitors.
Next, we guide hoteliers and sales managers through identifying, understanding, and outperforming the competition. Keep reading to better understand your competitive set and how to contend with them through hotel marketing.
