One of the decisions we had to make was whether or not to enter into a contract with the hotel. For us there is two parts to the contract with the Marriott. First is the catering contract where we are committing to a food and beverage minimum. That one secures our date. Second is the room contract. Now contracts can work totally different at other locations or maybe even for other couples at this location but here is our experience.

At first we were over-thinking the catering contract, going around and around on different details trying to figure out what we were committing to. (For example, we got caught up in wedding options like the arch, flowers, officiant – details that didn’t matter yet. We did want to see a proposal that included that stuff so we could see a potential total price that included things like set-up and ’service’ fees, however we weren’t actually committing to the details in the proposal.) In the end the details can remain in flux even after the contract is signed – what you are really committing to is to spend at least a certain amount with the catering. The one thing Marriott is really strict about is food and beverage – no outside vendors even for the wedding cake and no providing your own liquor. So, it won’t be hard to meet our minimum. At the time of our negotiations, a catering contract and a $500 deposit is all that is needed to secure your wedding date.

The room contract is a different story. You don’t need to sign a room contract but can often get a better room rate if you do. A room contract is also advised if you are booking rooms at a busy season. Committing to a room contract had no effect on our catering prices – no catering discounts thanks to the additional commitment. Did the catering contract help us get a better room rate? I don’t really know.

The room rate savings with the contract seem to be respectable. One thing we insisted on was including breakfast for 2, a $40 value. One thing we WISH we had done though, is thought through all our needs better and included space for a welcome party. We would like to use one of their suites for a couple hours on the first night, but of course now there is no motivation for them to negotiate.

Of course there are ‘catches’. Most importantly, with our contract guests cannot be guaranteed a particular type of room. Our contract is “run of the house” which means they could receive an island view, garden view or an ocean / pool view. What we are told is that guests will get the best type of room available upon check-in. At first we thought maybe this will be great because its off season so there should be lots of ocean view rooms available. Well then we found out that the rooms allotted to our guests will be distributed among the room types — even if there are a lot of empty ocean / pool view rooms we’ll only get a certain number. This really bothered me because the Westin was offering a slightly better rate and guaranteeing all ocean view rooms.

We were concerned that guests not being able to select their room type could compromise our ability to fulfill our contract. Fussier guests wanting to insure they get a particular type of room will make their arrangements through other means than our group code and those reservations will not count towards our contract. The only option a group guest has is to upgrade to a suite if they want, but the cost is significant – an additional $250 per night. Also, guests under the ‘group’ cannot be upgraded to the “Tradewinds” concierge floor. This left me feeling like our guests were kind of considered second class…

Other concerns were what if Marriott at some point advertises a rate that is lower than our group rate? Our sales person insisted that will not happen – that our deal was too good. Still, with the economy as it is I wanted to be assured our contract could be re-negotiated at that point. She said yes, however would not write it into the contract. I said if she’s so sure it wouldn’t happen that it shouldn’t be a big deal to ease our minds and put it in writing. Still, no go.

Well we finally decided the pricing was good enough to go into the contract but we lessened our commitment (we committed to 20 ‘room nights’ – 10 guests staying Friday and Saturday). All rooms will be ‘upgraded’ somewhat (they can’t give us the entry level ‘quality view’) and being off-season she says she has no doubt all our guests will get wonderful rooms and would personally see to it. Really, most of the rooms at the Marriott are really good. And we are told we can provide a list of people we want to make sure get the ocean / pool view rooms.

In the end we felt just about any Marriott room was going to be nicer than the ocean view Westin room given Marriott’s are more spacious, brighter, have larger balconies, fantastic decor, mini-fridge, etc. Too bad because in almost any other category Westin is my first choice.