curses, foiled again

[jaina]

The La Jolla Sea Lodge (where we're holding the wedding) is refusing to give us any kind of a discounted room rate. "Weekends in September and October are very popular and they fill up quickly, so we can't give any kind of discount." Their *lowest* rate is $209/night. So, um, that's a no. Basically I figure people can stay there if they really want to, or try to find a lower rate through one of the travel sites, but it's not worth getting a room contract.

The only other hotel in walking distance (10 minutes' walk to the LJSL and the beach) is the Hotel La Jolla. The girl there gave me a rate of $139/night for "gardenview" (the lower floors) and $159/night for "oceanview" (high enough to see the ocean). It's about $10-20/night off their regular rates and she says she really can't go lower.

I had a tour of the hotel, and it seems quite nice; the rooms are airy and they give you bathrobes. The cool thing about the Hotel La Jolla is they have a shuttlevan that will take you anywhere within 5 miles. So it'll take you to the beach if you don't want to walk, or you can go to La Jolla proper and see the Children's Cove (with the seals) and all the shops etc.

As far as I can tell, these are the only two hotels in La Jolla Shores. There are many other hotels in La Jolla proper, but they aren't exactly walking distance. We'd have to set up some kind of bus/shuttle system to get people to the wedding, which adds a *big* layer of hassle. Obviously, people who have their own cars or who rent a car could stay wherever they pleased, but that's going to be a minority of the guests, since so many are coming from across the country.

The point of all this is that I hate to stick my guests with a big hotel bill on top of all the other expenses associated with going to a wedding. I mean, $139/night split four ways isn't *that* bad, all things considered, but it ain't cheap, either. (And of course there's an extra charge for every person above 2, but you can get around that by only putting 2 people's names on the room.) Accckkkk!!! I still need to discuss it with Rogue (and with my mom) but I'm hoping for some feedback here, too.

Opinions, guys?

Comments

[lily-advance.livejournal.com]

can't side with Sue enough; people will do their own thing. Your job is to provide them with one well-considered option, and in your case the good part of it is location and the shuttle ride (I too think Hotel La Jolla sounds fine), not the price. If someone wants a better price, they will head elsewhere, and carpool or do whatever else is necessary to be where they want to go.

On that note, tho, I just got a room for the one person coming from out of town for our little city hall event, and Hotwire got me a fab deal on a room downtown at a frighteningly classy hotel called the Nine Zero on Tremont St. It was fun, but even that brief brush with things made me glad I wasn't helping other people find rooms in town for Memorial Day Weekend.

[jainamsolo.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Cinda. :) You make excellent points. On the list of things to worry about, this should be pretty low. It's so nice to have other brides sanity-checking me. *g*