The rate is the number everyone argues about. The clauses underneath it, attrition, cut-off, deposits and comp rooms, are where a group actually makes or loses money. This guide walks through both, from the first request to the final invoice.
Quick answer: A group hotel booking is a block of rooms, usually 8 to 10 or more, that a hotel holds for one group on the same dates at a negotiated rate. You send the hotel a request with dates, room mix and meal plan, agree a contract that sets the rate, deposit schedule, cut-off date, attrition allowance and any free rooms for the tour leader, then fill the block with a rooming list before the cut-off.
Most hotels move you to their groups or sales team somewhere around 8 to 10 rooms on the same night. That threshold is the hotel's choice, not a rule, and it moves. A city hotel in a quiet month may happily quote a group rate for six rooms. A beach resort over Christmas may refuse any group at all.
The switch matters because the commercial logic changes. Individual rooms are sold at the rate of the day: the hotel's own price, or the net rate you see on a B2B portal. A group gets a contract. That contract gives you a fixed rate for the whole block, and in return you commit to rooms the hotel then stops selling to anyone else.
That commitment is the whole story of group hotel booking. Everything below is about making it a commitment you can keep.
If your trip also needs coaches, guides and sightseeing, our guide on how to book group travel covers the wider plan. This page stays with the hotel.
Hotels answer complete requests first and best. A vague email ("20 rooms in Bangkok in March, best price?") gets a vague, padded reply. Send this instead:
Send the same request to two or three comparable hotels in the same area, and give each a reply date. You aren't being disloyal. Hotel sales teams expect it, and the replies give you something to negotiate with.
The hotel isn't asking what a group discount should be. It's asking what it gives up by saying yes.
Revenue teams call this displacement. If those 20 rooms would otherwise sell to individual guests at a higher rate, the group has to make up the gap, either through the room rate or through other spending such as meals, meeting space and drinks. If the rooms would otherwise sit empty, almost any group rate is good news for the hotel.
Three things drive the answer:
Understanding this changes how you negotiate. You stop asking for a percentage off and start offering the hotel what it wants.
Start with the rate, then keep going. These are the levers that tend to move a hotel, roughly in the order they pay off:
For the clause-by-clause detail of rate negotiation more generally, our guide on how to negotiate hotel rates goes further, and the post on hotel allotment contracts covers release periods for recurring series.
A hypothetical group, so you can see where the money moves. The figures are illustrative; they aren't a quote.
The block: 20 rooms for 3 nights at a Bangkok hotel, so 60 room nights.
The rate: THB 3,200 net per room per night, breakfast for two included.
Attrition allowance: 80%, so the group must take at least 48 of the 60 room nights.
FOC: 1 room free per 20 paid rooms, room only.
What happens: four couples drop out after the cut-off. The group takes 16 rooms for 3 nights, 48 room nights.
Result: exactly at the threshold, so no attrition charge. If a fifth couple drops out, pickup is 45 room nights, 3 short of 48. At the full contracted rate that is 3 x THB 3,200 = THB 9,600 owed for empty rooms. And at 15 paid rooms, the FOC may fall away too, if the contract ties it strictly to 20.
The software company Mews gives a similar worked example on its hotel attrition page: a group contracted 200 room nights at an 80% threshold, picked up 140, and so fell 20 room nights short, charged at the contracted rate times an agreed fee percentage. Notice that last part. Many contracts charge the shortfall at a percentage of the rate, not the full rate, and some let the hotel deduct any of your rooms it managed to resell. That wording is worth fighting for.
Look at the example again and you'll see where the margin really sits. The rate discount was settled in one email. The 80% clause and the FOC wording decided whether the trip lost THB 9,600.
Read every one of these before you sign. The right-hand column is what we would ask for, not what every hotel will agree to.
| Clause | What it sets | What to push for |
|---|---|---|
| Block size | Rooms per night by type | A realistic number, split by twin, double and triple |
| Group rate | Net price per room per night, meal plan, taxes | Taxes and service charge stated clearly, inclusive or plus-plus |
| Option date | How long the hotel holds the offer before you sign | Enough time to confirm the client |
| Cut-off (release) date | When unnamed rooms go back to the hotel | As close to arrival as the hotel will accept |
| Attrition | How far below the block you can fall without paying | An allowance in writing, charged on a percentage of the rate, with resold rooms credited |
| Cancellation scale | Charges if the whole group cancels, by date | Steps tied to dates, not one cliff edge |
| Deposit schedule | Amounts and due dates | Payments linked to cut-off and attrition dates, refund terms at each stage |
| FOC rooms | Free rooms for the tour leader or driver | Ratio in writing, basis (room only or with meals), what happens if numbers fall |
| Rooming list deadline | When the hotel needs names | Same day as the cut-off, with name changes allowed afterwards |
| Name changes | Whether you can swap guests after the list | Free changes until a few days before arrival |
| F&B minimums | Spend the group must reach on meals or events | Only if you're sure of the meals; otherwise strike it |
| Early check-in / late check-out | Room access outside standard hours | A number of rooms guaranteed, not "subject to availability" |
| Force majeure | What happens if events stop the trip | Wording that covers flight cancellations and government travel restrictions |
| Payment method | How and where you pay | Bank details confirmed by phone before the first transfer |
Don't sign without an attrition clause. It sounds backwards, but a contract with no attrition wording can be worse for you than a strict one. As Successful Meetings has pointed out, without that language some hotels, and some arbitrators, take the view that the group owes for 100% of the block.
Taxes and service charges belong in the rate line, too. Plus-plus pricing in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia adds a noticeable amount to every room night. Our post on reading a hotel rate sheet explains the notation country by country, and the hotel cancellation policy guide covers how cancellation steps are usually written.
Every hotel sets its own dates, so treat this as a shape, not a schedule.
| Stage | What happens | Your job |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry | You send the group request to two or three hotels | Peak dates: ask months ahead, not weeks |
| Offer and option | Hotels quote and hold the rooms until an option date | Compare the terms as well as the rates; confirm the client before the option expires |
| Contract | You sign and pay the first deposit | Check every clause in the table above |
| Draft rooming list | Names start arriving from the client | Build it in the rooming list template with TBA rows marked |
| Cut-off | Unnamed rooms return to the hotel | Send the final list; release rooms you know you won't fill |
| Balance due | Final payment under the deposit schedule | Pay against the hotel's invoice, not an email with new bank details |
| 72 hours out | Reconfirmation | Check arrival time, room mix, meal plan and any early check-in |
| Arrival | The group checks in | Tour leader holds the list and the hotel contact; you stay reachable |
| After the stay | Pickup report and final invoice | Compare room nights used with the contract, check attrition maths and FOC credit |
The last row is the one agencies skip. Ask the hotel for a pickup report and check it against your rooming list before you pay the final invoice. Errors happen in both directions.
FOC, free of charge, is the room the hotel gives back for the tour leader or the coach driver. The ratio is negotiated. Around 1 per 15 to 25 paid rooms is common, often capped at two or three rooms, and the FOC is sometimes room only even when the group is on half board. Three things to pin down in writing: the ratio, what the free room includes, and what happens to it if the group shrinks.
Treat the FOC as margin, not as a certainty. If your costing only works with the free room, you've priced the group too tight.
Deposit schedules vary widely by hotel, season and how well the hotel knows you. A first-time account in peak season will be asked for more, earlier. What you want is a schedule that follows the risk: a deposit when the hotel takes the rooms out of sale, and larger payments only once the cut-off and attrition dates have passed and the numbers are firm.
Before the first transfer, check two things: what is refundable at each stage, and who you're paying. Group deposits are a target for payment fraud, and a phone call to the hotel to confirm bank details takes two minutes.
Most of these come down to the same habit: reading the contract once, at signing, and never again. Put the option, cut-off, attrition and payment dates in your calendar the day you sign.
Not every party of eight needs a contract. For families travelling together, a wedding party taking a handful of rooms or a small incentive of four or five couples, booking individual rooms at net rates is often simpler and just as cheap. You book, you pay, and every room carries its own cancellation terms.
On DMC Quote you can make a multi-room booking at net rates with a lead guest named for each room. The voucher shows a line per room with its confirmation number and whether it's refundable, which is handy when you're handing documents to a small party. See the hotel voucher format guide for what each line means.
We'll be straight about the limits. The portal has no group-request or rooming-list feature, so it can't hold a block at a negotiated group rate with a cut-off and FOC terms. For that, email our partner desk at [email protected] with your group request and a rooming list in our free template. The group bookings FAQ and the group tour booking desk cover how group requests are handled, and airport transfers for the group can be added separately.
Rule of thumb: if the rooms must be the same hotel, same dates and same rate for everyone, and losing a few of them would wreck the trip, you need a contract. If each room could stand on its own, a portal booking is usually fine. Not sure which kind of trip you're selling? Our FIT vs GIT guide explains the difference.
Most hotels treat 8 to 10 rooms or more on the same dates as a group, though the threshold is set by each hotel and can be lower in quiet months. Below it, you are booking individual rooms, usually at the best available or net rate of the day.
Send a complete request with dates, room mix, meal plan and flexibility, ask two or three comparable hotels, and trade on the things the hotel values: shoulder dates, low-demand nights, a realistic block size and a clean payment schedule. Negotiate the attrition, cut-off and FOC terms as hard as the rate, because they decide what the group really costs.
A room block is a set number of rooms a hotel holds for your group on agreed dates at an agreed rate. The rooms carry no names at first. You fill them with a rooming list before the cut-off date, and rooms you have not named by then can go back to the hotel.
The cut-off date is when unnamed rooms in the block return to the hotel's general inventory. Attrition is the money side: how far the group may fall below its contracted rooms before the hotel charges for the shortfall. Passing the cut-off on its own costs nothing; missing the attrition threshold does.
There is no fixed rule. A free room for the tour leader is commonly offered at around 1 per 15 to 25 paid rooms, often capped at a set number, and sometimes on a room-only basis. It is negotiable, so put it in your request and get it written into the contract.
It varies by hotel, season and how well the hotel knows you. Expect a deposit on signing and one or more further payments tied to dates before arrival. Ask for a schedule linked to the cut-off and attrition dates rather than a large share upfront, and make sure the contract says what is refundable at each stage.
The portal handles multi-room bookings at net rates with a lead guest named per room, which suits families and small parties. It has no group-request or rooming-list feature. For a real block with a negotiated rate, cut-off and FOC terms, email our partner desk at [email protected] with your request and a rooming list in our template.
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