Trying to sort out a wedding venue and looking for a bit of advice on how to negotiate a reasonable / fair group rate on the hotel rooms.
The wedding venue / costs is sorted and should triple the venue's booze / food takings for the day - they still get to do lunch and evening service in their restaurant so aren't losing out on that front - but as part of the deal the venue has asked us to take around 30 of their 38 available rooms.
Mucking round on Trivago / Kayak I've found that they routinely discount their rooms from a crazy list price of £275 a night down to £165 and throw in chocolates, champagne and that sort of thing as part of the weekend rate - they are offering this on the weekends either side of the big day. They also do a different offer of £225 for the room with bottle of champagne, 3 course meal for 2 (so around £70 in their excellent restaurant) and breakfast.
As I think they will negotiate in order to get the whole thing booked and guarantee themselves a lot of extra trade on an otherwise quiet weekend, what sort of group discount on rooms is reasonable / should I aim for? The "normal" price with champagne and chocolates must be less that £165 what should I be aiming for on 30 rooms given they will rarely get 100% occupancy at weekends...
Is there anyone in the trade who can suggest the sort of discount which would be realistic?
Any advice much appreciated!