I have a Hilton hotel block secured for my wedding next year. We only requested 20 rooms for 2 nights because I didn't want to be caught footing too high of a bill if we didn't fill the rooms. (Though I honestly suspect we will double that number). Some hotels will do courtesy holds for you but Hilton has an attrition rate. This means that for any rooms not filled, the planner is must pay the hotel for these rooms UNLESS the hotel can sell them. However, those rooms are placed at the end of the list and the hotel has to be sold out to even touch them.

Nonetheless, like they said everything is negotiable. Sometimes, they will give you free rooms for every 50 you book or give a free suite to the organizer. After some back and forth, we didn't get much. We got 2 suites upgrades for the price of the block room rate. However, the discount was substantial! We got a $100 discount off the current price along with a guarantee that if the BAR drops below our rate, that our guests will get that discount.