TL;DR:
- A 100-guest wedding block is a data problem before it is a hospitality problem: five lists, each wanted by a different party, all derived from what guests told you at booking.
- Collect it once, at checkout — room type, names, sharing, arrival, dietary, add-ons — and every list is an export.
- Room types as packages → the rooming list is a file. Add-ons at checkout → headcounts are live. Registration fields → vendor exports are one click.
- 100 guests × 4 payments = 400 charges. Automate them or they become the planner's job.
- SquadTrip is free for planners; guests pay one 6% processing fee.
A 100-guest destination wedding block is managed well when the five lists everyone needs — the rooming list for the hotel, balances for the couple, add-on headcounts for the caterer and excursion operator, arrival times for transfers, and dietary and plus-one details — are all derived from one set of bookings, collected at checkout, and exported when each party needs them. It is managed badly when those lists are rebuilt by hand in month five from emails, group chats and a spreadsheet that no longer matches who has paid. Planners who run large blocks on SquadTrip treat the booking page as the single source and the lists as outputs.
Here are the five lists, how to collect their inputs once, the rooming-list mechanics, add-ons as revenue and headcount, the vendor exports, and a month-by-month checklist to the cut-off.
The Five Lists a 100-Guest Wedding Needs
| List | Who wants it | When | Fields |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rooming list | Hotel | At cut-off, then deltas | Room type, names sharing, arrival, departure, requests |
| Balances | Couple, planner | Weekly, then final | Guest, package, paid, due, status |
| Add-on headcounts | Caterer, excursion operator, spa | 2–4 weeks out | Guest, add-on, dietary notes |
| Arrivals and transfers | Transfer company | 1–2 weeks out | Guest, flight, arrival time, pickup point |
| Dietary, plus-ones, accessibility | Caterer, venue, planner | 2 weeks out | Guest, restrictions, plus-one name, needs |
Every field on every list is something a guest can tell you the moment they book. The work is deciding to ask then.
Collect It Once, at Booking
1. Room type as the package
Each room type in the block becomes a package with a price and a capacity: 30 Garden Rooms, 40 Ocean Suites, 10 Family Suites. Guests choose one, and the inventory counts down.
2. Registration fields that map to the lists
Names of everyone in the room, sharing preference, arrival and departure dates, flight details, dietary restrictions, accessibility needs, plus-one name. Ask at checkout; guests answer while they are motivated. See what to include in a registration form for the field-by-field logic.
3. Add-ons as checkout items
Welcome dinner, catamaran afternoon, spa package, extra nights — optional, priced, capped. Each becomes a live headcount.
4. The deposit as the RSVP
A guest who has paid a deposit is on the rooming list; one who has not is a maybe. That single rule is what makes the fill rate honest weeks before the hotel's cut-off — and it is how you know whether an attrition clause is going to bite. See room block vs booking page.
Rooming List Mechanics
1. One row per room
The hotel wants rooms, not guests: room type, the two (or four) names in it, arrival, departure, and any request. When each booking is a room package with the names collected, the export is already in that shape.
2. Sharing and pairing
Couples book a room together; single guests may want to share. Let guests name their roommate at booking, and reconcile unmatched singles in the dashboard rather than in a text thread.
3. Changes after the cut-off
Edit the booking — room type, dates, names — so the balance updates at the same time, then re-export and send the hotel the delta. Never maintain a second list.
4. Late bookers
Keep the page open, mark rooms as subject to availability, compress the payment plan to deposit-plus-balance, and add them to the next delta.
Add-Ons as Revenue and Headcount
Add-ons are where a large wedding's numbers get lost. A welcome dinner for "everyone" turns into 83 covers, 6 vegetarians and 2 allergies the caterer heard about the day before.
- Optional at checkout, not assumed in the base price — guests who do not want the catamaran do not pay for it, and the count is real.
- Capped where the vendor has a limit.
- Priced with the fee in mind: on SquadTrip the 6% processing fee is added to the guest's total at checkout, so the add-on price you set is what you receive.
- Exported per add-on with names and dietary notes, so the caterer's list is the booking data, not a headcount from memory.
Managing a wedding room block? SquadTrip turns room types into packages and the rooming list into an export. Free for planners.
Vendor Exports
| Vendor | Export | From |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel | Rooming list (one row per room) | Packages + registration |
| Transfer company | Arrival manifest by flight and time | Registration |
| Caterer | Covers per event + dietary notes | Add-ons + registration |
| Excursion operator | Names and headcount per activity | Add-ons |
| Photographer / coordinator | Event RSVPs and plus-one names | Add-ons + registration |
One booking, five exports. The planner's job becomes checking them, not building them.
Five lists, one source
Guests book a room, pick their add-ons and fill in the details once. You export the rooming list, headcounts and vendor files when each party needs them.
Set up a wedding booking pageSpreadsheet vs Booking Page, List by List
| List | Spreadsheet | Booking page |
|---|---|---|
| Rooming list | Rebuilt from emails; drifts from payments | Export; edits update balance and list together |
| Balances | Manual entry per payment; 400 rows | Automatic; reminders and retries included |
| Add-on headcounts | Group-chat polls | Live count from checkout |
| Arrivals | Chased individually | Collected at booking |
| Dietary / plus-ones | Last-minute | Collected at booking |
Month-by-Month to the Cut-Off
- 10 months: block signed; page published with packages mirroring room types; deposit sized to the block deposit; add-ons listed.
- 9–6 months: deposits arrive; first instalments charged; fill rate checked against the attrition percentage monthly.
- 5–4 months: second instalment; unmatched sharers paired; add-on caps reviewed with vendors.
- 3 months: final instalment lands; unpaid rooms released or reassigned.
- Cut-off (30–60 days): rooming list exported to the hotel; balances at zero or flagged.
- 4–2 weeks: caterer, excursion and transfer exports sent; deltas to the hotel.
- Arrival: coordinator has the plus-one and event RSVP list; the planner has no spreadsheet.
The Rooming List Export, Field by Field
The hotel's template varies, but the fields do not. Set the registration form up so the export lands in this shape without editing.
| Column | Where it comes from | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Room type | Package chosen at booking | Matches the block's room categories |
| Guest 1 / Guest 2 (/ 3 / 4) | Names entered at booking | Legal names as on ID for international resorts |
| Arrival date / flight | Registration field | Drives the transfer manifest too |
| Departure date / flight | Registration field | |
| Sharing with | Registration field | Reconcile unmatched singles before export |
| Special requests | Registration field | Accessibility, adjoining rooms, crib |
| Booking reference | Booking ID | The hotel's cross-reference for changes |
| Balance status | Payment status | Internal; usually removed before sending |
1. Before the first export
Reconcile singles who asked to share, confirm plus-one names, and check that every paid booking has arrival and departure dates. Missing data is easier to chase before the hotel asks for it.
2. Sending deltas
After the cut-off, filter to bookings edited since the last export and send only those rows, labelled with the change. Hotels prefer a short delta to a full re-send they have to diff.
3. What the couple sees
The same export without the balance column, plus a summary line: rooms filled, rooms released, guests outstanding. That is the weekly update, and it takes a minute.
Final Thoughts
A 100-guest block is one hundred bookings, each carrying everything the hotel, the caterer, the transfer company and the couple will later ask you for. Collect it at booking, keep one source, and export. The largest weddings become the easiest ones — and the reason a planner runs the next five on the same page. For the money side of the same wedding, see how destination wedding planners collect guest payments; for the website the couple uses alongside it, the best destination wedding websites.
Take the block off the spreadsheet. Start free on SquadTrip — packages, add-ons, registration, automatic instalments and every export a wedding needs.
