Where wedding guests should stay near Louisville and Southern Indiana
By the Venue Answers team · · 2 min read
Put guests in the hotel area closest to your venue, not the one closest to the airport. For most Southern Indiana venues that means Corydon or New Albany. For venues east of Louisville it means the Middletown and Louisville East exits or Shelbyville.
Match the hotel area to the venue
| If your venue is near | Look at hotels in |
|---|---|
| Palmyra, Corydon, Depauw or Salem, IN | Corydon, IN (just off I-64), or New Albany for guests who want to be closer to Louisville |
| New Albany, Jeffersonville or Clarksville, IN | New Albany, Jeffersonville or Clarksville, IN, all a few minutes from downtown Louisville |
| East Louisville, La Grange or Fisherville, KY | Louisville East and Middletown, KY |
| Shelbyville, KY | Shelbyville, KY |
| Shepherdsville and south of Louisville | Elizabethtown, KY, or hotels near the airport |
Our local rules page lists specific hotels in each area with addresses, phone numbers, and whether the chain advertises group room blocks or an airport shuttle.
How room blocks work
A room block is a set of rooms a hotel holds for your guests, usually at a discounted rate, until a cutoff date. There are two kinds:
- Courtesy blocks. The hotel holds rooms until a cutoff, often 30 days before the wedding. Rooms nobody books go back to the hotel, and you owe nothing. Start here.
- Contracted blocks. You guarantee a number of room nights. If guests do not book them, you can be billed for the difference. Only sign one if you are confident in the numbers.
Many of the chain hotels around Louisville and Southern Indiana advertise group bookings online for ten or more rooms. That tells you the hotel does group blocks, not that it offers a wedding rate. Call the hotel's sales office directly and ask.
Questions to ask the hotel
- Is this a courtesy block or a contracted block, and what is the cutoff date?
- What is the group rate, and does it apply the night before and the night after?
- Will you give us a booking link we can put on our wedding website?
- Is there an airport shuttle, and is there a shuttle or a place for a charter bus to pick up guests?
- Can we leave welcome bags at the front desk?
Think about the ride home
The best reason to block rooms close to a rural venue is the drive back. Rideshare service in rural Southern Indiana and outer Kentucky counties is thin late at night. A hotel 15 minutes away with a shuttle running at the end of the night is safer than a nicer hotel 40 minutes away. How to get guests home.
Put it all in one link
Our free guest guide builder makes a single page with the venue address, the hotels you picked, drive times and the weekend schedule. Text one link to every guest. No account needed.