Done! Not my first choice of hotel but within 15 minutes of campus and a reasonable price. Lots of others show as “sold out” but they may just mean they are not accepting reservations yet since we are still are a bit more than a year out.
One trick would be go go online a day early. Say most people will need rooms May 12 and 13, 2020. Go to the hotel’s website on May 11, 2019 and book for May 11, 12, and 13. Then you could cancel the 11th at some point. Of course, you have to make sure you can cancel without penalty before doing this.
If you cancel one night out of your multiple night stay, the hotel can change their rate for those remaining nights. Read their policies closely.
^Good to know.
If you can’t get a room in a big-college situation, ask if their tailgate lots are available for graduation. RVs can be rented and you might have a (cramped) base a 10 minute walk from the stadium. I know a couple of people who did this, one in their own RV, one with a rental.
We’re doing an Airbnb as I write this, booked a year ago when all the intown hotels seemed to book in seconds. We are severely jetlagged so knew we would not feel comfortable staying with relatives who live a half hour away. We have a little kitchen and a separate living room and bedroom, so if one of us is rumbling around when the other is sleeping we have space for that. We’re less than a mile from our daughter’s dorm so can flexibly do stuff with her. She can sleep on the sofa Saturday night when she has to be out of her dorm apartment. We’ll part ways Sunday. It has worked great.
We have stayed at a lovely inn in the college area several times a year for concerts and performances, so we’ve become fairly close to the innkeeper. She booked rooms for my husband and me, as well as our daughters and their husbands about six months ago, we we are all set!. I can’t believe it, but we’re all set. We’re hoping this will be a nice experience. When he graduated from high school (the same week as his sister’s graduation from grad school), my mother died on the day of her graduation and was laid to rest on the day of his, and both experiences were lost in the shock.
“One trick would be go go online a day early. Say most people will need rooms May 12 and 13, 2020. Go to the hotel’s website on May 11, 2019 and book for May 11, 12, and 13. Then you could cancel the 11th at some point. Of course, you have to make sure you can cancel without penalty before doing this.”
You can try but in many college towns you can’t book the dates around graduation online at all. The hotel blocks them and will onky take phone calls but it’s certainly worth a try.
When booking hotels, consider the date that your graduate must be out of their dorm if they live on campus.
^Good point. In our case DD has friends in the area she could stay with if necessary. Our hotel said the room occupancy is two, max.
With D she stayed with us the night after her graduation since she had to be out of the dorm before them…
So if people usually have to book for two nights, will it be the night before commencement and the night of? Are commencement exercises usually morning or afternoon? My D’s college has dates, but not times. Planning ahead.
@Lindagaf I found it helpful to look at the previous class graduation for a sample timetable. There may be department celebrations or other events that may be meaningful to your graduate, as well as the main commencement.
@Lindagaf, yes, people seem to book the night before and the night of. We’re going down a day early since it’s a pretty area and I can show my parents around.
We booked our B and B for five nights…the whole place. And we also reserved the pool area for a party. Maybe that’s why the owner was so easy to deal with in terms of the reservations. We arrive arrived on Thursday for a Saturday graduation. Sunday we went to Napa. Monday we took some favorite faculty to brunch. Helped DD pack up and left on Tuesday.
For our kids’ graduation, they had a dinner a night or two before commencement, the big commencement and then a smaller ceremony for each department/college. I agree with checking the prior years schedules for a feel of what things are likely to be. We stayed with friends the few days prior and drove very early the morning of commencement for seats. The next time, we booked a hotel walking distance of campus and walked. We had to book 3 nights, so we did the night before, night of and the night after. We booked a room for ourselves and one for relatives.
I agree that if you change your dates or knock one off, you may have a re-adjusted room rate (upwards) or not qualify for any room.
@Lindagaf , this is the perfect time to look at the commencement schedule for this year to see what the school plans.