<p>Husband came home from work this evening and out of the blue he asked, “Did you make hotel reservations for son’s graduation?” Honestly, until he brought it up, I hadn’t even thought about it because May 2010 seems so far away. After thinking about it, perhaps is it a good idea to book a couple of hotel rooms now–especially when there aren’t many hotels in the immediate area. So, I went online and booked the rooms. We can always cancel the reservation without penalty up to the day before check-in.</p>
<p>Anyone else out there thinking about booking now for Spring 2010 college graduation?</p>
<p>Done. Booked them a month ago! Unfortunately many of the hotels in my D’s college town price gouge for graduation so we have opted to stay a bit further from the school (so we don’t have to pay $345 a nite with a two nite minimum and a 45 day cancellation policy at the local Hilton!!!). </p>
<p>When S1 graduated last year, we made the hotel reservation a year in advance. Since you can always change or cancel the reservation you already made, it doesn’t hurt to have something now. Especially in areas where there aren’t alot of hotel rooms, I’d say you made a good decision.</p>
<p>I booked mine, three rooms for two sets of grandparents and us, a month ago also. I learned to do it from this forum for my daughters graduation a few years ago. Feels good to be all ready- got a great rate and I can back out without charge 72 hours in advance.</p>
<p>You are smart. When D graduated, I didn’t even think of it until February. Of course, all the local hotels near campus were booked. I finally reserved one about 20 minutes from campus. However it worked out well because the venue where the actual graduation ceremony was to be held was only 5 minutes from our hotel.</p>
<p>I will be all over it when S graduates in 2011.</p>
<p>Back in the last century, a pal of mine warned me that if I wanted my parents to stay in the very tiny, very elegant inn on campus I would have to make my reservations in January of the year before my graduation (yup, 17 months lead time). When I called that January for the reservation, I got the last room available. My folks loved the place.</p>
<p>I did this last month and discovered that a few properties (the ones I wanted, of course) were already full and the rest had not yet opened their books for reservations that weekend. I started stalking the reservations departments hoping to call in after the reservations opened and before they sold out. What a system! Then discovered that the reservations for graduation weekend had to be paid for upon booking and were not refundable. But we have a room.</p>
<p>It totally depends on where the graduation is. For D’s I booked nearly a year in advance because there were only a handful of hotels that were the most convenient and since we had a large group coming, I needed to jump on it early.</p>
<p>For S’s graduation a year and a day later, I didn’t book until about 3 months before.
But his was in a city that is a tourist area which hosts conventions, etc. There were a million options of places to stay. </p>
<p>I remember reading right here on this board about the idea to book a year in advance.
Advice I took for D and was SO glad I did. It was great to have everything so close for all of us.</p>
<p>I booked two rooms in the close-to-campus hotel a month ago for May 2010. (We don’t always stay there but it has shuttle service to the campus which would be handy if Grandma does come and wants to go back and forth herself.) I may book one room in our favorite not-quite-as-close hotel in case Grandma decides not to come.</p>
<p>I opted for a hotel with shuttle service, too. I’m guessing that parking on campus will be a problem that weekend, though maybe not, as the other students will have left.</p>
<p>Already booked a couple of weeks ago, as soon as we could. The hotel we like to stay in is very close to campus, so we won’t need to take out the car once we’re there. I had to call the sales office, as opposed to the regular reservations desk, and then had to fax all my info to them. The woman I spoke to said as long as we got the info in that day, we were guaranteed a room. By the next day, all the rooms would be full. Oh, and for us it’s a 3-night minimum and no refunds at all!</p>
<p>I booked the Cambridge Hyatt 30 days before the Harvard and MIT graduations with a nice discount and rooms overlooking the river. The price fell dramatically from Feb.</p>
<p>Last night driving in Santa Barbara I was surprised to see so many vacancy signs. It is UCSB graduation this weekend and in the past the motels have filled up months in advance. I think it is a sign of the economy. I would bet many are staying a bit farther away where it is cheaper or making the decision to get up early and drive from home and skipping on the overnight stay.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago I booked two rooms for a few nights near Wesleyan – couldn’t believe the great price I got. S1 graduated Harvard mid year and decided “to walk” with earlier class and it was tres tres difficult In January to find two rooms nearby (you must be there for graduation pretty early in the morning); price was higher than I wanted to pay. Another S graduated and hotel room prices nearby were nearly three times the regular price – yikes.</p>
<p>D will graduate 5/10. Tried to book rooms a few months ago but was told by several area hotels they don’t take reservations until 6/1 of the preceding year. Fortunately I remembered, so we’re all set.</p>
<p>cbreeze, glad to hear you remembered to cancel the original reservation so that some other parent was able to book a room in time for their child’s graduation.</p>