School S24 picked has a family weekend for students moving in. Just checked the prices for nearby hotel and got a sticker shock. I know it’s 3 months or more away, but better plan for the trip before rooms run out.
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This is a very good reminder.
I am wondering whether my wife and I need to book rooms now (one extra for younger daughter) for attending older daughter’s graduation roughly 51 weeks from now.
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I don’t even know the school, and my answer is " you do! "
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I booked the hotel for one of my kid’s graduation for next May, it’s sold out already. I booked her move in hotel the day she decided to accept. I’ve had kids at 6 schools, I know the drill.
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My wife said we can book some place far and drive.
I have to tell her, depending on the school, there may not be parking when 1600 families converge that weekend. So we book a hotel walking distance that includes free-parking.
I just did the same, an Airbnb for graduation weekend June 2025. Few hotels had any vacancies, and slim pickings on Airbnb, although maybe some Airbnb calendars are not open yet for over a year from now (but some are and many are already booked!)
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At our student orientations for both kids’ undergrads, the keynote told families to book for all parents weekends and graduation ASAP. Luckily, we had relatives on one city. For the other, we wanted a B and B, but they did not take reservations until one year out. It was at a big place and we wanted all the. Rooms for four days and two for two additional days. I reached out to the owner who told me to call when reservations opened. I was on my phone at midnight my time…and got the reservation.
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Agree with your wife.
Don’t know the school, but if you find a hotel in the nearest nearby city or town (20 or 40 mins away, if there’s a sizable place), you likely won’t have sticker shock - and the schools typically give a specific move in time or window - and have that part handled - so I wouldn’t worry about everyone coming at once - plus some come late or early (with permission) depending on the situation.
Of course, if there’s not another town within 50 miles, I get it - but otherwise agree with your wife.
When my kid graduated, hotels near school were $400+ and I stayed less than an hour away on 5K Hyatt points - and I think they hotel rate was like $125 or so.
So if you have that type situation - you needn’t blow the budget.
Good luck.
I just finished my freshman year of college (yay!). My parents have been advised to book their hotels for my graduation—three years down the line—in the next few months.
Most places will only book a year out. The hotel prices at Clemson get insane because they are limited compared to the college population, with rooms $1000+ a night.
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But one could stay in North Georgia or Greenville, etc. and I’m sure they can find something more reasonable. Even North Atlanta - is do able if it means saving 85% of that rate.
Our kids only graduated from each degree program one time. It was well worth it to us to stay nearer to the campus so we could easily attend honors awards, the large and departmental graduation events without lengthy drives. Once in a life time.
I realize we are fortunate we could afford to do so.
ETA…my DH was a business traveler with a ton of points at the Choice Hotels, but none were as convenient or as nice as where we chose to stay for graduations. So…we used those points for other kinds of trips…not college related ones.
For drop off…in both cases, we had friends we stayed with.
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Agree. We just did D20’s graduation and it made the day so much better to not have to get up super early to make the morning award ceremonies before the main ceremony in the afternoon.
It also gave the grandparents somewhere to go rest between events that was easy to get to/from. Location, location, location.
We are also fortunate to be able to afford this.
P.S. We stayed in the same hotel every time we went to D20’s college. They actually kept a ‘graduation reservation list’ of repeat customers who got first dibs on rooms for graduation weekend. It might be worth investigating that possibility once you find a hotel you like near your child’s school.
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This thread got me to wake up and make our reservations for our oldest child’s graduation for May of 2025. Our first choice hotel was already sold out for one of the days that we are planning to be there, so we had to go with a different choice. However, we do now have a hotel booked for just about a year from now to see our oldest become “Doctor TwoGirls”.
It is definitely not too early to make hotel reservations. It is getting to be late to make hotel reservations for a year from now, particularly for a relatively large university in a relatively small city.
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If at all possible, you should already book hotels for every time that you need to visit - parent weekends, drop-offs/pickups, and graduation. This is especially true for people whose kids are attending colleges in rural areas. We went looking for places as soon as any place allowed reservation for our kid’s graduation (Middlebury), and still had to take something about 20 minutes away (a great place, though).
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When D2 got into her ED school years ago, the first thing I did was to book hotels for move in day and parents weekend.
I booked Airbnb for both kids graduation a year in advance.
I want going to drive 20-40 miles each way to attend various activities.