<p>I think this idea has the potential to really take off. They should work with local college interns to develop the campus identity as well as survey hotel guests for ideas. This would be a great opportunity for a college student looking to get into the hospitality business. </p>
<p>I would visit the college archives and look for items that would interest former graduates as well as parents of future graduates. The benefit to the college is higher enrollment and higher alumni gifts so . How difficult would it be to have a display case in the lobby containing 100 years of campus history?</p>
<p>The bar and restaurant are two more areas that could be utilized. Obtain copies of old campus newspapers with headlines that will stir up conversations. Install a jukebox with oldies from different eras. Offer drinks and foods designed to appeal to alumni. Customize shampoo bottles, soap wrappers, matchbooks, bath towels, etc.</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t the college help the hotel promote it? </p>
<p>When DS was graduated, his college opened up their dorms for parents to live there for a minimal cost. The experience can not get as real as this. The only downside is there is no AC. But since the kids can tolerate it, we should be able to tolerate it.</p>
<p>We appreciated it very much - especially the cost. Actually, if we wanted to make a reservation at a nearby hotel which is within the walking distance, it would be next to impossible - we needed to make a reservation more than a year ago in order to get a room at the nearby hotel (and the price is like several times higher than the regular price.)</p>
<p>No doubt about it, the hotel next to college has a very good business. Actually, many other kinds of business seem to be booming as well - IKEA, target, Bed Bath and Beyond, restaurants, etc., are all very crowded. Many parents have a shopping spree when their kids move into the dorm. And parents often treat their kid at a restaurant (if they could get the seats!) before they head home.</p>
<p>Our local Alumni House is fairly new and located in an industrialist’s mansion. Two problems it has are there are only 5 rooms, and there is little parking as it sits only one block from downtown. Driving by it on some Friday nights is frustrating as alumni pay little attention to where they are. They didn’t earn a reputation for attending a party school for nothing. </p>
<p>Last month, we stayed at a hotel - “The Breakwater Lodge in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa was built as a prison in 1859. It is now part of the University of Cape Town and a hotel.” The first floor has lecture halls and lockers. My parents and I stayed in a two-bedroom “suite” that I am sure was once part of a dorm. TINY rooms, which wouldn’t have been so bad with a twin bed, but were now stuffed with a king-size bed! There was no floor space left.</p>
<p>We stayed at a very expensive Raddison Hotel at USC. It was hugely overpriced and the plumbing was dangerously defective. The hot and cold taps were messed up so HOT water was in the toilet tank (so hot you could feel it emanating from the tank when you sat on the toilet seat). It was difficult to impossible to use the shower since there was ONLY hot water! We asked to be switched to a room that did NOT have defective plumbing, as it was the “newly renovated rooms,” that had the adding quirky plumbing, for which they were charging a premium! </p>
<p>The other room we got for my BIL also had the same problem and they had to switch rooms as well. We got a strange BS answer from the management when we wrote about our very odd experiences with the hotel, and especially our concerns about the huge burn danger that the quirky plumbing posed to unwary guests. The water was VERY HOT! Decided to never stay at that hotel again.</p>
<p>I like the idea but I’m not sure about the execution (judging by the photo in the article). It is a little cliched, at the very least.</p>
<p>It is interesting (though not surprising) that Madison is getting one. Madison already has the Hotel Red directly across the street from Camp Randall. The rooms have balconies overlooking the game-day action and everything is, obviously, Badger red. It might be a bit more upscale than the Graduate hotels…</p>
<p>Pretty funny.
My son’s school (U of Cinti.) is finally a getting a hotel right across from campus. I could never figure out why nobody saw the opportunity there and built a hotel near by. Of course, it’s going to be more upscale than the dorms (I hope!)</p>
<p>The concept doesn’t really appeal to me, at least if the picture is a true representation of what the rooms are like. The nightstand is ridiculously predictable. Having said that I love the hotel on Cornell’s campus - forget the name. But we had cocktails on the back deck alongside the bar on a beautiful afternoon and that memory sticks with me. Nice hotel and exceptionally well run.</p>