<p>For “newbie” parents - </p>
<p>If your child is attending college in a smallish town, and you think you want to go to Parents’ Weekend, I’d suggest you make your reservations now. Seriously.</p>
<p>Most colleges have the dates listed on a calendar somewhere on their web site.</p>
<p>This is what I love about CC. Newbie parents like me would never think of this and it’s really nice of the more experienced folks to take the time to answer a question that many didn’t even know to ask!</p>
<p>And even if it is in a larger city/town. As soon as son #2 decided last year, April 30th!, I booked a room through hotwire. Glad I did, the same hotel tripled in price as fall approached. Booked the same hotel for move-in weekend. Again the savings were astronomical.</p>
<p>Other kiddo is heading to a service academy so we are dropping him off in June, and did the same thing day he signed his paperwork. Was able to secure rooms for drop off day and parents’ weekend. It made a huge difference for us not to worry and the price is something we can afford ( for June drop off it’s under $45 a night and REALLY nice!).</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Pm me if you want info on the sites I use to book and to figure out which hotel on hotwire and priceline</p>
<p>^ Truth be told, what I’ll do this year is reserve a room at Marriott or whatever and then a week or two before the date I’ll try Priceline a couple of times. (This year we’ll be going to Worcester. If we were going to Denison I’d be staying at our favorite B&B. Alas, they are on the same weekend. Bummer.)</p>
<p>Hotels around the school where my son attends really get pricey for parents weekend, and one needs to prepay a nice chunk of it! We found a smaller motel 3 miles away for this year, and one can only lose $25 if one ends up not going. The rooms begin booking around the school my son goes to, one week after the prior parent weekend (basically one year in advance)! You may also want to prebook a room if you are planning on going to help move out too. My H was lucky this year. If my son had a final today, then they would have been hard pressed to find a hotel room in the area for this evening, b/c of graduation this weekend. My son checked out of his dorm yesterday, so they found a room without a problem for last night. My H was not in the mood to drive more than 6 hours yesterday and was happy to have a room near the school. Also, you may want to book football tickets, or whatever they have going on for parent/family weekend if they have gone on sale. You might check the website for you child’s school about it.</p>
<p>Thank you guys for reassuring me that I’m not nuts! I booked move-in & parents’ orientation, and then parents’ weekend yesterday, getting the “college rate” at the hotel. Not too pricey at all. I may try the Priceline method as it gets closer. Then again, I’m just happy to have the reservation!</p>
<p>Thanks for the reminder, weenie! I just booked our room–I think I got the last nonsmoking room in the cheapest hotel–it was about $25.00 per night more expensive than it usually is, with a 2 night minimum. I can’t buy football tickets until June, though. Looks like they’re playing Illinois that weekend.</p>
<p>Also if you need to rent a car, you should do that early too. The first year we went to Parents Weekend, the entire plane was parents going to various colleges, and as we were all waiting for the shuttle to the rental lots, the buses all said “reservations only” and about half the group groaned, because they just assumed they could rent when they got there.</p>
<p>I booked for graduation weekend as soon as the hotel starting taking the reservations. The price has gotten higher and higher as we get closer to June. Excellent thought to start this thread, weenie.</p>
<p>We went to Parent’s weekend last year. Paid the extra $100/night for the on campus hotel (needed to make non refundable deposit for minimum two nights) and it wound up being mostly a shopping weekend rather than attend any campus activities. We will probably choose a different weekend to go this year unless there is a compelling reason to go that particular time (if D wants us then, that’s compelling enough). </p>
<p>However…
It’s probably more important for freshmen since everybody else’s parents are there taking them out for a nice dinner, etc. Good advice to book early if you can. This particular campus hotel didn’t allow booking until move-in weekend and prices were fixed.</p>
<p>I agree with audio-
Freshman year I went along with her 11 year old sister- * now almost 17!* who had not been there before, and my mother.
H had to work. ( we had also just been there a couple months previous to help her move in)
Reed actually had the freshmen extremely busy- there were parents events scheduled, but a big Hum110 paper due.</p>
<p>So I didn’t see D much as all, couldn’t go on most of the parent events because my mother decided it was too much walking and I was worried she would get into trouble- although the hotel wasn’t an issue since it is in a city.</p>
<p>D didn’t even have time to go out to dinner- I went and picked up Chinese food for her group of friends in the dorm.</p>
<p>That was the last parents weekend I attended- which I regret a little, but meh.
We did go down quite a bit on other times, which could be more to our schedule and hers ( didn’t take my mother again)</p>
<p>I didn’t even really participate in much of the activities for graduation- we attended graduation of course- and we went to the dinner afterwards but it was hot & we had the dog & my brother was there ( which was nice for my D, but I don’t like him- he is incredibly patronizing)</p>
<p>But again- hotels weren’t a problem- lots of choices. Small towns can be much more difficult, although some schools have graduation after school gets out, and other students are expected to have left. They host parents in the dorms for graduation.</p>
<p>Some schools have other goings on which you might prefer. Football weekends, guest lecturers… H & I went down to see her sing with her choral group, which I am glad I didn’t miss, although I wasn’t able to see her every year performing.
( I do miss all the performances in high school- don’t know what I am going to do when D#2 goes off to college- I am going to have to join the over 35 year old soccer team)</p>
<p>When D decided on her school a couple of friends let us know that we would need to book rooms early for Parents’ Weekend. We were so happy to get that tip. We have gone to all of her PW’s, and have had a great time. Her school has lots of activities, including a football game, tailgating, etc. We really got to meet quite a few of the other parents that way. </p>
<p>Since we had been given the “heads-up” for D’s school, we knew we had to do the same for S1’s Parents’ Weekend. In fact, as soon as he confirmed his school choice I made reservations for his orientation and for Parents’ Weekend.</p>
<p>Now I book those reservations as soon as I know the dates for move-in, PW, etc.</p>
<p>Word of warning to those of you with college graduations coming up!! We booked a hotel 50 weeks in advance of D’s graduation (which is in 2 weeks!). We made reservations at another hotel (which we discovered during PW last fall) because it was a suite hotel, and we needed 2 rooms. We kept the original hotel reservation in case my parents would be able to come for the graduation. In January the hotel called and said they were cancelling all March-May reservations because they had plans to renovate the hotel. So…had we not booked the other hotel we would have been scrambling and/or paying outrageous prices for rooms. Lesson learned–we will be double-booking for S1’s graduation in 2 years!!</p>
<p>Not just small towns, if your kiddo is going anywhere in or near Boston, book your hotel, car, meals, flights ASAP. With all the schools in Boston, parent weekend(s) are crazy!</p>
<p>for graduation, book when kids are in utero</p>
<p>It doesn’t really even have to be that small of a town to be booked. Knoxville is basically filled up for parents weekend for next year. We got a room about 10 miles outside of Knoxville, but there was nothing decent near campus. Actually that can pretty much be said for the entirety of the Vols football season.</p>
<p>Geez, If my home were near within 2 miles of a college, I could rent out a room and have one mortgage payment made every year just by overcharging for parent’s weekend, graduation, and a popular football game.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not college related, but my wife and I have friends who make their April mortgage payment each year by renting out their house during Master’s Week in Augusta.</p>
<p>wharfrat, I believe it.</p>
<p>. . . and not just Parents weekend! If any of your children fly to school, you should think seriously about booking their plane tickets for Thanksgiving NOW. Getting a flight from school back to home may not be so diffiicult, because people fly during Thanksgiving week any time from Tuesday until Friday, but if you want to return to school that Sunday, book NOW to get the best possible choice of flights.</p>
<p>northeastmom, I know people who live in the areas around BU & BC (or at least those who live within walking distance of the trolley line) who do exactly that! Heck, many will rent their entire house and vacate for a while - they don’t even want to be in town on those weekends!</p>