<p>As my youngest is the age of most of my friend’s oldest, I have been know to give college advice as well as other helpful tidbits. I told all of my friends as well as a few here on CC to make sure they booked hotel rooms for move in day as well as parents weekend as early as possible. Some schools are in cities that have a limited amount of rooms available. I booked in February for orientation/move in day as well as parents weekend for my daughter as her small liberal arts school is in an area where rooms are at a premium. Well, lets rephrase that; I THOUGHT I made reservations for parents weekend!! As I was looking throught my paper work getting everything in order for our trip to school, I found I didn’t have a confirmation for parents weekend. Called the hotel I thought I reserved with; no such reservations. Tried the hotel I was thinking about using; no reservation either. Of course all hotels nearby are booked the entire weekend! I do have rooms for the Friday and Sunday night, but not Saturday. I am hoping someone cancels before the end of October. I have made a reservation at a hotel that is a good bit farther for Saturday just in case, but I am hoping not to need it.</p>
<p>I do have 7 rooms for my son’s graduation in May 2006 that I made in May 2005!! I have no clue which family members are going to make the trip, but I wanted to have rooms for everyone that wanted to come. At least I know I won’t be sleeping on the streets during graduation :-)</p>
<p>Ha …when my mom and I were visiting Colby (small town, Maine) in August 2004 we stayed at a neat bed and breakfast on a lake. They said that if we thought id’ get in, book for parents weekend, November 2005 !!! My mom just about passed out…</p>
<p>Well another reason why I am glad my daughter isn’t attending school on the east coast- we are cheap- I hate to spend over $100 a night for a hotel room.
It also helps that she is in a city and not in a little town smaller than the college
( but don’t many colleges have dorm rooms available for families at graduation?- I know Colgate does)</p>
<p>I’m glad my rooms are all refundable and no charge upfront. It’s also a good thing I am not paying for all of the rooms. I have a few relatives that say they are coming now, but when the time gets closer they will have some reason not to come. I don’t know why I bothered to hold rooms for 2 of them as I know they will not come even though they say they will! I also worry about the elderly grandparents being able to make the trip. G-d willing all four will be in attendance.</p>
<p>Well, I actually checked recently to see if I could get Boston reservations for June 2007 when S graduates… With Harvard and MIT graduating around the same time, rooms are always difficult…</p>
<p>Update: I did make hotel reservations for parent’s weekend; I’m not going crazy after all!! I had another folder of papers I was going through tonight and low and behold I have a mailed confirmation from the hotel I thought I had booked with. I now need to call them tomorrow morning with my confirmation number to reconfirm. When I called last week they insisted I did not have a reservation; I even had them check my last name spelled wrong (which most people do); still said no reservation. Of course not I’m a bit concerned staying at a small local hotel that couldn’t find my reservation, but I am sure we will be able to work this out. My husband is happy we will not be sleeping in the car, or worse yet, bunking with our daughter and her roomates!!</p>
<p>D’s school has a lovely inn right on campus. We received a mailing fromt the parents’ association, along with other freshman paraphanelia. It explained if we want to stay at the inn for graduation we need to participate in a lottery for rooms. The lottery consists of an entry for each night you have stayed in the inn during the previous three years. Since the rates are over a hundred dollars a night I guess will be staying at the Motel 6 or whatever down the road.</p>
<p>Called the hotel this morning and they do have my reservation. Our last name had two letters switched which is why she couldn’t find it. All is well in reservation land!</p>
