What is the best approach to get a hotel reservation for IU graduation? I am assuming that every hotel room near Bloomington gets booked LONG in advance. When is the graduation date announced? Is the best approach to keep an eye out for the announcement and then try to reserve a hotel as soon as the date is announced? Or do people “guess” when the graduation is likely to be, make a hotel reservation, and then figure they can always cancel if they guess wrong? Or make a reservation for several different weekends, and cancel those you don’t need? Or just give up at plan to stay in Indianapolis? Thanks for any advice…
Do a Google search for IU Graduation dates and it took me to their website for graduation. Not sure what year you are looking for or if these dates change but this is what they had posted for future dates.
2017
Saturday, December 16, 2017: Combined ceremony
2018
Friday, May 4, 2018: Graduate ceremony
Saturday, May 5, 2018: Undergraduate ceremony
Saturday, December 15, 2018: Combined ceremony
2019
Friday, May 3, 2019: Graduate ceremony
Saturday, May 4, 2019: Undergraduate ceremony
Saturday, December 21, 2019: Combined ceremony
I just went through this for next May. You typically cannot reserve a room more than a year in advance, and you will know the graduation date for your student by then. When I first began searching on Kayak a year in advance, many hotels were already booked…I initially booked at a budget hotel that I wouldn’t normally stay in. I kept searching every day or so and eventually I saw rooms open up at other hotels and was able to find a room where we usually stay.