<p>You might want to try making hotel reservations for the dates when you will be taking your child to college in the fall.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted Early Decision, so I know where it is we're going to be going. And thanks to the college's Web site, I also know when we have to be there.</p>
<p>What I didn't know is that the local hotels increase their rates by as much as $100 per night during new student orientation! (I compared the rates shown on their Web sites during the orientation dates with the rates on days just before and after orientation.) And even if you go to other communities a half-hour to forty-five minutes away from the university, the hotels increase their rates by $50 per night during the same dates.</p>
<p>I think I would rather be accosted in a dark alley by a guy with a knife.</p>
<p>And as long as you are making that reservation, go ahead and reserve parents weekend too. I did that and also made sure that it was one that I could cancel without penalty if need be. If you are going into an area without a lot of hotels, parents weekends book up quick.</p>
<p>My son goes to college in Roanoke, VA and apparently Blacksburg, where Virginia Tech is located doesn't have a lot of hotels so on football weekends many alumni stay in nearby Roanoke and Salem. Last year parents weekend was also a home football game for VT and many hotels filled up. I felt good that I had made my reservation within a week of when my son made his college decision.</p>
<p>My daughters college is out in the sticks so I made a reservation at a hotel (sort of, actually a very cool cabin at a state park) for her graduation this June last September and was told that I was lucky there was a vacancy!</p>
<p>If I can identify the dates of Parents' Weekend, I will book that, too -- probably at a motel at least an hour away from the university. </p>
<p>This problem caught me by surprise, even though I'm on kid #2. Kid #1 attends a college only an hour from home; hotel rooms are never necessary. But it's a six- to seven-hour drive to kid #2's prospective university, and that's a whole different ballgame.</p>
<p>*What I didn't know is that the local hotels increase their rates by as much as $100 per night during new student orientation! *</p>
<p>We didn't think about it at the time- although D did pick a college in a city because she had a criteria of good public transportation. But since it is in a city, with several universities and colleges, there are lots of hotels and some hotels even had price breaks if you mentioned you were there visiting.
So there are really lots of choices and we were able to stay somewhere that was just about 10 min away.
But ya- that would be a problem- some places really book up too and then what do you do? Drive 60 miles?</p>
<p>My daughter and I are going to be driving more than 300 miles to get to the university, arriving the night before she has to move in. It's perfectly fine with me to stay 50 miles away and get up an hour earlier on move-in morning. In fact, I will do it on principle, just so that the university town's hotels can't charge me those exorbitant prices. </p>
<p>Thirtysomething years ago, when my parents drove me to college for the first time, we stayed in a motel in a different community a half hour away. Now I know why.</p>
<p>For family weekend, the campus hotel at my daughter's school charges $100/night more than their usual usurious rate. You are required to make a non-refundable payment for two nights by check or cash several months in advance. </p>
<p>We didn't even wind up going to any of the planned orientation activities (spent the whole time eating and winter wardrobe shopping), so I think we'll choose another weekend next year.</p>
<p>I've been working on a project for a hotel chain for a few months. Not sure why you're surprised by this or think this is akin to mugging. Hotels on Nantucket charge a fraction of the price in the winter that they do in the summer. Caribbean hotels are practically free in the summer. Every hotel in NE goes up in price for the weeks of folliage. They are businesses that have to make money when they can. They probably wouldn't survive if the couldn't charge more on the big weekends.</p>
<p>I would also agree with going a different time than parents weekend.
While the first year I took my then 11 year old daughter and my mother down for parents weekend ( H had to work), because I had was with my 11 year old daughter and my mother ;), I barely did any of the "parent" activities.
I took a guided walk, but I could have done that anytime.</p>
<p>Not to mention- D was really busy and I barely saw her the whole time.
Since the whole point was to see her, I opted to return when it was a good time for her- instead of during special events.</p>
<p>I've been to three parents weekends - two at my daughters and one at my sons. I would recommend going to at least the first one, esp. if you have a son and you only get a smidgen of an idea of what's really going on. I really liked meeting my son's friends and their parents. With both colleges there were special programs (golf outing at my son's), talks with the administration, kind of "we're in it all together" feeling with the other parents.</p>
<p>for a different experience - my DD1 auditioned at U Rochester, and they had a list of hotels offering lower rates if you were coming in for the auditions.
We stayed at a very nice hotel, with breakfast included.
Did you check with the college to see if that ever exists?</p>
<p>Supply and demand. When demand is low and the hotel is likely to be empty, rates are low. That is when you get those cheap Hotwire deals as hotels try to boost marginal income by unloading excess inventory. When demand is high so are rates. At college towns this is most noticeable if the college is in a small town with few hotels. Actually in my daughter's case (Kenyon in Gambier, OH) just finding any available room within fifty miles of the town on major college event days is a challenge. The only inn in town is booked years in advance for graduation and Parents' Weekend and the only B and B holds a lottery for rooms. Their high rates during the few periods of high demand during the year keep them open the rest of the year. If they didn't charge what the market would bear then, they would probably close altogether.</p>
<p>Elsewhere it depends on over all demand. We went to NYC (mid-town Manhattan) between Christmas and New Year's. We arrived Monday and left Friday, starting out paying about $200 a night but the rate increased during the week. We thought about staying longer but by Friday night hotel rates were roughly doubling every night for the three nights in a row starting Friday through Sunday (New Year's Eve). The hotel was three or four blocks from Times Square.</p>
<p>For those who like to plan ahead, think about making hotel reservations for graduation during your child's freshman year (or at least inquiring at your hotel of choice how far ahead it will take a reservation). This is no joke; you'll thank yourself later.</p>
<p>My very good friend had her son at a college in a small town that makes its living off of this large state school. You had better believe the merchants and chamber of commerce had that university's schedule on their books! Not only were the prices raised for any events that ensured a crowd descending on that area, things were fuly booked. Since she had a 3 and half hour drive to get there, and had some medical issues that preclude pushing things to a point of doing the trip in one day, ever, and the school is not close to any airport to cut that time frame, any visit involved a hotel stay. She was also on a tight budget. She learned to book hotels outside that immediate ring around the university, and found some real bargains since this school is outlying, and the cost of living around there was low. She gave up close access to the school for cost reasons. </p>
<p>That can be an issue for some families with a someone with special needs and a tight budget. If it is a major issue, it should be incorporated to a degree during the college search. Though, in general, I shake my head to all of these college visits familes make these days, it does have the benefit of apprising how accessible the school is and what visiting costs will be.
You can also see this on paper. A school that is a couple hours from any airport and does not have direct transportation lines to where you live and is not a comfortable drive is going to be a pain in the neck in that department for a long 4 years. A couple of schools on our list fall into that category, and we will have to check out if the trouble will be worth it. My two older boys went to schools that were a long drive (6-7 hours), but there were cheap flights often available since we have major airports both ways, and there were a lot of kids going to those schools in our area, which meant lots of car pooling available, and there were bus/train possibilites there too. When we took them to school after freshman move in, we tended to rent one way which really was a bargain and cut out hotel stays. This year, I rented a one way, loaded it, took son to college, helped him move in, had a meal with him, and drove the rental to the airport and flew home on a $100 one way ticket.The one way rental was also $100, and considering what the tolls and gas would have cost had I used my car, it was a bargain since the 7 hour drive would have been a toll on me, my time and the cars wear and tear. I could take one of those trips, starting early in the morning, but I would have certainly had to stay the night had I driven in my own car, and lost more than just the trip time of the next day, as it would be doubtful I could do another very early wake up and 7 hour drive home, and would have wanted to sleep in, not getting home till much of that day was gone. I was home before 9Pm the same day, and could have come home even earlier, except I caught a meal and did some shopping with my son. He was hoofing and pawing to get out with his friends back that first day, so I did not feel I was shorting him of anything even had I left him earlier.</p>
<p>Try graduation weekend for MIT/Harvard! Yep, same weekend. Oh, and it's alumni weekend too. $399/night to be within walking distance (1 mile)... because I figure cabs will be out of the question, and hotels on the T were even more. The Marriott in Kendall Square (normally $179)---$599/night.</p>
<p>I have a note in my appointment book to call the hotel for D's college graduation weekend on the first day that reservations may be available. It may be even early in which case I'll get the corrected date and call on that date. The price does indeed go up for the high volume weekends and as noted there's the non-refundable deposit and two--or is it three?--night minimum.</p>
<p>No use squawking about it. It certainly wouldn't have affected the choice of college. Just one more burden under the category "This, too, shall pass."</p>
<p>I've just made (refundable) hotel reservations for the "accepted students day" at schools my D hasn't been accepted to yet! Just to be on the safe side!</p>
<p>Make sure to inquire about discounts because you're associated with your student's college. Usually you will have to call to get any discount that way, not make reservations over the Internet. Start by looking under the visit section of the admissions page.</p>