<p>I have seen bits of info on this, but thought a dedicated thread would help (me, at least.)</p>
<p>Being far OOS, I envision many times that we will just not know whether we can attend a big event like Family Weekend/game until the last minute. Assuming tickets, etc. are not an issue ( buy early and sell if not needed), then WHERE DO YOU STAY IF TUSCALOOSA IS SOLD OUT?</p>
<p>Assuming we have a car…Meridian? Anywhere closer likely to have rooms?</p>
<p>When my D raced Triathlon Nationals in Tuscaloosa her senior year of high school, the hotels were packed like a football weekend. So we ended up staying the first night in the Fairfield Inn in Bessemer. It was a really easy drive to Tuscaloosa (45 minutes tops) and there were restaurants close by. We’ve stayed there a few times since then and have always had good luck. There are a few other hotels close by but we do Marriott Miles so that’s the one I’m familiar with. I think there was even a Wal-Mart, so the night before she moved into her dorm her freshman year we did a huge shopping run and nothing was sold out.</p>
<p>Bessemer and Hoover are great places to stay. We have stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Bessemer and the Residence Inn Hoover. Both were MUCH cheaper than anything we found in town during events. One was the Ole Miss game as we did not get tickets until about three weeks prior and everything was sold out in town. I don’t remember the other event.</p>
<p>Both were very easy drives to and from campus. We stayed at the Fairfield for the Ole Miss game and made sure to get onto campus very early that morning. Since it was a night game there were no issues. We did leave the game early during the 4th and it was a quick trip with not too much traffic. I think that it would have been worse if we had stayed.</p>
<p>Anything on the west I-20 / 59 route??? As we are driving from Texas…</p>
<p>Not exactly sure where the Greystone is…but I know many have stayed there with good results…I think that it is close to the Mercedes factory.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there honestly is nothing between Meridian and Tuscaloosa on 20/59.</p>
<p>I ran into a problem getting a last minute hotel in Tuscaloosa one time last year. I called every hotel listed on the Visit Tuscaloosa website. Several of them took my name and number and said they would call back if they got a cancellation. I didn’t expect to hear from any of them and resigned myself to the fact that I would be staying in Bessemer. As it turned out every hotel that took my information called me back. It is definitely worth a try to personally call the hotels in town.
[url=<a href=“http://visittuscaloosa.com/accommodations]Accommodations[/url”>http://visittuscaloosa.com/accommodations]Accommodations[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I do solemnly swear to ALWAYS make reservations even if I may not be sure I am going. </p>
<p>We didn’t decide until Monday that we may be able to do Family Weekend and now seeing the high prices and sold out hotels is nerve wracking. I should book 2017 graduation now…</p>
<p>you can book graduation about one year out.</p>
<p>We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Hoover last year for a game. Prices were under $200 per night. Very nice 2 room suite. 45 minutes from Tuscaloosa.<br>
I booked the Greystone for parents weekend last fall when the wonderful folks here figured out what weekend they thought it would be. That was the closest decent hotel to T-Town at the time. It is sold out now.</p>
<p>What is the best booking service to use? Hotwire?</p>
<p>I look on expedia to see what is available and rates. Then I go look on the hotels I’m interested in on their site. I’ve found that sometimes the hotel itself may have availability that the booking sites do not. Also prefer using them directly and can get the same rate or better, and rewards points.</p>
<p>TxArchitect, about 30 minutes west of Tuscaloosa there are some lovely B&B’s in Eutaw, AL. Everhope and Oakmont are two that I know of and there may be more. I’m not sure how early they book during football season but for anyone traveling to T-town from Texas or Louisiana it would be worth a look. Eutaw is a beautiful small Alabama town that has much of its antebellum architecture intact.</p>
<p>Cool! I will look at all suggestions! Thanks y’all!</p>
<p>[Greystone</a> Inn & Suites](<a href=“http://www.greystoneinns.com/]Greystone”>http://www.greystoneinns.com/)</p>
<p>Gets the job done. I’ve used them twice, will do so again for the Tennessee game.</p>
<p>We have stayed at a Holiday Inn in Clanton, Alabama for a ball game when nothing was available in Tuscaloosa. It wasn’t too bad a drive. Thanks for the visit tuscaloosa site information.</p>
<p>If your party is a group of 4 or more, then check VRBO.com. the prices of short-tern homes & condo rentals may be too high for just a couple, but if your party is a group of adults, then the divided cost will be comparable to the same-season rate as local nicer hotels.</p>
<p>@TXArchitect </p>
<p>Regarding post #11 - </p>
<p>I rarely travel without using Priceline. I really like using their “name your own price” function (so far my best deal was $18/night for a room), but they now also have an “express deals” function that mimics Hotwire. The major downside of Priceline is that they only guarantee accomadations for 2, so you might wind up with 1 Q or even 1 double bed in the room - definitely not an option if you’re travelling with kids or others, but always my choice when travelling alone.</p>
<p>I never use priceline (or hotwire for that matter) without pairing it with betterbidding.com (although it’s not updated as much as it used to be). There are lists of both priceline and hotwire hotels in each area that fall into each star rating and also recent winning bids are posted and you can sometimes find other winning bids in the same area/dates you’re traveling to, so you know what price might win. It also allows you to play with your choice of area, star rating and bid to have a pretty high confidence level which 2-3 properties might actually accept your bid.</p>
<p>Are people finding hotel vacancies in Tuscaloosa for the football game weekends (at the decent hotels)? </p>
<p>I’m only seeing vacancies at the crummier places (and with higher prices, too).</p>
<p>oh by all means book your graduation hotel a year out. Speaking from a mom that has two sons graduate from UA, and a daughter enrolled for the Fall…I have learned my lesson. The hotel was in Tuscaloosa, it must have been a last minute cancellation, but it was a smoking room. Ewww…</p>
<p>And one of my sons played football. Football fans book their rooms as soon as the football schedule comes out (usually a year in advance). If you plan on going to a championship game…book your hotel NOW. You can always cancel it with no penalty. The hotel rooms IN Pasadena are already booked. Closest is LA and it takes about 2 hours to get to Pasadena via rail for what should be a 15 min. commute normally. We won’t even discuss airfare for fear I may faint again ::
::</p>