<p>I am attending the Red Carpet Day on April 26 and I was wondering where the best place to stay is. My mom wants a place that's not too far from the campus, not expense but not a dump of a place. We are only going to stay for 1 day. Anyone have any suggestions?</p>
<p>The Union is the best place to stay if you can get in because you can park there. Otherwise try the Hampton Inn.</p>
<p>I really like the Hilton Garden Inn, too. It’s within nice walking distance of the downtown area with restaurants and shops, and an easy walk onto campus.</p>
<p>Night of April 25th VERY general minimum rates (meaning, you CAN probably get lower, just as an example…if your parent is a member of AARP the $109 Hampton below goes down to $98, and the Hilton Garden goes to $134 for AAA members). But this will give you a jumping off point. </p>
<p>Others can speak to proximity, I’ll just give you a pricing starting point:</p>
<p>Decent chains:</p>
<p>Crowne Plaza $ 111
Courtyard $ 199
Fairfield $109
Towneplace $119
Comfort Inn $95
Holiday Inn $ 111
Hampton $109
Homewood $ 129
Hilton Garden $149</p>
<p>less “decent” hotels, but cheaper:</p>
<p>Super 8 $51
Quality Inn $ 67
Vista $42
Country Hearth $56
Motel 6 $36
Travelodge $48
Days Inn $60
Scottish Inn $41</p>
<p>I can vouch for the Hampton Inn, however it is not within walking distance of campus. If you have a car, it’s a good option.</p>
<p>We also stayed at Homewood Suites, but it is even farther from campus. A nice place, but more remote. </p>
<p>If you don’t have a car, the Union or the Hilton Garden Inn are both good options.
Another nearby location, is a bed & breakfast called Grant’s Inn. You can definitely walk to campus from there. Room prices are higher than the Hampton, but it’s a nice place. We stayed there once. The breakfast was very good.</p>
<p>Before you stay at any of the less expensive “decent” hotels R124687 listed, check out the reviews at tripadvisor.com. There are a few I would avoid. </p>
<p>Regardless of where you decide to stay, you should make your reservation ASAP. Beside Red Carpet Days, you never know what other events might be going on, making rooms scarce.</p>
<p>We’re staying at the Memorial Union Biddle Hotel for two nights. $119 a night for two double beds. We’re flying out from CA and will take the shuttle from Indy airport. So, being right on campus is a great option for us. My daughter will be doing the HOST overnight visit the second night, so I might even move to a less expensive room with one bed if they have one available.</p>
<p>The Comfort Inn has been redone and has beautiful, comfy rooms. Close to campus but no pool. For one night, I think you’ll enjoy it.</p>
<p>Make note that I called the 2nd group LESS decent for a reason. Maybe I wasn’t clear. I meant LESS DECENT (= not), just cheaper (because there are a lot of people who just need the cheapest option, regardless. </p>
<p>I just thought it would be thoughtful to provide nearly all the area hotels in one place, with an easy/quick price comparison as a starting point. I do love tripadvisor though too…and use it a LOT. I’ve been a travel agent since 1981…I would probably not stay in the chains (in general) in the 2nd list unless it was an emergency, but…anyway…just for your info. Sorry if anyone felt I was “approving” those hotels. This took me about 15 seconds to look up, because I know online searches can be slow and unreliable. So DEF “caveat emptor”.</p>
<p>R12…,</p>
<p>Sorry for my poor phrasing. I understood what you meant, but my fingers were flying faster than my brain! :)</p>
<p>A note for those whose children are juniors. I started looking for a hotel to stay in this May starting last May (when my son went from being a junior to a senior) because he graduates this May (in other words, I started looking for hotel rooms a year early).</p>
<p>You need to be aware that because of how many people come to town for the graduation (about 7 to 10 thousand), rooms can be very difficult to find. Some hotels book a year early, most book 11 months early–and some won’t book until a month and a half prior to the graduation date–and rates are very high or some of the top-rated hotels (the new Marriott quoted $300 to $400 a night, while nomal rates are about $139 a night there–although I believe they are one of the places that won’t allow you to book until the last two months).</p>
<p>After searching all of the hotels, I found something for us (his parents) as well as his grandparents for around $90 a night at the Motel 6–and was lucky to get that (even this less decent place is all sold out now).</p>
<p>My point–if your son or daughter will be graduating in May 2011–start looking for a hotel room in May or June of this year. (And I understand I’ll need to book the restaurants for those dates in early April of this year–or find one that doesn’t take reservations–and then get there early.)</p>
<p>^^^Thanks for the heads up Calcruzer. With a little digging on the IUB website, I see that this year Kelley graduates participate in the Saturday morning commencement ceremony. I can’t find anything on Kelley’s website that speaks to a separate school ceremony/event, but I’m thinking that there must be one. If there is, is it on Saturday as well?</p>
<p>I guess we’re looking at 2 nights lodging regardless, since Saturday’s event starts fairly early.</p>
<p>btw, congrats to your son! And to you and your wife! Is it just me, or are life’s milestones coming at us way too fast these days?</p>
<p>I’ll weigh in here from a local perspective and as someone that has stayed at a few of these places or had friends stay there. </p>
<p>Of the “less decent” places, the only ones I would go near would be the Super 8. Someone I know stayed there because of good wheelchair access and the price. It was pretty decent at the time.(a couple of years ago) I have heard of several drug related incidents there though since that time. Travelodge–I stayed here about 10 years ago, but drive past daily. It was clean, cheap, and very close to where I needed to be while visiting at the time. Furnishings, etc. are old though. I would stay away from the Scots Inn and Motel 6- They are that inexpensive for a good reason. </p>
<p>I’m also surprised by the price of the Courtyard. It’s typically not that expensive. My guess is that they are hosting a special event that weekend in the adjacent Convention Center. I stayed there numerous times, prior to the Hilton being built downtown. It’s not quite as close to the downtown/courthouse area, but closer to some of the 4th Street restaurants and some parts of campus.</p>
<p>A local place, A Summer House, is also clean and inexpensive. I’ve heard good things about it from friends. </p>
<p>I wanted to add that there are a few local/less well known possibilities for graduation weekends near Lake Monroe–about 30 minutes from campus.</p>
<p>We’ve stayed at the Hampton Inn a couple times now…BUT this is the last time. It is very loud the walls are paper thin.</p>
<p>Oh oh, I think the Courtyard was a typo! Sorry. I feed my CC addiction while I’m SUPPOSED to be working, and my travel computer sits behind me so I turn around backward. These prices were also only for that ONE date in April. But, yeah…sorry Courtyard - my bad.</p>
<p>This is really helpful. Thank You I will show this to my mom.</p>
<p>My mom ended up choosing Fairfield because of the distance, the price, and she has a Marriot Rewards card. So thanks for all your help!</p>
<p>IllinoisMom2006,</p>
<p>Yes, the undergraduate commencement presentations are divided into two groups this year (don’t know if that is how it was last year or not).</p>
<p>The business school (my son’s group) is in the Saturday morning session. The arts and science majors are in the Saturday afternoon session. The other groups are listed in the third link below.</p>
<p>Also there is now a graduate commencement on Friday afternoon at 3 PM.</p>
<p>[Indiana</a> University to have separate Commencement to award graduate degrees: IU News Room: Indiana University](<a href=“Indiana University to have separate Commencement to award graduate degrees: IU News Room: Indiana University”>Indiana University to have separate Commencement to award graduate degrees: IU News Room: Indiana University)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.commencement.iu.edu/bloomington/index.shtml[/url]”>http://www.commencement.iu.edu/bloomington/index.shtml</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.commencement.iu.edu/bloomington/may2010/undergraduate2010.shtml[/url]”>http://www.commencement.iu.edu/bloomington/may2010/undergraduate2010.shtml</a></p>
<p>Family friends we know well stayed at the Motel 6 numerous times and were very happy with it.</p>
<p>We stayed there recently for 1 night and it was AWFUL (sorry calcruzer!) Room smelled, pillow cases hadn’t been changed (we brought them to office and got new ones). The vacuum cleaner had never reached the edges of the carpet, and the bathroom door barely cleared the toilet! The TV did not get any of the basic stations (ABC, NBC, CBS or FOX!), although we did not have much time to watch TV. We were just in the room to sleep – so didn’t want to spend much money but we really should have changed hotels.</p>
<p>Might be better in the Spring when the windows can be opened…</p>
<p>Sounds like the first thing we may need to do is pull up the sheets and take them to my son’s apartment to be washed. </p>
<p>Based upon your comments I’d stay at a different place, but as noted, all the ones in town are full.</p>
<p>As I said in a previous post, I would never recommend the Motel 6 (or the Scots Inn). Calcruzer, I would be happy to send you a couple of other suggestions-farther from campus–that are probably not as well known for condo rentals.</p>