Holy Hell, graduation accommodation is expensive

[Anonymous]

I disagree completely with PP about grandparents. My only living grandparent went to my brother’s service academy graduation and was not well enough to attend mine. My Mom went to my oldest’s graduation in 2023 and was excited to go to the next graduation in May but she recently passed away. She was beaming at the 2023 graduation. We are spending a lot in May because it is a milestone which is important to our families, especially grandparents. If it’s not for yours, don’t do it.

[Anonymous]

It's surge pricing and all the major brands have it, just like the airlines do. Try VA Guesthouses. It's a local group that is still going to be expensive for graduation, but the rates won't bounce around as much.

https://www.vaguesthouses.com/

[Anonymous]

I have a Freshmen. New England school.

And I thought parents weekend was bad…$600-700/night. Lol. Guess I’ll get ready

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have the grandparents watch online from home.

DC is graduating in May and no way are we inviting our in state, local grandparents- getting them to DAR was challenging four years ago.

NP here. That works for you. You are also lucky that the grandparents are local to their kids when they were children. My father is 8 hours away missed DC's HS graduation because of a cardiac related issue. He was grounded and unable to travel (by car, train, air) until it was resolved to visit us. His ticker is now working great and absolutely wants to attend the college ceremony in 2026.

[Anonymous]

Wow, another reason being close has advantages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College graduations are completely overrated! Grandparents should not be dragged to them, hell the graduates barely want to go! Keep it simple, get some pics and make the grad wear to dinner with grandparents.

They aren't overrated for a lot of people. My graduation was the first college graduation in our family in 50 yrs. My son's graduation will be the next one in 2027. His grandparents will definitely be coming since they are helping to pay for it. Luckily, we are local but if I had to drive a few hours to get them there, I would bend over backwards to make it happen.

We're foreigners and in our universities we don't have fancy graduation ceremonies like the ones in America. We still don't care. I did not attend my own grad school graduation, the one and only ceremony I was invited to, since it was in the US, and my undergrad was in Europe.

You'll have to accept that graduations are just not interesting to a lot of people. What matters is what you learned during all those university years, not the polyester gown and canned speeches that one day.

[Anonymous]

Got a hotel room for two nights at UVA for total $750. Booked in May one year prior to graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College graduations are completely overrated! Grandparents should not be dragged to them, hell the graduates barely want to go! Keep it simple, get some pics and make the grad wear to dinner with grandparents.

They aren't overrated for a lot of people. My graduation was the first college graduation in our family in 50 yrs. My son's graduation will be the next one in 2027. His grandparents will definitely be coming since they are helping to pay for it. Luckily, we are local but if I had to drive a few hours to get them there, I would bend over backwards to make it happen.

We're foreigners and in our universities we don't have fancy graduation ceremonies like the ones in America. We still don't care. I did not attend my own grad school graduation, the one and only ceremony I was invited to, since it was in the US, and my undergrad was in Europe.

You'll have to accept that graduations are just not interesting to a lot of people. What matters is what you learned during all those university years, not the polyester gown and canned speeches that one day.

That is your opinion but the grandparents have put up money for tuition and if they want to attend, I’ll be damn sure to make it happen. My graduations were super fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got a hotel room for two nights at UVA for total $750. Booked in May one year prior to graduation.

Was this several years ago

[Anonymous]

Blacksburg you can stay on Roanoke and it’s only 45 minutes and VT has decent parking.

For UVA you should have had a weekend place at Farmington.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked at Hotel Roanoke? Was nice historic hotel as I remember

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got a hotel room for two nights at UVA for total $750. Booked in May one year prior to graduation.

Lots of hotels don't open graduation dates until a particular day. I booked in December for Tech and we're paying a $hit ton. I don't care-it's a one time event and we're right off campus. I've actually seen worse rates for football games. One time I looked the Hyatt wanted $1,000/ night for a game weekend. I'm sure someone paid it but it wasn't me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ithaca is the same way. Such a racket. You will be fleeced even if you try to reserve a year in advance

We stayed in Binghamton. It was about an hour a way. Kind of a pain but only was it hundreds of dollars a night cheaper, there was no 3 night minimum and it was refundable. We only spent the one day of graduation up in Ithaca.

[Anonymous]

Graduations are long and boring. Of course we parents will attend ($700/night in Pittsburgh booked a full year out, and genius planners that they are, the graduation is the same day as the Pittsburgh marathon).

We are not even bothering to ask any family members to attend. It'll be live-streamed if they have any interest (I doubt it)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a Freshmen. New England school.

And I thought parents weekend was bad…$600-700/night. Lol. Guess I’ll get ready

For other years go a different weekend. Less expensive and less crowded.