My wife and I have decided to book our rooms in advance, the only definite dates we know for the home games so far are Liberty, East Carolina, and UVA (always the Saturday after Thanksgiving though the schedule does not reflect this yet.) We know which teams we play at home, just not the dates.
We are booking rooms for every Saturday and then going back and cancelling the weekends we have away games and hopefully when we find out we have a Thursday night game and of course the bye-weekend has yet to be determined but after which we will adjust things accordingly.
That being said, all of the hotels in Blacksburg/Christiansburg are already booked, no biggie we like to stay in Roanoke anyways, closer start on the way home the next day.
Does anybody up here book hotels early as well or know which dates are more likely to be home games and away games?
It may be a dumb question but it never hurts to check. It seems like we are far behind the other Hokie fans as far as booking hotels, but booking every weekend just seems logical as far as guaranteeing a hotel instead of waiting.
Anyways if anybody has insight or a better way to do things it would be much appreciated but this is the best we have come up with.
Hotel Room booking for 2016 VT football season
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I just wish the ACC got off their ass and had the schedule out in the first week of January.
The Big Ten releases their schedule in advance... why can't the ACC?
The 2016 Big Ten Football Schedule with Dates
The Big Ten 2017 Football Schedule with Dates
As does the $EC.
the ACC is behind the times on virtually everything. get used to it.
I wonder what their reasoning is on it. We are the only power 5 conference that does not have the schedule released for the following season before December 31st of the current year.
#goACC
and the conference schedule is asinine to boot. The ACC is a terribly managed league IMO. But, we're stuck in it and I don't think there will be any seismic shifts in the major conferences any time soon. Just get used to being second class, I guess. The league sucks but the team can still prosper despite that. Look at Clemson. In a few years, if Fuente is everything he's cracked up to be and then some we just might find ourselves in the playoffs. Go Hokies.
On a separate note I now have a picture for my profile, it is the ibis being arrested, and I wish it was bigger than what it is.
Another advantage to Roanoke is that they are less likely to have the two night minimum, especially for Thursday night games, because there are plenty of other reasons that folks might be at a hotel in Roanoke.
There's almost always something available in Roanoke just due to the sheer number of hotels, so I wouldn't sweat it too much. We booked the NC State game (Thursday and Friday at the hotel) less than a month in advance last year. There were also some available for OSU (although it was slim pickings). Nothing this year is going to be more in-demand than that one.
Something people traveling to the Bristol game, there isn't much in the way of hotels in Bristol.
Yeah...found that out the hard way last week...I made a reservation for a dodgy looking place just to ensure I'd definitely have one.
Probably cheaper to rent an RV and get a spot in one of the RV parks.
Most people do that. There are camping grounds close by that are popular. Renting a house if you have a bug enough group is also a viable option.
I mentioned this elsewhere, but my wife and I rented a place in Asheville, NC on Airbnb. It's not that far from Bristol and there's a lot more to do. Plus it's not nearly as sketchy.
If you have a friend who travels 50-75%+ for work, they will likely have elite status at some hotel chain. I know that diamond status at Hilton guarantees me a room at any Hilton property as long as I book at least 2 weeks out. You can always ask friends with status to book hotels for you, I'm sure they'd be happy to do so if they can keep the points.
I also recommend checking places other than hotels, ie AirBnB, Craigslist, etc. My parents found some really nice random complex in Christiansburg during graduation weekend. It was 3 years ago, so I don't remember the specifics, but it was only a 10-15 minute drive to campus.
With regards to hotels being booked in Blacksburg, I'm fairly certain, based on prior experience, that they aren't actually booked, but that every weekend that is currently not an established game weekend is unavailable until the schedule comes out. Once it is released, they set their rates (usually 2-2.5x the standard rate) and restrictions (typically a 2 night minimum) and you can then begin booking. Very few times have I been able to slip through before the block them to grab a room at a reduced rate, gambling that it might be a game weekend or not. They'll also up rates for parent's weekend and other big University events.
I'm kind of glad that they do this. It's easy to say they're just being greedy, but if they didn't do this then everything would already by booked years in advance anyway.