Seniors who haven't made arrangements for their relatives visiting Hanover on Commencement weekend better get cracking or they will find themselves with a couple extra roommates on hand for the occasion.
Some hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts in the area are already booked solid for the Class of 2000 graduation.
Hotels in Norwich, White River Junction, Queechee, Lyme and Hanover itself are already booked solid for the weekend of June 8 this year.
The Hanover Inn is already booked up all the way through the graduation of the Class of 2000.
Hanover Inn Bellman Peter Clancy said, "It is usually required that freshmen make reservations four years in advance."
The Dowd's Country Inn in Lyme, Vt., is fully booked for the graduation this June.
Jennifer Engle, a receptionist at the inn, said "I know a lot of the country inns are fully booked in the area. We are having problems booking and we do have waiting list with 24 people on it."
The Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, Vt., is "pretty much filled up for graduation at Dartmouth," according to David Muzzy, a reservation specialist at the hotel.
"We usually do fill up because we are only five miles from Hanover," Muzzy said. "We were established in 1829 which is long before the Holiday Inns and the other hotels were even built."
Many hotels in the area take special precautions to ensure that customers do not cancel at the last moment leaving the vacancies some families desperately need.
"Commencement has funky ways of people not showing and going other places," Muzzy said.
Starting next month the hotel writes to people who have made reservations and make sure they are guaranteed, Muzzy said. Once they are guaranteed the reservations are non-refundable.
Manager of the Comfort Inn in White River Junction Ron Dwinell said "we start taking reservations at midnight after the previous year's graduation. We usually sell out within an hour."
"It is just the most fair way of doing it," Dwinell said "That way everybody has a fair chance."
"We could sell out five hotels," Dwinell said. "This is a popular place for Dartmouth parents to stay. Besides the Hanover Inn I think this is number two."
The Green Mountaineer in White River Junction does not take reservations for graduation until January of that year according to its owner Gilbert Grote.
"It is just too much book keeping for such a small motel," Grote said. "It is just much easier for us to do it this way."
For those parents willing to stay in a slightly more distant location the Pine Ridge Motel in Woodstock, Vt. still has vacancies for the weekend of graduation in June.
Owner of the motel Christine Cotes said, "We have had so many problems with the Dartmouth graduation with people not showing up and then not understanding why it gets charged to their credit card."
"I think people get their kids to call around and then don't remember where they have called," Cotes said. "If they would cancel we could rent it to someone else but if they don't [the room] will just go empty."
Asked if he was worried about obtaining hotel reservations for his parents on graduation weekend, Brian Kim '97 asked, "Should I be?"
"I thought I was going to be given some information about when to make reservations," Kim said. "Now I'm worried because I am the one that is going to have to find them a room and take care of it because they are in New York."
Alireza Odouli '97 said his parents are going to stay with relatives in Boston and drive up the day of graduation.
"It is a good excuse for them to visit relatives and avoid the hassle," Odouli said.
