Where to Stay

My daughter and her friends are planning a trip to Boston the first week of August. The problem that they are face with is they booked their airfare and there hotel, later, only to find out that they must be 21 to rent the hotel room. (All are 19, they booked the hotel through travelocity) Is that common for all the hotels? Where are traveling college students supposed to stay? They all have valid driver%26#39;s liscences and credit cards in their name.

Where to Stay

Generally, and not just limited to Boston, some hotels do have age restrictions. How they are enforced is another matter.

My daughter is 19 and for part of her spring break she and a friend spent a few days in Washington D.C. at a top 4* hotel that has a no under 21 check in rule.

However, since a month earlier my 20 year old niece stayed at the same hotel under the same circumstances we decided to go for it and I booked it.

At check in, nothing was said about age. The girls were dressed nicely (no jeans) and well behaved. The reservation was totally honored...and just like my niece, the girls were given a room with a mini bar with alcohol in it...interesting eh?

And yet, New York is notorious for turning away under 21 year olds at hotels.

So, you can either gamble and hope the hotel has a don%26#39;t ask don%26#39;t tell rule.... Or you can call the hotel and talk to them and see what they say... Or you can find another hotel that will accept the girls. It%26#39;s possible if a parent guarantees incidentals with a credit card the hotel might accept the kids.

By the way, Travelocity mentions age restrictions when they are applicable doesn%26#39;t it? I know Expedia does.

Where to Stay

I can%26#39;t imagine hotels wanting to rent to groups of 19 year olds... huge liability.

Not every 19 year old is as mature as yours might be... a mini-bar is a temptation to a lot of people and there they are in a strange city with alcohol in their room and who%26#39;s to say the four-star hotel doesn%26#39;t have a nice lounge that they check out, feeling grown-up and ... hotel lounges aren%26#39;t the best place for a 19 year old girl to be. Think of the last conference you went on, all the married men looking for trouble, etc. Plus, it%26#39;s a scary world we live in.

From the hotel%26#39;s point of view, you can see why they don%26#39;t want unsupervised underaged people staying there. Not only do teenagers tend to be irresponsible (not yours of course, but in general)...and as mature as anyone might be, they still might not see trouble coming at them. The hotel would be liable if something went wrong. If God-forbid, something bad happened, you could sue the hotel for not checking her ID, providing her with alcohol in the room or in the lounge, etc. etc. I think that%26#39;s why they have that rule.

CoCo,

I%26#39;m with you and I understand the rationale. Just saying the policy is not always enforced...but you can%26#39;t count on it.

They are 19 year old college students, so they are not looking at 4* hotels in the heart of Boston. They are were looking to keep it at or under 150 a night, so they were trying Marriott Courtyards, Hampton Inns and Holiday Inns near public transportation. No mini bars, or tempting lounges.