Blacksburg hotels struggle to host graduating senior families for the commencement ceremony  

May 2, 2024

By: Miles Jordan 

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        Virginia Tech’s graduation falls from May 8 to May 11, 2024, bringing many parents and families to travel from across the country to Blacksburg, Virginia. However, with the limited housing and high prices for hotels in the Virginia Tech community, many families have run into trouble when looking for places to stay and see their children graduate. 

 

        There are roughly 7,000 seniors in the 2024 Virginia Tech graduating class, about a fourth of the university's population. However, assuming each student has at least two family members visiting Blacksburg for graduation, that means a minimum of 14,000 family members will journey to Blacksburg all in the same time span. While the hotels around Virginia Tech’s campus hope to accommodate these families, the Virginia Tech Inn only holds 147 rooms, and Hyatt Place on University Boulevard holds only 123 rooms, which is a total of 240 rooms in close proximity to Virginia Tech's campus. Using the same assumption of a minimum of two family members per graduating seniors, those hotels only account for 540 family members out of the 14,000 who will attend graduation, leaving the remaining 13,460 family members to search for housing elsewhere. 

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        Virginia Tech's campus is stepping up to address the housing shortage in Blacksburg by offering air-conditioned dorms for families, priced at a reasonable $430. This cost-effective option is available from Thursday, May 9 to Sunday, May 12, providing families with a budget-friendly accommodation choice. However, VT mentions that some students may still be in residence, and since freshmen make up most of VT’s on-campus housing, visiting families may be living next to or across from college freshmen, which is not as ideal as staying in a hotel. 

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        Due to the lack of housing in Blacksburg, many families have to resort to staying in surrounding towns and cities, such as Christiansburg, Virginia, which is 15 to 20 minutes away from campus, or even Roanoke or Salem, Virginia, which depending on traffic can be anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour away.

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 "My parents are staying in Blacksburg," said graduating senior Aaron Gamarra, "I am very lucky my parents are not staying in Christiansburg or Roanoke because that would make traveling a lot more difficult for them, especially during the graduation."