Being on a travel sports team can be a great experience for children—it gives them the chance to improve skills, build friendships, create memories around shared interests, and spend time with family experiencing new cities and sports facilities. Just the time children and their families spend on these trips can be great for bonding, too. However, being part of a travel team can be expensive, and the rising cost of lodging for these trips is a great concern to many teams and families.
Event organizers, sports commissions, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), and businesses that offer event housing solutions all recognize the issue and have advice on how teams and families can get the most lodging bang for their buck.
Mark Shearer, founder and CEO of Book Your Block, a company offering high-tech solutions for team hotel bookings, says in the fast-paced, data-driven world we all live in now, traditional methods are being replaced by innovative technological advancements, and researching and booking event lodging is no exception. “When it comes to finding hotel rooms, it’s easy to say, ‘we’ve always done it this way,’ but there are now so many new ways for how we find information of all kinds and how we use it,” Shearer says. “For team travel lodging, our company aligns with established industry players like CVBs to source room blocks at discounted group rates well in advance of events and then creates a seamless lodging experience for event operators, team leaders, and families.”
Laura Dermody, president of Pellucid Travel, a full-service sports travel company, says that sourcing lodging far in advance of any event is key because many tournament organizers like to pick long holiday weekends for their events so that kids don’t have to miss school and parents don’t have to miss work to come to an event. However, on the other hand, these weekends are very busy. “Depending on where the event is and what the holiday is that coincides with the event, rates can fluctuate. When we know we have events over weekends like this, we will source as far in advance as we are able to so that we can hopefully lock in rates as low as possible,” Dermody says. “Often, we will contract with hotels for multiple years in an effort to keep rates as low as possible and ensure we have enough rooms at the best hotels
for attendees.”
Shearer agrees, noting, “The earlier the hotel sourcing process starts, the more inventory is available, and the more leverage the lodging partner has
to negotiate lower rates.”
Working with local agencies
Don Dukemineer, director of sports development with Decatur/Morgan County Tourism and chairman of Sports Alabama, the Alabama Sports Initiative, says a DMO can serve as a housing bureau for events or organizers in cases where securing specific room types or a certain number of rooms are the most important factors. “DMOs can take some of the pressure off the tournament director by providing this service for the participants, while also providing realistic expectations to the hotels on what actual blocks are expected,” he says.
Working with third-party housing companies for larger events provides flexibility, he adds. “It allows us to showcase more available properties and allows visitors and teams the opportunity to consider different properties,” Dukemineer says. “Using the services of a third-party company also helps track actual room nights better, so that both DMOs and the event organizers know what worked and what didn’t for future planning.”
The Snohomish County Sports Commission in Washington works with hotels to offer the best possible group rates, says Tammy Dunn, executive director, adding the majority of hotels in the destination prefer to work directly with the sports commission. “We promote the hotels and events on playeasy.com [a sport and event tourism network], and we encourage the event organizers to send the hotel information and link to the teams so they may book their hotels,” she says. “Additionally, we encourage the event organizers to post the hotel link and visitor information link on the event webpage, and we request a specific booking link from the hotels so we can track room night pick up.”
Dunn adds, “When an event owner requires a third-party housing company, we ensure the hotels know when we are sending a hotel lead. Hotels then will work with the third-party housing company if the event organizer selects the hotel as a partner hotel.”
Dermody notes how when everyone involved works together, the best outcomes are created “for the attendees, the community, and the tournament.”
It creates long-term success for the event,” she adds.
Meeting group needs and budgets
To a hotel, rooms are rooms, whether for a youth baseball team or a corporate meeting event. Yet, securing rooms for traveling sports teams is about more than just booking the right number of rooms, say the experts. “We’re not just booking rooms, we’re building memories, fostering team chemistry, and creating shared experiences,” says Shearer. “With teams, we’re dealing with a diverse group of individuals with different budgets, preferences, and expectations. We need to consider not just the price point, but the hotel amenities and benefits that will make their experience truly special.”
When a third-party housing company does it right, teams will have options available that meet everyone’s needs, Dermody says. “Ensuring that multiple brands and price points are contracted as well as different room types that allow for entire families to come are important pieces of the puzzle for a lot of events,” she adds. “When a family of five and their dog need a room, having suite-style rooms and pet-friendly hotels as options make a tournament weekend much more comfortable for that family. Having breakfast included at the hotel is another huge plus for a lot of teams and families.”
Destinations must consider all factors when looking at housing for events, Dukemineer says. “Every family wants to be as close to the sports facility as possible. We also consider what hotel partners have restaurants, attractions, or other facilities close by so that families and individuals can enjoy their time in the community.”
Local DMOs and sports commissions provide invaluable assistance, Dunn says. “We can help with finding lower hotel rates and promote visitor information for the event owner by creating a specific landing page for the event,” she says. “We also help with any event service the event owner needs such as volunteers, equipment rental, and marketing. Also, we provide restaurant and attraction information for the teams so they know where they can eat and what they can do when they are not playing games.”
What about stay-to-play?
Often events will include a “stay-to-play” policy, but this doesn’t mean higher prices or more limits on hotel choices, Shearer says. “This policy directs families to partner hotels, and
if properties know this policy is in place, they are more likely to support the event and allocate room blocks, giving the teams the opportunity to book at the hotel brands they desire. Partner hotels guarantee the lowest available rate parity, meaning the tournament rate will be the lowest for that room type over the event dates,” Shearer says. “If a rebate for the event rights holder is built into the room rate, the hotel absorbs it as the cost of receiving the business. The guest does not pay for it.
And even with stay-to-play, there are always exceptions, explains Shearer. “Team members might have family in the area, or the family has hotel points to use. We might suggest that the organizers require maybe only 10 players per team stay, rather than all, giving some flexibility that benefits players, teams, and the event rights holders,” he says. “And with our company, if you need an exception, there’s just one ‘click here’ that goes right to the rights holder for their approval.”
Stay-to-play policies can help provide accurate room-night information, Dunn notes. “It is helpful to us as a sports commission to have event history for room night information, especially when the event owner is requesting financial support for the event,” she adds.
The policy helps DMOs feel more comfortable, Dukemineer adds. “It helps us better know the impact the event had on the community,” he says. “And for the organizers, it helps them detail the overall success of their event. It helps the destination feel comfortable with providing the necessary support and keeps hotels from dealing with last-minute cancellations or loss in revenue.”
The bottom line
Ultimately, when it comes to finding the best lodging at the lowest rates, booking as early as possible is what counts. “Teams should secure hotel rooms as soon as the team registers for the tournament, especially if it falls during the destination’s peak season,” says Dunn.
What everyone needs is patience and the willingness to plan well in advance, adds Dukemineer. “Destinations and hotels are working together to offer events and tournaments the best rates possible while dealing with the challenges we face,” he says. “Having open and honest conversations about expectations and realizations up front on room needs is vital to keeping everyone happy.”
