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Under 21, Booking A Room, Boston MA
Ismokecoconuts
Designated DriverLancaster, PARegistered User regular
Designated DriverLancaster, PARegistered User regular
The above statements do not work well together, as I am finding out.
My friends and I, who are 18-19, are looking for a place to stay in Boston during PAX 2015. HOWEVER, I have yet to stumble upon a hotel that allows under 21 to book (apparently state law), except for a few hostels which can rack up to a pretty large sum of money when all of us pay individually to stay. I was wondering if anyone has ran into this problem before, and could maybe give me a few words of advice.
I would much prefer not to sleep in my car in mid-late winter, but it is not out of the question.
My friends and I, who are 18-19, are looking for a place to stay in Boston during PAX 2015. HOWEVER, I have yet to stumble upon a hotel that allows under 21 to book (apparently state law), except for a few hostels which can rack up to a pretty large sum of money when all of us pay individually to stay. I was wondering if anyone has ran into this problem before, and could maybe give me a few words of advice.
I would much prefer not to sleep in my car in mid-late winter, but it is not out of the question.
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http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/massachusetts/hilton-boston-back-bay-BOSBHHH/about/policies.html
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/announcements.html?propertyID=232&language=en_US
http://harborsideinnboston.com/questions.cfm
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090712123317AA6BhVm
The last one is an older question, so some of those might have changed.
This is not true. I've worked in the hospitality industry for years, and I can guarantee that around big events/holidays (new years) they will always ask your age. It's a liability issue with minors and drinking. Combined with the fact that younger folks like to try to pay with cash (Warning sign due to inability to cover damages afterwards), and put too many people in the room (fire hazard) and it keeps most hotel GM's very leery of younger crowds
I know it feels unfair, and maybe it is, but the most horrendous damages I've ever seen done to a hotel (outside of a bride tripping the sprinkler system by hanging her wedding dress on it) have been due to people between 18-21
Alright, couple questions....does this come up booking online? Like through Hotwire or whatever? I may have just overlooked it but I don't remember it.
If you're booking over the phone the only advice I can think of, and you need to be very careful how you do this, would be have somebody obviously older and formal sounding calling. Get your dad to make the reservation or something. He should not misidentify himself but "make the reservation in the name of <foo>." If he is explicitly asked about age he should not lie about it or anything of the sort.
Mostly I'm saying to leverage your dad's old guy privilege since I can't picture them asking a business man "And how old are you?"
Don't do this.
I worked for a large hotel chain' call center, taking complaint calls, and this came up A LOT. People would book room for other people, and when the person tried to check in and where either not the person the reservation was made under/didn't have a credit card to cover the room/didn't meet the minimum age, there was very little we could do other than cancel their original reservation(if it wasn't past the cancellation period) and try to book them elsewhere.
Most booking sites and phone reservations will put the onus of knowing all the hotel's rules on the customer. So saying 'the website let me book it even though I'm not 21' will not fly.
Honestly, the best thing you can do is continue to look or check airbnb. If you do stay at a hotel, make sure you can cover the deposit (generally the hotel will hold a predetermined amount on whatever card you give them).