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Homecoming weekend hotels, and the rooms that go first
Homecoming brings back decades of alumni on the same weekend as a home game, and the towns hosting it are mostly small. We check the date on the university's own page, then map what is left to book.
Looking for a ceremony instead? Graduation and commencement dates →
- 21
- Homecomings verified
- 17
- States covered
- 59
- Ring towns mapped
Independent & unofficial · Dates taken from each university's own pages, and dated
Measured, not estimated
Why homecoming fills a town faster than people expect
A graduating class is one year of students. Homecoming is every year at once, and it lands on a football Saturday. Two demands on the same beds, in towns that were built for neither.
What a homecoming weekend does to the rooms available
We counted bookable properties across five matched weekends in the same town in one session, with the homecoming weekend in the middle and ordinary weekends either side. It is the same method we use for commencement, so the two are directly comparable.
- 3Late Sep
- 9Early Oct
- 4Late Oct
- 5Early Nov
- 32%of a normal weekendstill bookable in Logan on Utah State University homecoming weekend
- 40%of a normal weekendstill bookable in Tallahassee on Florida A&M University homecoming weekend
- 42%of a normal weekendstill bookable in Troy on Troy University homecoming weekend
- 100%of a normal weekendstill bookable in Hays on Fort Hays State University homecoming weekend
Homecoming has no shared date, so the season spreads across autumn rather than concentrating on one weekend the way spring commencement does. That is good news for anyone booking: the pressure is local to one town on one weekend, and the ring towns around it are usually still selling ordinary rooms.
Homecoming hotels near campus, and where to look when they are gone
Alumni book on the fixture, not the calendar. When the opponent is announced the rooms nearest the stadium go first, and they go earlier than an ordinary autumn weekend would suggest.
Every campus guide below lists the properties we have checked, the booking rules those properties publish, and the surrounding towns with real drive times. We have mapped 59 ring towns around these 21 campuses.
- Walk to the stadium. The handful of hotels inside the campus ring, and what each one asks for on a home game weekend.
- Short drive, ordinary price. Ring towns with the real driving time, because a room twenty minutes out is often still selling at a normal autumn rate.
- The date itself. Taken from the university's athletics or alumni page, with the day we read it, so you can check our work before you book.
Homecoming, reunion weekend and family weekend
Universities use different names for the autumn weekend that brings people back, and some run more than one. Homecoming is usually the football weekend with a parade and alumni events; reunion weekend is often organised by class year and can sit in spring instead; family weekend is for current students' parents and is a separate date again. They squeeze the same small pool of rooms, so we treat each one on its own page with its own verified date rather than folding them together.
Every date here comes from the university's own athletics or alumni page, with the day we read it. How we verify · Ceremony dates · All campuses
Tell us your university and we will watch its homecoming
We have verified homecoming for 21 campuses so far. Name any university, covered or not, and we will email you once when its next homecoming date is published and checked.
One email per campus, sent only once the date is confirmed against the university's own page. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Frequently asked questions
When is homecoming?
There is no shared date. Every university picks its own homecoming weekend, and across the 21 campuses we have verified they run from late September to early November. Most are tied to a home football game, so the date moves with the schedule and is usually confirmed only a few months ahead. We take each one from the university's own athletics or alumni page and date-stamp it.
Is homecoming harder to book than graduation weekend?
It can be. Homecoming brings back decades of alumni rather than one graduating class, and it usually lands on a home football weekend, so the town absorbs two events at once. At Florida A&M we measured homecoming against ordinary weekends in the same town and found roughly 40% of the normal room supply still bookable, which is a sharper squeeze than the median spring commencement we have measured. That is one campus, and we say so rather than generalising from it.
How far ahead should I book a homecoming hotel?
Earlier than you would for an ordinary autumn weekend, and earlier still if the university announces the opponent early, because alumni book on the fixture rather than the date. The rooms nearest campus go first, and at many of these towns the next honest option is a ring town twenty to sixty minutes out. Our campus guides list those towns with real drive times.
Do you cover homecoming everywhere?
We publish a verified homecoming guide for 21 campuses across 17 states, and we add more as we check them. The search above is not limited to that list: type any university, anywhere, and you will get a live availability map for the dates you choose. What we will not do is state a homecoming date we have not read on the university's own page.