Urbana hotel cuts rates for students during finals
Dec 17, 2013, 10:15 PM
URBANA, Ill. (AP) – Can you put a price tag on silence?
The Illini Union Hotel at the University of Illinois is banking on it.
The 74-room hotel in Urbana is offering a special deal during final exams, hoping to woo stressed-out students who need to get away from their roommates and end-of-semester dormitory noise, according to a report (
http://bit.ly/1hgFjYe) in The (Champaign) News-Gazette.
The $45-per-night deal _ before taxes _ doesn’t include room service but comes with snacks and a gift card to a bowling alley.
The hotel’s website says rooms typically cost between $122 and $199 a night, although student rates start at $105 a night.
The package is aimed at “anybody who has a roommate that they can’t deal with or they can’t cooperate with to get some quiet time,” said hotel manager Wally Lotz.
“A lot of times it’s the parents who actually will call and make a reservation for the kids,” he said. “They might be aware of some diversions that they want to take out of the picture.”
So far about 10 students have booked rooms this year.
Hotel officials say they’ve had similar promotions for at least the past decade.
Senior Topher Williamson rented one of the rooms with three friends last year, saying it gave the four a chance to get away from the “crowds of stress and noise and tension that come from hundreds of students studying for finals.”
“It was good bonding _ and good studying,” he said.
The discounted rate ends Friday.
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Information from: The News-Gazette,
http://www.news-gazette.com
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
