High School Cheer Camps - Hotels

[Tealxblack25]

Hi there,

So even though the season is over for us - coaches never stop !

We are planning on sending the team to NCA Speed Camp this summer but instead of carpooling we are looking at staying at a hotel !

The biggest thing right now is ensuring the girls safety with chaperones etc.

A couple of the concerns that have risen are :

1. Food - Breakfast / Dinner * How will the girls get packed lunches for each day.

2. Transport - How will the girls get to and from the hotel to camp if the hotel is a couple miles away.

3. Hotels - How do we ensure safety of athletes in the hotels. How do we make sure kids are not sneaking out of their hotel rooms to run a muck or cause trouble in the middle of the night. (This was actually a question)
Even though I know my team is a bunch of sweet angels.. You just never know.

Thanks for any future info :)

-Hanna

 

[quitthedrama]

As far as meals go, most hotels have refrigerators. I would bring groceries for lunch (cold meats to make sandwiches, fruit, granola bars, etc.). Ask each athlete to bring an insulated lunch bag and zip loc bags so that you can pack bags of ice each morning. Choose a hotel that includes breakfast, and schedule team dinners. Charge each student a fee for the groceries/dinners or have them be responsible for their own.
Not sure what your budget is, but local school bus companies can transport for a fee. Otherwise, I assume you would need enough chaperones to shuttle the kids back and forth.
As far as behavior, require each student and their parent to sign a code of conduct. If violated, parent has to pick up athlete immediately and athlete is suspended/removed from team. Also make sure you have enough chaperones and do room checks every few hours (My CP went on a class trip and the chaperones put tape over the door at curfew).

 

[FamousxMindset]

Hi there,

So even though the season is over for us - coaches never stop !

We are planning on sending the team to NCA Speed Camp this summer but instead of carpooling we are looking at staying at a hotel !

The biggest thing right now is ensuring the girls safety with chaperones etc.

A couple of the concerns that have risen are :

1. Food - Breakfast / Dinner * How will the girls get packed lunches for each day.

2. Transport - How will the girls get to and from the hotel to camp if the hotel is a couple miles away.

3. Hotels - How do we ensure safety of athletes in the hotels. How do we make sure kids are not sneaking out of their hotel rooms to run a muck or cause trouble in the middle of the night. (This was actually a question)
Even though I know my team is a bunch of sweet angels.. You just never know.

Thanks for any future info :)

-Hanna

I have seen some programs tape toilet paper across the doors from the hallway after lights out to they'd be able to tell if anyone snuck out after curfew. I loved the idea lol.

 

[AScheer]

Hi there,

So even though the season is over for us - coaches never stop !

We are planning on sending the team to NCA Speed Camp this summer but instead of carpooling we are looking at staying at a hotel !

The biggest thing right now is ensuring the girls safety with chaperones etc.

A couple of the concerns that have risen are :

1. Food - Breakfast / Dinner * How will the girls get packed lunches for each day.

2. Transport - How will the girls get to and from the hotel to camp if the hotel is a couple miles away.

3. Hotels - How do we ensure safety of athletes in the hotels. How do we make sure kids are not sneaking out of their hotel rooms to run a muck or cause trouble in the middle of the night. (This was actually a question)
Even though I know my team is a bunch of sweet angels.. You just never know.

Thanks for any future info :)

-Hanna

We did hotel camps for years! A lot of planning work went into it, but myself and the kids much prefer hotels to dorms!

1. We always chose a hotel that had free breakfast. Not just continental breakfast, ones that had full on cooked free breakfast! Our camp was really close to a mall. The mall food court was our lunch stop everyday, that way we didn't have to hear complaints and everyone had their choice. Dinner was at a different restaurant every night. We budgeted $100 for meals for camp. Most girls didn't use their entire $100 and took home change. Most of the hotels we went to also had a managers reception in the evening that our kids would go to for snacks. If you can't go to a mall or back to the hotel for lunch, you could arrange for a mom to bring in lunch each day. You could do subway, pizza etc. We always tried to do a fun team activity one of the nights too.

2. Transport was our challenge. We ended up using parent chaperons. Kids weren't allowed to drive their selves outside of our county. Rental vans aren't allowed in our state. As soon as our team was chosen I would send an email with camp dates asking for camp chaperons. I listed what we expected and how many we needed. Then selected them from the responses. Only females were allowed for obvious reasons. Our school system requires them to pass a background & driving checks prior to going.

3. We chose hotels that had suites (ie bedroom/living room or multiple rooms.) One parent was in each room and this is why the multiple rooms was needed. In high school my coach let us have 4 girls to a room with no supervision... Angels or not I've lived that and wasn't going to let them be alone. My first camp I was really worried about bringing parents along to camp, but it worked beautifully. They do their own thing during the day while were at camp and then help during the other times. I always laid out the boundaries to them. I always made sure to select good parents, only once did we have a drama mama that tried to get them to talk bad about each other during car rides. If they are alone, taping them in works. We also put the fear of God into them. Have rules, break rules = punishment. Major issues = sent home from camp. Sent home from camp = off the team. Our go to hotels have been Embassy Suites and Residence Inns. I always booked hotels the day after tryouts, the hotels always booked quickly in the area we stayed. Feel free to PM if you need any specific information or have questions.

 

[Mom2Cheergirls]

Maybe look at an extend stay hotel they usually have multiple rooms and have full kitchen and are comparably priced when you take out the cost of meals. You could also build in team bonding by having different groups of girls be responsible for dinner each night.