How to choose a team hotel for a youth sports tournament

Short answer: Shortlist hotels the tournament allows, compare each one by drive and walk time to every venue the team plays at (not just the first game), ask families privately which hotels work and what they can spend, count rooms from the families who are definitely coming, then pick, publish clear booking instructions with a deadline, and track who has booked.

Start with the rules

Check whether the tournament has a stay-to-play rule. If it does, your shortlist is its partner hotels, and families must book through its link.
Note the room-block deadline and the penalty for booking elsewhere before you share anything with families.

Compare by every venue, not one

List every rink, field or court on the schedule, including the playoff venue. Then check each hotel’s drive time to all of them.
Add up the driving for all the confirmed games. A hotel 5 minutes from Friday’s game can be 25 minutes from Sunday’s early one.
Look for walkable options. Twenty minutes or less on foot means no parking and no one stuck driving between games.
Check what families care about: breakfast, a pool for the kids, free parking, a kitchenette for long weekends.

Ask families privately

Ask three things: are you coming, which nights, and how many rooms. Count rooms from the families who said yes, not the maybes.
Ask for a budget range in private. The manager only needs to know how many families a hotel is over budget for, never which ones.
Ask each family which shortlisted hotels work for them. The hotel that works for the most families, with the least driving, is usually the answer.

Decide and publish

Make the call by a date everyone knows. A slow decision costs rooms when blocks fill up.
Publish one message with the hotel, the booking link, any group or block code, and the book-by date.
Track who has booked, and remind only those who haven’t. A copy-and-paste reminder for the team chat saves an evening of messages.
If plans change, reopen the decision openly and tell families to check their booking.