Finding a hotel room within walking distance of campus on Parents Weekend is not for the faint of heart.
Local inns, hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts fill to maximum capacity months in advance while waitlists wrack up the names of hopefuls. As a result, some visiting parents must seek accommodation as far away as Bath and Freeport.
Parents were presented with a new option this year, however, and at least some avoided far-flung lodgings by finding rooms at The Inn at Brunswick Station. The inn, which opened in June, sits only one block North of campus on Maine Street and was fully booked for Parents Weekend (as well as Commencement next spring) months ago.
The inn features 52 rooms, ranging in price from $189 a night for a double queen guest room to $244 for a king suite guest room.
According to Lisa Barratta, the director of food and beverage at the inn, the town has welcomed the new establishment.
"Since the day we opened the door, the town of Brunswick embraced us," she said. "Bowdoin has been delightful."
Barratta stated that, in spite of its initial success, she does not see the inn as competition for the existing hotels, bed and breakfasts and inns in the Brunswick area.
"It is not so much about competition, as it has become a nice complement with what was already going in Brunswick and Freeport," Barratta said. "There certainly was obviously a need for it on these heavy weekends, because everyone books out."
The Brunswick Inn, a smaller establishment a quarter of a mile from campus on Park Row, ranges in price from $145 a night for a room with a double bed to $260 for a garden cottage.
"I stayed at the Inn at Brunswick Station the night before I moved in," Tory Rusch '15 said.
"The Bowdoin theme and polar bear décor made me so excited for my upcoming experience. I would definitely stay there again as both a student and an alumna," she added.