Apr 21, 2025 9:35:42 AM

Tips for a Stress-Free Hotel Stay with Your Students

Gearing up for your educational tour is an exciting time, however, we understand that there’s also a lot to think about to ensure everything runs smoothly. This guide is designed to help you navigate the complexities of managing student behaviour, setting clear expectations, and maintaining a secure environment during hotel stays. With these helpful tips, you can ensure that students stay in their assigned rooms after lights out, respect the hotel and other guests, and maintain an established evening routine — meaning you can get a good night's rest too!

What to expect when it comes to hotels, night security, and setting evening expectations for students during your educational trip.

Pre-Trip Discussions

Before you even set off on your trip, have a thorough discussion with the students about their responsibilities. Cover aspects like behaviour, curfew times, room sharing, and respecting hotel property, staff, and other guests. Share these guidelines with chaperones to ensure all responsible adults are aligned and can work as a team. Reiterate these points at a pre-trip meeting with parents present, where they can help support this information. This meeting is also a great opportunity for participants to ask questions and clarify any uncertainties ahead of the tour.

Arrival Briefing

At Brightspark, our Tour Directors are here to support you and ensure everyone has an enjoyable trip. On your first day, your Tour Director will meet with you to learn about your group's specific needs and established rules for student conduct. Consider the following ahead of your tour and be prepared to share your expectations:

What time students should be in their rooms
What time students are expected to be quiet
What time you would like a wake-up call (if applicable to the hotel)
If students are allowed to mingle in other rooms

Daily Reminders

While students may be buzzing with excitement upon arrival, it's important to regularly remind them of the expectations, especially before returning to the hotel each night. If you are transporting back to the hotel by bus in the evening, this is a great opportunity to have this discussion. An evening re-group before everyone disperses to their rooms is helpful to not only remind them of evening expectations like curfew, lights out, and quiet time, but also to go over the next day's activities, the weather forecast, and any specific instructions. This ensures students have the right attire planned and can pack any essentials that evening to reduce morning chaos!

Have the students repeat the morning meeting time and any other important details back to you to ensure they understand. By establishing a good evening routine and nightly re-group, you can ensure each day kicks off on a good foot with everyone well-rested, prepared, and on schedule.

Room Assignments and Supervision

Room assignments and supervision are crucial for a smooth stay. As you plan your trip, keep these tips in mind:

Gender-Specific Floors: Typically, we aim to keep groups on one floor, however sometimes groups are split. In these cases, we aim to split by gender across different floors, and recommend teachers opt to have male chaperones on the boys' floor and female chaperones on the girls' floor.
Check-In: Upon check-in, have students do a thorough check of their rooms so you know if any require maintenance or if switches are needed to avoid late night or early morning issues. It’s also a good idea to have them check to make sure connecting doors in rooms (if present) are locked.
Bathroom Schedule: Have students plan a bathroom and shower schedule to avoid delays and tension. For example, two students can shower at night and two in the morning. Have them decide who goes first the evening before.
Delegate Responsibilities: Share the responsibility of night checks among teachers and chaperones to ensure everyone gets some rest.
Use Technology: Consider using group messaging apps to quickly communicate with other teachers and chaperones without having to leave your room.

Night Security: Your Peace of Mind

We know that a big concern for teachers is keeping students safe and secure at night. There are a few key ways to ensure peace of mind for everyone:

Room Checks: Teachers should conduct a student room check before tucking in for the night. Teacher Hack: Some teachers find it helpful to tape doors once students are in for the night. This way, it’s easy to see if a door has been opened!
Hotel Staff Cooperation: Hotel staff are also accustomed to hosting school groups and are supportive in maintaining a safe environment. Always communicate with the staff so they have an understanding of your group’s rules.

For groups with night security on tour (program dependent), you can rest assured our night security team is well-versed in working with school groups:

Experienced Security Guards: They are trained to handle emergencies and misbehaviour and will only knock on a teacher's door if absolutely necessary.
Introducing Security: The Tour Director will meet with the security agent at 10 p.m. when they typically arrive, and will go over all the rules. They will then bring security to the correct floor and introduce them to the teachers. Although it’s not necessary, some teachers find it helpful to introduce the security guard to the students, so they know who to expect to see if there's an issue.
Hallway Patrol: Security will walk the halls and knock on rooms to give warnings for noise levels and document everything they observe. That documentation will be given to the teachers in the morning.

Managing Student Behaviour

After a long day of fun activities, students will often be energized and excited. We have some strategies that can help maintain order:

Respectful Behaviour: Encourage students to be mindful that the hotel is a shared space. Remind them to be quiet in the halls and in their rooms.
Mingling Time: Allowing students some time to socialize before bedtime can reduce the urge to mingle late at night.
Incentives: If your group signed up for this activity, our Tour Directors will run a game called "The Adventure" to incentivize good behaviour. Points are awarded to the best-behaved groups, making it fun for students to follow the rules. Similarly, this game can be leveraged to discourage negative behaviour by deducting points or game privileges. Even if your group does not participate in this program, consider creating your own incentivization system/game to promote good behaviour.
Optional Pre-Bedtime Activities: Plan structured activities in the evening to help students wind down. This could include a group reflection on the day's activities or a quiet game.
Phone Collection: For teachers who collect phones at night, have students check in with their parents before collection. Make sure the chargers are attached to the devices so you can plug them in and check that phones are switched off to avoid disturbances during the night.