Decide early whether your fest will provide beds at all. If it will, offer a shared room for a fixed set of nights, either free or priced. If it won't, tell outstation teams plainly to book their own rooms nearby. The sources disagree on which route works. Tryst 2025 at IIT Delhi offered no accommodation to outstation participants and pointed visitors to on-campus food outlets instead [1]. Udghosh at IIT Kanpur, Trishna at IBS Hyderabad, Amity and Mood Indigo at IIT Bombay all offered rooms in some form [2][3][4][5]. Whichever route you pick, state it on the registration page, along with the dates, the cost and the documents a guest must bring.
Step 1: Choose a model
The research shows four models.
| Model | Example | What the guest pays |
|---|---|---|
| Free beds for registered participants | IIT Kharagpur's TechSym 2014 gave registered student attendees free hostel beds in a multi-bed dormitory, with meals at the venue [6] | Nothing extra |
| Paid shared rooms for a fixed stay | Trishna 2K23 charged INR 500 for two nights and three days, with INR 250 per extra day, food not included [3] | INR 500 base, INR 250 per extra day |
| Per-night hostel rate | Amity's 2014 Leadership Festival charged Rs 250 per participant per night, payable in cash at reception [4] | Rs 250 per night |
| Point to outside hotels | Udghosh told arrivals before the 11th to book hotels outside the campus [2] | Hotel rate, paid directly |
Udghosh required shared rooms only [2]. Mood Indigo gave on-campus rooms on a first-come, first-served basis for a nominal charge, because demand exceeded the space available [5]. If you expect more outstation teams than beds, say so before registration opens. Telling people afterwards causes far more trouble.
Step 2: Set the dates and the cutoff
Guests need to know the first and last night they are covered. Udghosh offered free accommodation and meals only from the evening of the 11th, so earlier arrivals had to book outside [2]. Trishna asked accommodation-seekers to report at a set time, and its hostels ran from 6 am to 11:15 pm [3]. Amity's 2014 guidelines set a 10 pm entry deadline for hostels [4].
The AIU National Youth Festival guidelines are a useful model because they name the exact window: board and free lodging from the night before the fest until the morning after the valedictory [7]. Write your window the same way. Phrases like "during the fest" leave guests guessing about the night before a prelim and the night after prize distribution.
Step 3: Price it and collect the money
Decide whether accommodation sits inside the registration fee or is billed separately. Udghosh charged INR 1500 plus a refundable INR 200 security deposit. The fee applied even to participants who skipped accommodation and food [2]. KGEC's DEVIC 2017 conference charged Rs 500 per night for shared A/C double rooms, paid with the registration fee in a single transfer. It said the registration fee excluded accommodation [8]. Pick one approach and state it in a single sentence on the page.
Here is a hypothetical to check your numbers. Say 40 outstation participants take a Rs 250 bed for 2 nights. That is 40 x 250 x 2 = Rs 20,000 in bed charges. Add linen, cleaning and staff on top. Count these costs with the rest of your budget, as in our guide on how to make a budget for a college fest, and hold back a contingency.
If you refund a deposit, write the conditions down. Udghosh asked for bank details so the deposit could be returned [2].
Step 4: Collect documents at registration
Ask for documents when people register, not at the gate. The lists differ by fest, but they overlap:
- Udghosh asked for a registration form, a NOC, payment proof, two photographs, a college ID and bank details for the deposit refund, all as hard copies [2].
- Trishna asked participants to carry both a college ID and a government ID such as Aadhaar or PAN [3].
- Amity asked for a fee receipt, a parent-institution ID, two passport photos and a participation letter [4].
Pick the shortest list that still lets you check identity and take payment. Hard copies slow arrival, so collect scans where you can and ask for originals only where the rule demands them. For checking college IDs at the gate, our post on handling registrations from other colleges covers the usual pattern.
Step 5: Set house rules and damage terms
Write the rules before guests arrive. Amity's 2014 guidelines said the university could allot hostel rooms, but no participant could demand one. That protects you when rooms run out [4]. The same guidelines charged for damage to hostel property at three times the cost from the individual responsible, or ten times collectively if the culprit was unidentified [4]. Those are 2014 terms, so treat them as a pattern rather than a fee to copy. Your rules should name who pays, how the cost is worked out and how it is collected.
Plan check-in staff as carefully as you plan gates. Our post on checking in 2,000 people without long queues shows how to split the entry points.
Our view
Our view: give outstation teams a fixed-price shared room for a stated set of nights, plus a short list of nearby hotels, rather than promising beds you cannot guarantee. A fixed window and a clear price stop most disputes at the gate. The hotel list covers the guests you cannot house.
What this advice cannot tell you
Most of the sharpest examples are old: Amity in 2014, the IEEE events in 2014 and 2017, Mood Indigo in 2018 and Trishna in 2023. Check the current rules for your city, college and university before you copy a fee or a deadline. The research also includes a Quora answer that says TechFest lists partner hotels and hostels. A user wrote it, not an official source, so we have not relied on it. Unifesto's listed features cover tickets, registration questions, payments and check-in. They do not include room booking, so this post does not show how to run accommodation inside the app.
FAQ
Should we charge for accommodation or make it free?
Both work. Mood Indigo offered on-campus rooms for a nominal charge [5], while TechSym 2014 gave registered student attendees free beds in a dormitory [6]. Choose based on your budget, and state your choice on the registration page.
Can we refuse a room to a guest?
Yes, if your rules say so. Amity's guidelines said the university could allot rooms, but no participant could demand one [4].
What ID should outstation guests carry?
Trishna 2K23 asked for a college ID and a government ID such as Aadhaar or PAN [3]. Ask for the same documents in your own list, and state them on the registration page.
How far ahead should guests book?
The sources do not give a standard lead time. Set a registration deadline for accommodation that falls before the fest, and publish your arrival window so guests can plan travel around it.
Sources
- Tryst 2025: https://www.trystiitd.org/
- Hospitality: http://udghoshleague.org/Hospitality/
- Trishna 2K23 - The Official Management and Cultural Fest of IBS Hyderabad is live: https://unstop.com/college-fests/trishna-2k23-the-official-management-and-cultural-fest-of-ibs-hyderabad-icfai-business-school-ibs-hyderabad-75309
- Accommodation |: https://alfamity.wordpress.com/accommodation/
- Mood Indigo: Asia’s Largest Cultural Fest for College Students : Book Your Ride Across India Gozo Cabs: https://www.gozocabs.com/blog/mood-indigo-2018-iit-bombay/
- hosp accommodation: https://ewh.ieee.org/sb/kharagpur/iit/TechSym2014/hosp_accommodation.html
- www.amity.edu/unifest www.aiu.ac.in/youth-affairs: https://amity.edu/unifest/pdf/Nationals_General_Guidelines.pdf
- edu.ieee.org: https://edu.ieee.org/in-kgec/devic-2017/registration