Students On Tour
Frequently Asked Questions
(800) 2 TOUR DC
We are asked hundreds of questions, of course, but some seem to repeat themselves often, and are included here. Don't forget - you can always call us on our teacher's toll-free hotline. We would love to talk to you.
Please click on any of the following questions or simply scroll down through this page to see them all:
- What is the organizer's role?
- If I am the organizer do I have to pay to be on the trip?
- When do I call to book my trip?
- How many participants are needed to make up a trip?
- How many people can we bring on tour?
- Who can we bring on tour?
- Should we mix grade levels?
- When should we travel?
- What type of hotels does Students On Tour use?
- How many people are in each room at the hotel?
- How are payments made?
- Are there behavior guidelines, dress codes, and the like on tour?
- Does Students On Tour provide any pre-trip educational support materials?
- What is the organizer's role?
- Every trip needs an organizer.This person is most often a teacher or administrator, but can also be another school staff person or a volunteer parent. The organizer is our contact with the group. Occasionally there are two organizers (for example, two eighth grade teachers) but even then we would prefer that one be made the "primary" organizer, so we don't have to track down more than one person every time a decision is to be made. It is the organizer who works out with us details concerning exactly what program is to be offered, the trip dates, etc. Depending on the size of your group the organizer will then appoint a number of chaperones. These chaperones can be teachers, school staff, or parents. Each chaperone will likely have primary responsibility for a number of students. We have all kinds of advice for you on this subject. Give us a call.
- Organizer's promote the trip. Students On Tour provides you with customized Itineraries and Registration forms, support materials including our award winning video (for classroom use and parent information night), and plenty of advice.
- Organizers and chaperones are not responsible for collecting money. Students On Tour accounting department works directly with each family. Remember, and this is important, as far as we know Students On Tour and its sister company, are the only student tour providers in the United States that use a client trust account administered by an independent firm of Certified Public Accountants for the protection of your money. Other student tour providers have trust accounts to be sure, but they are self-administered. In other words the tour provider can access your money. They're not supposed to, of course, but they can. Students On Tour can't. Your money is safely in the hands of the independent CPA's who pay the bills and only pays Students On Tour after your trip is over.
- Students On Tour trip leaders are with your group 24 hours a day from the time you arrive at your first destination until you are on your way home. Students On Tour trip leaders take care of all arrangements, provide on-going commentary, and in general run the trip. The organizer helps if decisions need to be made and, of course, with supervision and discipline. Students On Tour nighttime hall staff watch over your group at our hotels in Williamsburg, Washington, and New York.
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- If I am the organizer do I have to pay to be on the trip?
- No. As long as you have at least ten paying participants, your own participation would be free. Depending on how many paying participants you do have, you will be able to offer free trips to chaperones. We use a formula, actually two formulas, for calculating the number of "free" spots. You don't actually pick a formula, we simply apply whichever works out best for you once we know exactly how many paid participants there will be. Either one person goes free for every ten paying participants (formula one) or one person goes free for every fifteen paying participants and we establish a scholarship fund in the amount of $25 for every paying participant to be used as the organizer sees fit (formula two). You can even split "free" spots if you wish and give chaperones partially paid trips.
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- When do I call to book my trip?
- Most trips will be booked almost one year in advance. Organizers will call well before school lets out for summer to book their group for the following spring. The next most popular booking period is the first few weeks that school is back in the fall, again to book groups for the upcoming spring. Very few organizers will call after the first part of November to plan a trip for the upcoming spring, although it can be done.
- Because Students On Tour has a client trust account administered by an independent firm of Certified Public Accountants we are seeing more and more schools book trips two and even three years in advance. Organizers and parents know the money is safe so they are comfortable paying deposits and making payments that far in advance. Very small monthly payments can be worked out for these trips booked for two or more years away.
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- How many participants are needed to make up a trip?
- Your group will either "stand alone" or be a "matched" group. If you are flying to the east coast and have 35 or more paying participants your group will stand alone. If you are coming to the east coast by motorcoach and have 40 or more paying participants your group will also stand alone. If you expect fewer than these numbers of paying participants then we will match you with another group and you will tour together. Many of our groups are matched groups! Perhaps a third of all our tour groups are made up of students from more than one school.
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- How many people can we bring on tour?
- There is no upper limit. We have worked with groups of over 450 participants and very routinely work with groups of well over 200 participants. These groups are divided into motorcoach sized "teams" and each team has its own Students On Tour trip leader.
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- Who can we bring on tour?
- That's pretty much up to you. The great majority of our schools allow students and parents, as well as an occasional grandparent. A few restrict the trip to students and teachers. A very few open the trip up to members of the community.
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- Should we mix grade levels?
- No, you shouldn't, but you might choose to. Many of our schools have too few students in a particular grade to have a "stand alone" group. In these cases Students On Tour would prefer that you let us match you with another school. However, if for one reason or the other you don't want to match then you might combine two grades. For example, you might combine your fifth and sixth grades, your seventh and eighth grades, or your eleventh and twelfth grades. If you do this you would then go on to offer the trip every second year.
- Keep in mind that it would be to Students On Tour financial advantage in your first year to have you combine grades. It's simple - more students in the first year. But we would rather have you bring fewer students and match because we know that your program will grow and we would rather see you have the continuity of an every year program. No matter which you choose we'll give you a great trip.
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- When should we travel?
- The overwhelming majority of schools participate in our programs during regular school time. The two most popular months are April and May, although March is a close third. More schools every year are realizing the advantages of pre-season and are traveling in January, February, and very early March. During these times there are virtually NO lines and NO crowds. Of course the weather is a factor, but much of what we do is indoors and if there are no lines then that takes care of much of that problem. Only about ten percent of schools travel during spring break or after school lets out for the summer.
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- What types of hotels does Students On Tour use?
- In Washington, D.C. Students On Tour uses
several primary hotels with name brands such as Hyatt, Hilton, etc. Most
of our hotels are within the Metropolitan Washington Beltway.
- In Williamsburg and New York City Students On Tour uses either the Embassy Suites or Quality Suites as primary hotels.
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- How many people are in each room at the hotel?
- Generally, either two adults or four students are accommodated in each room. Every room will have two large beds, except there might be only a single king sized bed if the room is being used by a married couple. For purposes of room assignments "free" organizers and other chaperones are accommodated just like paying adults, two people per room. There is a possibility that a third person might be put into an adult room, or a fifth person into a student room, using a rollaway bed, if numbers of participants do not divide evenly by twos or fours. The organizer makes rooming assignments.
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- How are payments made?
- Payments are made directly to Students On Tour. Except for the deposit, which is never more than ten percent of the tour price, the payments are made payable directly to Students On Tour Client Trust Account, an FDIC insured client trust account administered by an independent firm of Certified Public Accountants (CPA's) (in California, all payments, including the deposit, go directly to Students On Tour Client Trust).
- Normally a deposit is first paid, and then ninety days before the trip and then again sixty days before the trip two approximately equal payments are made to fully pay the trip.
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- Are there behavior guidelines, dress codes, and the like on tour?
- Yes. These are spelled out in our Tour Registration and Medical Release forms, which are sent to you along with detailed trip itineraries when you book a tour. It is all common sense stuff.
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- Does Students On Tour provide any pre-trip educational support materials?
- Absolutely. A Students On Tour Explorer Workbook with Journal pages will be sent for each participating student on your tour.
