Volleyball

How to Save Money on Club Volleyball Tournament Travel

Published: 2026-10-20

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Travel is where club volleyball gets expensive, and most of it can be trimmed without missing a match. One parent estimated tournament travel at $1,000 to $3,000 a weekend depending on distance, and another put her total at about $18,000 per season for club costs, uniforms, and travel (Missouri Business Alert).

The tips below come from volleyball parents who have done the travel themselves. Before using any of them, check one thing first: your event's housing rules.

The five moves that save the most

If you do nothing else, parents rank these highest:

Don't buy food at the venue. Packed food and hotel groceries beat convention-center prices every day of a tournament.
Put points on flights, loyalty numbers on hotels. Stay-to-play rules limit how you pay for rooms; flights are where rewards actually cash in.
Work the housing rules, don't fight them. Booking outside a required block can count against your team.
Share and drive. Split rooms and rentals, carpool, and skip the extra hotel night when you can drive in on day one.
Cap the extras before the season starts. One merch item per season, a set gift budget, and not every family member at every trip.

Start with the housing rules

Many big tournaments are "stay to play" events: your team must book a set number of rooms in the official hotel block to keep its spot. Florida Region, for example, requires a minimum of 4 room nights per team per day of the event—12 room nights for a 3-day tournament. Booking incorrectly can count against your team, so read your event's housing page before you book anything.

Exemptions differ by organization. USA Volleyball’s housing program allows a limited number of rooms booked entirely on points, but simply earning points does not qualify (USA Volleyball). Florida Region allows exemptions for full-points stays, teams whose practice facility is within 75 miles of the venue, and players staying with friends or family within 75 miles (Florida Region). Always confirm an exemption with the event’s housing company before you book.

The stay-to-play playbook

Book inside the block, early. The best hotels near the venue go first, and your team's quota is counted against the block rate.
Ask about exemptions before you book — in writing. Rules differ by organization. Florida Region exempts a stay booked entirely on points, a team whose practice facility is within 75 miles of the venue, a player staying with family who live within 75 miles, and rooms booked at a military or government rate (Florida Region). Other events may not offer any of these.
Tell your housing company if you find a problem rate. Florida's housing partner, Team Travel Source, guarantees the lowest group rates available to the public, and teams can ask about preferred hotels not on the approved list — your event's partner may do the same.
Use a team travel agent if your club has one. Florida Region explicitly allows team and club travel agents to book rooms in the system, which is why several parents in the group have become travel agents themselves—the commissions and rates help offset their own families' travel. If someone offers you this route, know they may earn from it.

Cut the food bill

Food is the easiest place to save, and parents agree on the first rule: avoid buying meals at the venue.

Pack from home. Bring snacks and easy meals — several parents pack a whole suitcase of just food — and keep the day's food in your player's backpack. Check the venue's rules first, since some convention centers ban coolers (USA Volleyball).
Order groceries to the hotel. Parents name Walmart delivery most often: schedule it for when you arrive, so breakfast, lunch, and drinks are waiting. Flying in? Bring a cooler tote as your personal item — it doubles as your in-room fridge backup — and have the grocery order delivered when you land. Pre-made Trader Joe's dinners, microwaved in the room, are another staple.
Cook in the room. The kit parents actually travel with: an electric skillet, a slow cooker or InstaPot, a compact air fryer, a breakfast-sandwich maker, an electric kettle, and a mini coffee maker for hotels that charge for coffee. One parent runs a crock pot in the hotel lobby and invites other team families to join. Check your hotel's policy before you plug anything in.
Choose hotels with free breakfast when your event's rules allow it — with one catch parents warn about: breakfast service often starts too late for the earliest matches, so prep grab-and-go breakfasts at home as a backup. Drury Inn gets named specifically — breakfast and an evening supper are included in the rate — as do budget Choice Hotels properties, which almost always include breakfast.
Look for app deals. DoorDash's Deals section (one parent got about $50 of food for $20 at Nationals) and receipt-scanning apps like Fetch, Upside, and Receipt Hog turn everyday spending into gift cards that fund the next trip.

Save on lodging within the rules

At a stay-to-play event, book inside the official block and save in other ways. At events without that rule, you have more options.

Share a room or suite with another team family and split the cost.
Add your loyalty number to every hotel booking, and ask whether a block booking earns points, since some hotel programs limit points on group or third-party rates.
Consider a vacation rental with a kitchen and laundry, but only at events that don't require the team block. Parents name Airbnb and VRBO; splitting one with another family cuts the cost further. Home Exchange is the extreme version — members swap homes and stay free.
Book hotels through a cash-back portal when the rules allow it. One parent credits Capital One Shopping with about $2,400 in gift cards over two club seasons.
Stay walkable to the venue when you can. Saving on parking and rides can offset a slightly higher room rate. For the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, parents name the Hilton (attached), the Hyatt Regency (connected by walkway), the Rosen Center (across the street), and Vista Cay condos (walkable, with full kitchens, laundry, and a Publix nearby).

Flights, driving, and points

Points work best on flights, since stay-to-play rules often limit how you can pay for team hotels.

The cards parents actually use

Parents route all their monthly bills through one rewards card and pay it off in full. The setups named again and again:

Southwest Rapid Rewards cards + the Companion Pass — the most-recommended combination in the group; the player flies free with the pass holder. Parents watch for Southwest promotions — one earned 50,000 points from a five-day promotion, enough for at least one tournament's flights.
Chase Sapphire Preferred / Reserve — parents transfer points to Hyatt and call it the best redemption value going.
Capital One Venture X, Marriott Bonvoy Visa, and Amex Hilton cards — each includes annual free nights or credits that offset the annual fee.
Delta SkyMiles Amex and the Alaska Airlines card — each includes an annual companion fare. Alaska's gets used for PNQ in Spokane; Delta's for Triple Crown in Kansas City.
United MileagePlus / United Club cards — some put everything on mileage cards and earn roughly eight free flights a year; the Club card's lounge access doubles as a food saving, since they eat before the flight.
Bilt — a newer mention; parents transfer its points to Hyatt and Southwest.

Parents who do this well credit the same teachers: the Points Talk Squad, Frequent Miler, 10xTravel and Thrifty Traveler podcasts and sites. Two rules they repeat: hunt the sign-up bonuses — that's where the points actually come from, and timing a new card around club-fee payments makes the minimum spend painless — and check the issuer's current terms, because offers change often.

Only use rewards cards if you pay the balance in full each month. Interest charges quickly wipe out any points you earn.

Driving, airports and shared rides

Drive when the distance allows. Some parents drive in on the first morning to save a night, but check first: some national events require teams to check in the day before play, and stay-to-play events set minimum room nights.
Check the airport one city over. For Reno tournaments, parents fly into Sacramento and drive the last two hours when it's cheaper or the flight times are better — and several drive Eugene to Reno outright, calling it fine in April with good tires.
Share rides at the venue. Carpool with other families, or split rideshares and rotate who pays — at the Northern Lights tournament in Minneapolis, parents schedule Ubers the night before so there's no morning scramble.

This is general information, not financial advice. Choose cards based on your own finances.

Trim the extras

Smaller costs add up over a full season, so set rules early.

Take turns attending. Alternating which parent goes, and leaving siblings home for some trips, cuts admission, food, and impulse spending at once.
Set a merch limit. Many families buy one tournament shirt or hoodie per season — parents price a single tournament sweatshirt at $75–100 — and the player pays for anything extra, which, as one parent put it, is amazing for clarifying what she actually needs. Check the venue's discount box first: perfectly good shirts from earlier events often go for half price.
Plan team gifts ahead. Agreeing on gifts in advance keeps team outings from turning into unplanned shopping trips. One parent bases Christmas gifts on tournament locations — gift cards for where the team will travel — so "team bonding" shopping isn't an added expense, and grandparents give tournament-spending vouchers instead of more gear.

What a stacked weekend looks like

No single tip transforms the bill; the savings come from stacking. One fly-to weekend, using only figures parents in the group reported:

Groceries delivered and food packed instead of venue meals — the DoorDash deal example alone turned a $50 meal into $20
A companion fare or points covering the player's flight — $0 for her ticket on the Southwest and Delta setups parents describe
Skipping the tournament sweatshirt — $75–100 not spent
Points earned on the required block hotel, banked toward the next trip — even when you can't spend points on the room itself

Multiply that pattern across a season of three to five travel weekends, and it's the difference between travel being the second club fee and travel being manageable.

Before you book

Read the event's housing page and confirm whether it is stay-to-play
Ask your club director how the team block works, and who your housing partner is
Confirm any exemption (points, family nearby, military/government rate) in writing before booking
Check the venue's food and cooler rules
Add your loyalty numbers to every booking
Schedule the grocery delivery and the first morning's ride before you travel
Set the season's merch and extras budget with your player