Family Weekend may be only three days long, but local businesses can attest it is one of their busiest weekends of the year.

As floods of Eastern students’ family members wash over the area, hotels in Charleston and surrounding towns are often affected the most by the influx of visitors.

One of the biggest challenges for many parents and relatives of Eastern students coming to visit their son or daughter is finding a place to stay.

Don Hise, front desk manager of Comfort Inn in Charleston, said all 51 rooms of the hotel have been booked for Family Weekend 2011 for almost a year.

Brian Brewer, property manager of Unique Suites Hotel, said they have 36 confirmed guests and 30 to 35 reserved on a waiting list for Family Weekend. The hotel has a total of 77 rooms.

Jaimee Penbergast, front desk associate of Comfort Suites in Mattoon, said their hotel has been booked for Family Weekend 2011 for almost a year, too.

“People started making reservations three weeks after the event last year,” she said. “Around May is when people were hitting reservations hard. We sold out around then.”

While Penbergast said Family Weekend can become chaotic at times, the hotel usually handles the increased number of visitors well.

“We’ve been sold out before,” she said. “As long as they follow policy, we all get along great. It stays pretty low-key.”

Mary Doti, guest services associate at the Hampton Inn in Mattoon, said their reservation spots for this year’s Family Weekend filled up in November of 2010. She said that, as in previous years, she expects the hotel will need extra helping hands to accommodate guests throughout the weekend.

“It’s usually insane,” she said. “There are a lot of people coming in and coming out and requests being made. We try to fill them the best we can. There’s a lot of running round.”

Other businesses besides hotels are preparing for the increased number of people in the area as well.

Joe Wheeler, assistant manager at Positively 4th Street, said that despite the short time period of Family Weekend, it still proves to be financially profitable for them.

“Family Weekend is bigger than homecoming,” he said. “It’s one of our biggest weekends of the year.”

Wheeler said to prepare for Family Weekend, Positively 4th Street will have four to five racks of sweatshirts, T-shirts, sweatpants, hats and scarves as a part of their sidewalk sale.

He said in addition to their regular items, the store will have new designs and family-oriented clothing.

For every $50 of merchandise sold, Wheeler said Positively Fourth Street will give customers a free T-shirt.

Wheeler added that the family-specific items are the best sellers throughout the weekend.

“Our bigger sellers are the item that say ‘My son and daughter and money go to EIU,'” he said. “People love that type of thing, especially anything with mom or dad on it.”

After long days of activities, families may choose to eat off Eastern’s campus at the many eateries in town.

Therese Kincade, the owner of What’s Cookin’ Restaurant, said this will be her 32nd weekend working during Family Weekend. She said it consistently proves to be the restaurant’s busiest weekend of the year.

“We have plenty of help, and we order plenty of food,” she said. “People don’t mind waiting a little bit; they understand. It’s kind of fun. We feed a lot of people on Family Weekend.”

Despite the chaos, Kincade said she looks forward to seeing both new and familiar faces in her restaurant for Family Weekend.

“It’s one of those things where it’s like a festive atmosphere,” she said. “We’re ready for a good weekend.”

Sara Hall can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].