It's certainly something that is widespread. I picked 10 hotels in Orlando. Using Expedia, I checked their age requirements:

Minimum check-in age - 18:
Embassy Suites Lake Buena Vista
Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress
Fairfield Inn Lake Buena Vista
DoubleTree Suites Lake Buena Vista

Minimum check-in age - 21:
Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista
Holiday Inn Disney Springs
B Resort and Spa
Courtyard at Vista Centre
Orlando World Center Marriott

No Information Listed:
Hilton Garden Inn Lake Buena Vista

Expedia is a good place to get information on age restrictions. Once you select a hotel, scroll down (way down) to the Policies section. Most hotels will have a minimum age requirement listed.

It's a bit of a pain to have to look up each hotel. But, it'll be much easier than calling every hotel.

FYI: Although it's good source of information, I wouldn't recommend booking thought an online travel agency (OTA) like Expedia. Any changes will have to be made through Expedia, which can be dicey if you get a bad customer service representative. If you book directly on the official hotel website, you can call the hotel directly to make changes or discuss the reservation.

I can't read the story because it requires a sign-in. Perhaps the author mentioned it, but the likelihood that the hotel will loose this type of lawsuit is slim to none.

As long as there isn't a local law that says hotels must accept 18-21 year-old guests, there's nothing illegal happening. Any business can legally discriminate against anyone as long as it's not for a protected class. Age is only a protected class for people 40 and older. (Plus, I think that only covers employment.)

Lots of businesses have age restrictions that don't have anything to do with alcohol. Car rental companies have had 25+ requirements for decades. And on the opposite side, there are tons of apartment complexes and mobile home parks that only allow people 55+.

It is definitely a US thing. She is trying to book esp. in Wrightsville Beach area of NC (she is not local) and most places have age restrictions. She doesn't want to go the hostel route because she has some anxiety issues and a private room helps with that. She is looking into AirBnBs now. She has a credit card and will be booking and paying in her own name.

I think restrictions are more common in "party areas" like Florida or the NC beaches. My niece is the opposite of the party type but you can't tell that from her age.

This is not true. I had been Marriott Platinum for 3 years before turning 25, mostly business stays in the U.S. but also some leisure stays in the U.S. and about 5 other countries. Mostly mainline Marriott hotels in large cities. My first years out of undergrad were my heaviest travel years, actually.

Also had Hilton and Hyatt mattress runs in there when the promos were lucrative enough to pull me away from Marriott. Without my U25 nights, I wouldn't be LT Titanium today.

I also had quite a few trips in college (under 21) to various motel brands and rarely ran across issues with being under 21. Credit card in my name may have helped - not sure a cash payer would have been received as well or not.

That makes sense. Especially in "party" areas. You'd be surprised how many hostels have private rooms. AirBnB is a great idea too :tu:

Getting into travel while in college -- including with hotel rooms booked under the name of the college student -- and then going on into employer-covered travel as a 20-25 year-old has indeed been quite typical in the US. At many a place, it's not been unusual for people to recruit 20-25 year olds to help take up a bunch of the grunt travel stuff. And given how few complaints we would come across about hotel stays for people that age but how many we would hear about for car rentals, it's been pretty clear to me that most hotels in the US don't generally give a problem to 20-25 year olds with a bank card in their name with enough available funds on it for the stay + incidental charges.

Old enough to be in the US military but not old enough to stay in a hotel without a much older adult? Not commonly an issue in the US nowadays unless there is some concerns about parties or potentially illegal activity.

That was definitely our company: the younger people were sent on travel assignments all the time because (1) they were usually perfectly fine with it and (2) the older people usually didn't want that lifestyle anymore.

Only thing that required using the company card and official company contracts was rental cars. When I was 21 I could only rent from Hertz and National because those were our two contracts. No big deal since they were everywhere. Our Hertz contract allowed for leisure rentals anywhere in the world, but the National one did not. For hotels, we had a corp code that worked well with Marriott, but we were allowed to book AAA or other rates if they were advantageous.

I am happy to chaperone her!

When I was in college (and under 21), I stayed at the "Choice Hotels" brands a couple times as they allowed 18+ year olds to stay there. This was also well over 10 years ago so I don't know how or if policies have changed.

There was a fairly publicized incident in my city about a decade ago when an upscale hotel refused to allow an under-21 military couple to check in for their honeymoon. They had to do damage control by isuing a public apology and offering a free stay.

While some hotels, particularly in resort areas, may still have such a policy, I think it's relatively rare. The safest thing would be to call in advance and confirm. I also second the youth hostel suggestion, many of them these days have private rooms as well.

Edit: under 21, not 18

I always find it a bit amusing that a 22-24 year old can fly a $150 million F-22 Raptor (and since the F-22 has no dual-seat trainer, one's very first flight in an F-22 is a solo flight) but that same 22-24 year old could have issues getting a rental car.

Tell that to Sheraton.

Last year I was admitted to the hospital unexpectedly. My sis-in-law called the closest hotel, a Sheraton, explained the situation to the manager and made a prepaid reservation for my son, who was one month short of 21 at the time. When he went to check in, they jerked him around, refused to honor the reservation, for 2 hours before finally agreeing to phone my sis-in-law and confirm the prepaid stay with her. Next morning she raised holy hell with the manager who had promised her everything was all set for my son to stay there.

Sheraton later ended up comping the hotel stay to avoid losing a high status paying customer, but it was a miserable experience for my son.