The Portland National College Fair runs two sessions across 18 and 19 October 2026 at the Oregon Convention Center. An admissions team works both sessions on one hotel night and one Monday morning.
Two sessions in Hall D
NACAC lists session one for Sunday 18 October, 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Session two runs Monday 19 October, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Both sit in Hall D at 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard.
The two sessions hold 6.5 hours of floor time: 3.5 hours on the Sunday and 3 hours on the Monday.
Admission is free. NACAC puts each fair at 175 to 400 colleges and asks students to let admission representatives scan their barcode, which is how a college follows up after the fair.
The noon finish sets the return
The Monday session ends at 12:00 p.m. The venue's event record runs to 2026-10-19T12:00 and the organiser publishes the same hour.
The venue puts Portland International Airport eight miles from the building. Book the return from 2:00 p.m. onward, which covers the hall exit, the drive and the security line.
One night of rooms
A team that lands Sunday morning and leaves Monday afternoon holds one hotel night: 18 October. Three staff in three rooms make 3 room-nights.
A standard two-night corporate booking holds 6 room-nights across the same three rooms. The second night covers a Monday morning that the noon finish does not use. At a labelled example rate of $209 per room per night, one night costs $627 and two nights cost $1,254. The dropped night releases $627 to the travel line.
Fix the checkout hour in writing at booking. A property that holds bags after checkout lets the team leave luggage at the desk and collect it after the 12:00 p.m. close.
What the team should claim
The fair charges no registration fee. The travel line holds airfare, one hotel night, ground transport and meals.
The venue garage charges $15 for up to 18 hours and grants no in-and-out privilege. Event days carry a dynamic $15 to $25 rate at entry. Two entries, Sunday and Monday, fall between $30 and $50. The garage opens at 6:00 a.m., holds 800 spaces and prohibits overnight parking.
The venue counts 566 metered spaces within three blocks, and MAX light rail stops 300 times a day near the front door.
Wi-Fi is complimentary in the lobbies and meeting rooms. Basic service costs $12 per day and Business Class $50 per day for a connection elsewhere in the building.
Rooms and parking together come to $657 to $677 at those figures, before taxes and airfare.
A receipt rule that survives a noon finish
The building runs cashless. Parking booths and food outlets take credit cards, debit cards and touchless payment, so a cash float fails at the booth.
Issue each staff member a card for the trip. Collect the parking receipt at the booth on departure; the garage charges at entry and grants no in-and-out.
Hold the last 30 minutes of the Monday session for receipts. The team leaves Hall D for the airport and returns to no desk that day. Photograph each receipt before leaving the hall and file it from the phone.
A reverse ATM in the MLK Lobby, down the short hallway left of the welcome desk, swaps cash for a Visa card. It loads once and charges no fee, which covers a staff member who arrives with cash only.
Putting the rooms out to bid
Three rooms sit below the group threshold. The bookMyTeam how-it-works page puts group rates at 10 or more rooms per night, with some properties discounting from 5. An admissions office running several fairs in one term can combine the room nights from each fair into one request.
The group rate calculator applies a discount band to a nightly rate a planner enters. It defaults to 10 percent and states that the platform secures 15 to 30 percent.
Submit the request through the RFP form. The city directory lists Portland properties. The process page sets out the response window, and the hotel pays the commission on a booked request.
