To think hotels are very child unfriendly

Don't say bratty that's mean.

She didn't at 7am

The hotel are at fault then. Nothing for you to feel bad about.

I do think hotels that offer gym membership can sometimes be a bit sneaky to hotel guests though.

I recently stayed somewhere where I knew they were offering swimming lessons from 4-7, so I went down a full hour before only to discover that a private client was due to be taught at 3.30pm and half of the rather small pool was cordoned off for that.

Equally stayed in a very expensive hotel in Jersey and the gym shut at lunchtime some days, also as guests rather than members when we did manage to get there when it was open, we had to fill in a ridiculous questionnaire and were treated very much as second class citizens compared to members who were checking in.

As an adult who holidays without children I avoid any hotel that mentions a kids club or is clearly ‘child friendly’.

Of course you're being unreasonable. A hotel lobby isn't a suitable place to let your kids "let off steam". I choose dog friendly hotels a lot of the time and wouldn't allow my dogs to tear around the public spaces because they want to run after being cooped up in the car.

At 7am hotels are deadly quiet. Allowing your children to shriek is not OK. The sound will carry to multiple rooms. I don't quite believe one solitary shriek would be enough to make somebody complain about you, either.

Generally, hotel leisure facilities and gyms are available for members who pay a handsome price for the privilege. Part of the compromise to those members is to provide adult only swim times, because not everybody wants to swim with splashing, shouting children in the pool. It's the same principle as having dedicated lane swimming times.

Do your research in future and see what's available at a hotel before you book.

The complaint about the room noise is U, they should have decent sound proofing.

YABU about the pool and the lobby. If they have advertised times for adult only then they have to stick to that. And kids running around a lobby is a hazard.

What that guest said was horrible but surely if you pay good money for a nice relaxing stay at night being kept awake all night by a screaming child would be a bit shit.

Yes we had requested a ground floor room, enquired about bed guards or if we needed to take our own and let them know why

In all honesty, I think your children were louder/more disruptive than perhaps you think they were.

Running around and letting off steam in the reception area/lobby isn't OK and for the next room to have complained about the noise suggests it was loud/fairly continuous.

I completely get that some small kids can be hardwork/lively - at 2/3 my son was one of them, so we didn't do hotels. He's 9 now and we are currently staying in a hotel abroad and it's great because he is now much calmer and understands that making noise/running about etc is not appropriate behaviour.

I didnt mean to imply that children with SEN "are a lost cause" at all, it was shorthand, effectively, for acknowledging that some children might have difficulties meeting certain societal standards. I wouldn't want to judge any parent who's child was having a meltdown due to, for example, being in an unfamiliar environment or sensory overload.

If I wrote out in every post I respond to all the caveats to acknowledge various different circumstances, needs, difficulties etc then nearly every reply I posted would be very long. Apologies for any offence.

In one way I agree. Loud people in restaurants though tend to be groups of adults (often drunk) not children.

I think tbh unless your children are like robots as some mumsnetters’ seem to be 3 year olds in most hotels are not relaxing. Unless you let them run riot you have to spend significant amounts of time keeping them under control, which wasn’t fun ime. It’s much better to go places where they can just run off and play in hedges. More relaxing all round.

Yes, it is. Running around is not an appropriate activity in a hotel lobby. If you have children, please teach them this.

That sounds mega stressful. Did you let the hotel know in advance that she had special needs?

Nobody can be this entitled/dense, surely 😂😂

No, you can’t allow your feral children to run around screaming and disturbing other people.

No, it’s not okay for your kids to be shrieking before 7am and disturbing other people.

No, your children cannot join the adults only swim session.

I can’t think where they get their bratty behaviour from 🤔

It’s not appropriate to run in a lobby. People will be sitting chatting and perhaps working, people carrying luggage. It’s not safe.
If there’s only one adult to 2 children then they need to stand with you. If there’s 2 adults one check in and one wait outside with the children there no need for everyone to queue up.

Lots of posters have said lobbies should be quiet though. I'm not sure how you have conflated "just running around a bit, not getting in anyone's way or anything" with acting as if you're in a playground?

Most hotels I've stayed in the lobby has had reasonable passing through, but not a loud space that would lead me to think children running around was acceptable.
Some have had a bar area/sitting area off to one side where guests come down in an evening.

I think families tend to fall loosely into two camps:

• Loud families who think children should be free to run around in most places because noise is normal. I often find families with loud children have loud parents as well, or at the very least parents who are so used to an ongoing din that they don't realise it isn't the norm
• Considerate families who know that children can be noisy, but they expect their children to modify their conduct according to the place. These parents tend to modify their own volume and conduct for the context as well.

I've got no time for cantankerous adults who get annoyed that a family is near them in a restaurant when the family is having perfectly reasonable family conversation, but would have a huge amount of sympathy for anyone trying to enjoy a meal if they're stuck next to a loud family who are stuck on fog horn volume.

Not quite 'it takes a village' then...

While I appreciate your efforts to be considerate and understand why you do it, I feel it's quite sad that you had to go to such lengths to keep your children quiet, constantly vigilant and having to plan and think ahead and asked to be stuffed in corners out of sight in case your kids make noise and constantly having to remind your kids that others are bothered by them. I'm assuming you're in the UK or a country with a similar attitude to kids. Personally, i'd rather hear your kids.

@Isittimeformynapyet hence why I didn't say all...

Maybe it was the bit where people who were already there got up and moved

@Puzzledandpissedoff well I don't think i'm
not a normal person. Centre parcs isn't cheap but is very popular & lots of holiday threads will have posters spending 6k plus on a summer holiday. And yes it's completely different to a premier inn but they do exist.

We haven’t taken her to a hotel before or after it was just the only place left with space at short notice. I did think about trying to take her outside but there was no guarantee it would help and we would have to have taken her screaming past lots of other rooms. I fully accept it was disruptive for others I felt really bad but I had no choice and had to be there

Too much of a generalisation @Ontheclifftop The staff in EVERY hotel my family and I have ever stayed in has been lovely to our children.

YABU.

You don't really. You can design a very nice child free life. But when parents of annoying children come into contact with others, they can't pretend to be shocked that those others are annoyed!