Premier Inn - do we HAVE to get two rooms?

[poggleton]

I’m thinking the answer is sadly yes, but want to make sure I’m not missing something.

Me, DH and DCs 15 and 17.

The DCs are too old for is all to be allowed to stay in one family room, aren’t they?

They don’t though, they have a room price and that price is the same for all rooms regardless of whether they have one adult or 2 adults and 2 DC in them.

Im not advocating for squeezing older teens into a PI room btw, we always took 2 rooms. But the pricing structure isn’t based on bodies.

I find this thread a bit hilarious. Perhaps it's just that its mumsnet and I'm out of touch with British culture but on here I constantly read about parents not possibly being able to share rooms with small kids and toddlers whilst on holiday but as soon as they are teens, going through puberty and are practically adults it's ok to ram 4 of you into a room. The age when it is totally inappropriate and people need space.

Doesn't make an ounce of sense to me.

Thats the difference between a hoilday and a 1 night budget hotel stay. One is enjoyable, one is practical.

But why is the cut off for "child price" frequently 15.
16 year olds are still at school. If they are in Year 11 they are limited to only working a few part time hours. Their parents will still receive Child Benefit and/or the child element of UC (if claimed).
But suddenly they are classed as adults when it comes to hotel rooms or other ticket prices.

Reception won’t care (or even notice) but only you know how comfortable you’ll all be crammed into a small room.

I've share three adults in a family room before. For one night on a budget it's fine. We just sent two to check in. After than that no one will know or care, and even then it's often self service check in.

Reception won’t notice, so just do it that’s your preference.

I do struggle with the rules about 16/17 year olds in hotels though. They can’t stay in a family room officially but nor can they stay in a room without an adult. Not entirely sure what you’re supposed to do if only one adult is travelling.

The family rooms we've stayed in at Premier Inn have always been really spacious, so space hasn't been an issue even with a king size bed and two singles. That might vary by location though I guess.

It probably varies with location, we had a one night stay in the summer and the family room was a king size bed and two single beds. Our DC are young so not teens but space wise it was fine.

We, as a family group, stay in a PI for a weekend every December. We're 6 adults and 4 children, although the eldest of those is 13 now.
We book 3 family rooms and book for 12 people. We've found that if we dont they don't make all the beds up and some of us aren't sharing beds.
Then we split
Room 1 - DB and SIL
Room 2 - DS1 (22) and me
Room 3 - DS2 (19) and my Mum.
The children pick a room which might change from one night to the next.
When we check in we tell them that 2 children couldnt come, and they usually ask us to let them know how many people are in each room each night for fire regs.

Not sure what will happen when the children hit 15 and arent allowed to share with us anymore.

@KaleidoscopeSmileyour vitriol towards those of ‘taking of advantage’ of premier inn is making me smile. I don’t even think the CEO would be as passionate as you are about room sharing.

I have no problem or shame in doing what I’m doing and by the looks of it others feel the same I hate what I deem to be rules for rules sake.

The hyperbolic language on here is odd - the company is 'shafted' and people are 'crammed' into rooms...wtf? As a single parent whose kids are now 19 and 17, if I didn't bend the rules I would not have been able to stay with PI at all for the last 3 years, so rather than 'shafting' them we're giving them business they wouldn't otherwise have. If they sold the room we use to a family of 4 with 2 kids aged 12 and 14 the cost of the room would be exactly the same as I pay, but that family would pay for 2 breakfasts, whereas I pay for 3, so, no, I'm not shafting them!

And no one is 'cramming' in anywhere. I do think my kids like the nostalgia of us all being in the one PI room as we've done it a few times a year since they were tiny and they get quite silly and inane like they did in those days! For more than 1 or 2 nights? No, but for a night or two it's absolutely fine.

My teen hates the sofa bed. She gets stuck on it occasionally, but we try to keep it to one night stays

16 year olds count as adults by premier inn rules, so they can stay in their own room, so long as an adult is in another room on the same booking.

I would like it if they raised the age to 18, you're still a family and should be able to fight over sofa beds if you want to. Fair enough to charge all for breakfasts though.

Maybe it's just for one night before an early flight or after a late flight so they just want to sleep.

Fair enough, but it is crammed for us, as a family of four we do find it very uncomfortable to share a premier Inn room and none of us sleeps well. That's why we now book two rooms, we had too many poor nights sleeps where everyone's shuffling around, toilet visits, body heat and noise disrupted one another. If it works for your family that's great, but we certainly would feel crammed!

They must have different rules for different hotels then as my dd had a separate room from me at the age of 16

I’ve stayed in a premier inn and the 2 extra beds aren’t tiny. I also put my 17 year old on the booking as 16 when I stayed at travel lodge a couple of weeks ago because I didn’t want two rooms.

Premier inn used to allow 16 years olds to have their own room, it changed to 18 a few years ago. That said, it happens all the time and the staff have better things to do than ID a teen whose parent had booked 2 rooms.

But she was with you? Mine went on his own with his girlfriend, drove 5 hours then got turned away

Booking two room won’t necessarily be more expensive than one larger room.

Book one room for you and one dc. Book another for your dh and the other. So one adult in each room. Then obviously swap rooms. They won’t notice.

At that age, your dc will probably really appreciate not being squished into a Premier Inn family room with their parents!

Booking two room won’t necessarily be more expensive than one larger room.
@madnessitellyou They charge per room and the rooms are a standard size so it will be roughly double the cost. It has been every time I've looked anyway.

that is why we took a tent

On swapping rooms, I agree that they won’t notice but I’m reluctant to leave my DDs in a room by themselves after recent incidents (both reported in the press and experience of friends) of both Travelodge and Premier Inn giving out room cards to the wrong people!

I wish more hotels had interconnecting rooms.

The false equivalence is a bit hilarious.

Who's holidaying for two weeks in a premier inn?!