to think that a family of 5 should be able to find budget hotel accommodation when travelling!

[DorisIsAPinkDragon]

I know many will say "you chose to have 3" but surely there must be some companies that cater to the not particularly enormous family market. The average family size is quoted as over 2 (?.4) this means that these companies (Premier Inn, Days Inn and Travelodge and the like I'm talking to you!) automatically exclude a vast proprtion of travelling families. I don't want (and can't afford, the diesel cost alone is horrific) separate rooms so any suggestions welcome....

I have just tried to book at short notice for a trip to Scotland next week with 3 children (5) (3) and (1). When I last stayed with Premier Inn (4 weeks ago) we were able to book the baby in and the 2 children now their website specifically states 2 children and I can't do anything to make it take the third arrrrggghhhhhhh.

The thought of travelling 12 hours (Plymouth to Inverness) with the 3 in the back (we're not posh enough for dvd players!) and the driving alone makes me shudder aaaarrrrgggghhhh (again!)

Ultimately why oh why did my parents upsticks and move to the other bloody end of the country (oh apart from being closer to my sisters )

So AIBU and what do you do?

We tend to stay in Premier Inn.

Although it says online that you can only have 2 children, if you book it and then phone the hotel they will change it (and add the extra free breakfast). They actually volunteered this information to me themselves and suggested that the younger two (who are 4 and 6) could top tail in a bed.

Holiday Inn will sleep 2 in beds plus a cot. We did this for a long time, but DD is getting a bit big to pretend she needs a cot now!

Roomfor5 what a great website. We are going to be in Scotland in November and I'm not sure that we can impose all of us on my grandmother any more (she's nearly 90, and we have boisterous dc of 8,6 and 4) although she would love us to stay. I now have some alternative ideas!

Sneak extra one in.We are family of 6 and have to sneak 2 (not so little)kids + air beds and sleeping bags in now!!

We'll be between St Andrews and Blairgowrie so you have it pretty well covered!

Expedia is your friend. Plus you can earn Nectar points.

Roomforfive: I know of several Premier Inns which sleep 5 which aren't listed on your site. As I say they volunteered the information to me that they were perfectly happy for primary school aged children to top tail in one of the beds so that you have 5 in a room.

Maybe they don't want to "officially" give that as a policy to a website, but are happy to do it unofficially?

I remember someone from Holiday Inn saying that they have a Fire Regulation Policy for the whole hotel which caps their number of guests at the number of rooms x 4. So technically, if all of the rooms were full having 5 in a room would tip them over this figure. However lots of rooms have 1, 2 or 3 people in, which balances the odd 5 in a room out.

However you have got me slightly nervous about the Premier Inn that we are supposed to be staying in at the end of the month so I will be phoning later to double check...

Thanks so much for this thread.
We're staying at a premier inn this weekend & I've just saved myself £120 just by phoning them. We had 2 rooms booked for us & the 13, 10 ,& 1 year olds & got a very nice lady on the phone who changed the booking for me & organised a family room with a travel cot for half the price of the 2 rooms.
SO glad I saw this

We have 4 dcs and have found that the online booking form is usually where the trouble ends. If you call the hotel and speak with someone, they might be more accommodating. Several times the recommendation was to check the box with 2 children and just arrive with 3 (or 4) if the online rate is better.

I completely understand your frustation.

Yeah!!

More great ideas I had completely forgotton youth hostels are way more family friendly now....think that's definetely going to be an option.

really please the thread helped save some money annonyme, but the frustration is still there, I really should get myself to the larger families boards to vent.

And room for 5 your websites fab good luck and keep up the good work.

Just so you know, I have just come back from premier in stafford and had all 3 kids in the one room with dh and me.

I too had the website issue you talk about but rang them up (hotel directly, not head office) and explained there would be 2 in beds and 1 in a cot-was no problem. 4 nights we stayed and they were lovely to us!

No idea what we will do once ds3 is out of a cot tho!

Ready beds are the answer - a blow up bed with a fleecy sleeping bag that goes over the top. They fold down to nothing, so are very discreet (which may be of interest to my fellow sneaker-inners )

I don't think it's so uncommon to have 3 or more kids travelling with 2 adults, I have tried booking loads of hotel breaks for myself dh and 3 kids (12,3,2) I have given up many times when the websites have a maximum of 2 kids in the options box, but maybe I shouldn't have. I came across this problem again this past Sun I wanted to book a break in Leicester for Mon, Tue I came across a stay play explore leicester site with a cheap break in leicester Hilton from £99 per night per family with tickets to 3 local attractions included (my dcs wanted to go to twycross zoo) so i was slightly peaved when I couldn't manage to put us all in one room, so I rang the hotel direct and the receptionsist said they generally expect families to have more than 2 kids but the website can't be set up to add more kids, she told me to either just make a note of the 3rd child in the comments box on website or if this isn't possible to just ring back and let them know. I made a note in the comments box and all was fine, we had a lovely 2 night break at the Hilton with 3 kids for £79 a night (cheaper than advertised-best rate?) for 5 inc a gorgeous breakfast each morn (the works-full cooked english,fruit, bagels, ham, cheese, salmon, cereals whatever you wanted!) and complimentory parking plus 3 family tickets to a choice of 5 attractions. I'm so glad I rang to check instead of looking for alteranatives, I also read in the room info that if you do need extra rooms for kids they're half price and kids under ten also eat free when adults are having meals. For similar deals google "stay play explore leicester" several hotels offer this deal

Im Somebody else who's been down the youth hostel route (4dc) there are some fabulous ones out there - we've stayed in a castle type one and a 1920s villa - you have to make and strip yr beds but it's no biggie. We've even had en-suite rooms too

I don't think you are being unreasonable, the leisure and hospitality industries do seem to have lot less flexibility these days. Even though the 2.4 is an American statistic that hasn't been true for the UK in ages (we've been around 1.8-1.9ish mark for a decade at least now), families come in all types, but the businesses focus on two able-bodied adults and one or two able bodied children and anything beyond that just seems to become too difficult for them.

We (1 disabled adult, 1 mostly able bodied adult, 3 kids with one on the way) just don't travel much, at least not for overnight trips. The main place we stay overnight is near family who live in holiday cottage territory and have friends who allow us to get mates rates and we stay out of their usual season. Dealing directly with where you want to stay rather than going through the computers does do wonders for trying to fit in a non-standard family type.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread, some useful tips. It's always been a major peeve of mine, and as the DCs are 12, 10 and 8 our days of sneaking an extra one into a Travelodge are pretty much at an end (although we did squeeze all five of us into a £19 room last Christmas, ker-ching! The Little Chef breakfast cost more than the night's accomodation ).

I agree on-line booking systems just can't cope with anything other than 2+2.

YANBU. I have younger twins brothers. I spent every holiday on the pull out sofa in the kitchen/dining room of wherever we went. Rubbish.