Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

Hotels that won't allow children but do allow dogs

65 replies

ABaconAndOnionTart · 28/09/2013 18:30

I am looking for a decent, fine dining hotel to celebrate my mums 80th next year. aibu to be annoyed that one I looked at allows dogs but not children under 10? My dss are all over 10 but my niece is 3. She can use an knife and fork, doesn't smell or shed hair, or shit poo all over the grass. Ffs.

OP posts:

TrueStory · 28/09/2013 20:37

i honestly cant remember any meal ruined like that by adults in a nice hotel, bacon. it was v. noisy, food on the floor, paper and crayons all around, crying, running to other tables, like a mini kindergarden. its a shame though because it does spoil it for others who are capable of getting their children to behave Ok.

Original poster

ABaconAndOnionTart · 28/09/2013 21:21

I have experienced other guest being very loud and rude to waiters. Not to mention drunkeness.

OP posts:

Catsize · 29/09/2013 08:53

In that case OP, let us not have restaurants at all.
Suspect more people have had things spoiled by kids than adults.
Or, as in our case last week, the adults shouting at and hitting their kids for no apparent reason. At a family carvery place.

Pagwatch · 29/09/2013 09:03

I went out for supper for my anniversary a few years ago and we asked to be moved when they sat us next to a couple with a toddler.

However well behaved,it is hardly a romantic, intimate experience when a toddler is banging the table or daddy is loudly intoning 'well done darling, you ate all your calamares!'

And a drunk guest would have been asked to leave.

Of course you can end up sometimes sitting next to a loud arse but that is the luck of the draw. A toddler /young child will very very often represent a change in the atmosphere.

I took all my dc to quite sophisticated eateries when they were small - DD has eaten at le Manior, the savoy and Cliveden - but only when they were welcome and only early in the day.

There will be nice places happy to take your booking. If a place doesn't accept children, go somewhere else.

meditrina · 29/09/2013 09:05

How any individuals you've witnessed have behaved, or how someone you know might behave, isn't the point.

What the hotel is doing is legal, and is their business model.

There are oodles of places where small children are admitted. Look for one of those, not whine about one which doesn't.

catgirl1976 · 29/09/2013 09:19

I can't believe people don't think children should be in restaurants

Should they only be allowed in Harvesters or something?

I haven't come this IRL yet - DS has been welcome anywhere we have been. If he played up I would remove him but if he is behaving he should be welcome anywhere IMO

NewNameforNewTerm · 29/09/2013 09:29

Are you sure the dogs are allowed in the restaurant? Many hotels are dog friendly and allow them in the rooms and bar, but not the restaurant.
Also, maybe your niece doesn't squeal and yell in a restaurant, but what about all the others that do? Mine did! And you can't have "nice quiet" children only rule. It has to be all or nothing.

The answer is clear, if you don't want to see dogs in a restaurant and they are dog friendly go elsewhere.

Trills · 29/09/2013 09:34

you can't have "nice quiet" children only rule

This

Pagwatch · 29/09/2013 09:41

Saying 'I don't think it's unreasonable to chose not to permit young children into a fine dining restaurant' is absoloutely not the same as saying 'children should not be allowed in restaurants'.

Not the same thing at all.

JenaiMorris · 29/09/2013 09:42

'Fine dining' is such a wanky phrase.

And I bet dogs aren't allowed in the dining room.

Oh and yes, it would happen in France.

catgirl1976 · 29/09/2013 09:44

Maybe a better thing would be to have up to a certain age allowed in up to a certain time?

I imagine this generally happens anyway though. Younger children go to bed pretty early and adults eat out later so it shouldn't be that much of an issue if fine dining restaurants admitted under 10s up until 8pm or something

That way they get to eat out and adults get their romantic dinners

specialsubject · 29/09/2013 09:59

A 3 year old is NOT going to sit through a lengthy 'fine dining' meal and it is not fair to expect her to do so.

meditrina · 29/09/2013 10:04

One restaurant deciding not to admit children doesn't mean - gosh children can only go to Harvesters.

There are plenty of places, of all sorts of character, where children are welcome.

Just not this one.

PresidentServalan · 29/09/2013 10:41

Hotels have every right to allow dogs and ban children though. People will say that their child behaves etc but many don't behave - if customers are given the option then how can that be a bad thing. Finding somewhere childfree these days is difficult and if the hotel owners find that they can make a profit by allowing dogs and not allowing children then they have the right to do so.

mysticminstrel · 29/09/2013 10:47

Which hotel is this then?

I quite like places that openly ban children - at least you know where you stand.

We went to the Priory in Bath for lunch when DD1 was about 9 months old (my Dad booked it, it was not our choice). They were very welcoming and they did provide a highchair but it was obvious that they didn't often have small children in there.

They had to open a bedroom so we could change her nappy as they didn't have changing facilities.

It was full of elderly old money types and I felt a bit frowned upon for bringing a baby in.

I'd rather they had a blanket no kids rule (which I think they do for evening dining tbh) than just feel uncomfortable the whole time.

(not knocking the Bath Priory btw, lovely place would def go back sans kids).

Flip

1 2 3