to sneak DTs into hotel room?

[QueenofKelsingra]

Posting for traffic really.

We have 3DC, DS (4yo) and DTs (22m). We need an overnight stop on the way to our holiday. planning to stay with a chain hotel and I know the room is big enough to fit 2 travel cots in. the hotel however have a strict 2 adults 2 kids policy.

has anyone done the sneaking the extra child in method to avoid having to pay for 2 rooms? it just seems mad to pay for an extra room when there is space in one room for us.

any thoughts?

" as I just cant justify 2 rooms for one extra cot!"

But it isn't a second room for an extra cot as you said the twins won't sleep apart. It would have to be one parent and 2 babies in one room and the other parent and older child in the other room.

Op has said she doesn't want to pay for two rooms and a room for five is expensive. I know people who sneak in an extra child and i think it's tacky. We travelled all over the US East Coast as a group of 5 and yes it was much harder to find hotels with a room for five or a three and a two. But it never crossed my mind to sneak in anyone. It's better to do thing properly. It's not just about the bed. Imagine if every guest sneaked someone in. It costs more water, more cleaning, more laundry . To expect that for free is tight.

I know family with id twins who have done it. I would probably do the same if I could.

How on earth do you create more laundry? You are given bedding and towels for four people. They don't give you more if you sneak a person in, you would take your own and use that. The extra person won't make any more cleaning, a family of four make as much mess and dirt as a family of five. The only thing you are right about is the water if the fifth person has a shower/bath.

We haven't had many reasons to stop in a hotel since having three dc, but I suspect we would go down the sneaking extra child in to the four person room. We did stay in a youth hostel in London last year. They have five bed rooms, so perfect for us. It's not ideal to be sneaking about, but I don't blame you for sneaking in.

bakergirl - yes so in one room there would be one spare bed (half of the double) and in the other half the double and the spare bed - so 3 extra sleeping spaces we are not using.

forago i assumed this too but upthread it would appear fire regs are about numbers of people so the fire crews know how many they are looking for.

sherazade - i would agree except in this case my baby will be in a bed provided by us so no laundry, in the room at the same time as us, no extra cleaning and the kids bath together so no extra water. i would not have considered it with an older child, only because they are still babies.

jamais if you have any links/names of hotel chains then i would be most grateful!

We stayed in a chain hotel when we went to my uncle's wedding. The family rooms were only supposed to be for four but we had three DCs (age 3, 2, and 10 months). I rang up before booking and explained the situation and they said it was fine as they were so young and it just meant squeezing a travel cot in.

If you phone up and explain they might say its okay to have an extra travel cot.

Where and when do you need the room? Perhaps someone knows somewhere. Or google quadruple rooms, on booking.com in rouen(for the sake of argument) there were quadruple rooms that you could add an extra bed in.

If I had to get an extra room the fire crew still wouldn't know where we were sleeping. My dcs are too young to be in their own room so we'd all be in together and the extra room would be empty.

I have in my youth increased the occupancy of my hotel room after a night out

OP we have done it with our 3 when they were smaller and co slept. It is actually hard to find rooms that sleep 5 in France, I think 3 DC is much less 'normal' for the French than here . Recently we found these places though and the one we stayed at was great two large rooms and a swimming pool.

Sorry, think there was a link fail, try again...park and suites

Have you tried youth hostels? It's often easier to get a dorm room for five than a hotel room. Try hostelworld.com.

We have three boys and when we travelled we had to pay for two rooms.

Sorry but I think you have to just suck it up.

The fire risk is not an issue in my opinion. If you ( the parents) were able to get out of a burning building but not able to take all your children you could inform the fire crews that there was 1/2/3 children needing rescuing. If you were unable to get out you would be in the room with the children.

I would think that 1 parent in a room with 2 sleepy toddlers is more of a risk in a fire than 2 parents in a room with 2 toddlers and a child, I wouldn't be able to carry 2 toddlers out of a building easily.

When you go and stay at a relative or friends house do you worry that the fire service won't know that there are extra children in the house, it has never crossed my mind.

Given that they'll be in travel cots I'd do it. I'm fairly sure you only need passport for the lead adult in France.

Do it all the time, I must say that we haven't done it with children that small

Ours are big enough that they can hang around outside and come in when the coast is clear

I have no problem paying for 5 in a room, I just don't want two rooms

If you called and they said no and its a small place that will probably notice, I think it would be pretty stupid to try.

Find another hotel.

My sister did this with her 3 kids. The 2 oldest were identical twins and just walked in seperately. The youngest child slept in with her mum and dad and the twins had a bed each. Morally I suppose it was not right, but it made a hotel stay affordable for them. The staff never noticed.

Where do you need the hotel to be? What area?

I have same with same age gap. Mine are too old now but we used to top and tail the DTs.

I have given up with big chain hotels, but found many hotels have been persuaded that DTs are ok sharing travel cot or bed top and tail. Many have been accommodating and found a room to put two travel cots in too. I agree that its tricky; you can't book anything online with five without a lot of notice, and often computer systems will always show no availability (when in fact a call to the hotel will mean they often find the room)

What I find really mystifying is that even if I wanted to bay doubel and have two rooms they won't guarantee connecting rooms - and we would have to divide up with an adult in each. I wouldn't be happy really anyway wiht connecting rooms as the DCs would then be able to leave room via main door so I haven't done this option

There's also Room fro Five www.roomfor5.co.uk/ which specialises in this

I'm sure when the kids are older the OP will pay for another rooms ... but cmon lads one 22month old? hardly justifies another room. I would have a sleepless night and put one in the bed with me to save the few bob.

Sleepwhenidle that link didn't work??

We have smuggled one baby in a travel cot, and this was in France, we drive through France every year and have never shown passports at check in?, we have stayed in all the chains.

Also alot of the B&Bs in France are automatic check in with a machine, you rarely see a receptionist.