To ask is this Hotel policy usual?

[IsThisStrangeOrNot]

Children under 12 not allowed to be alone in bedrooms. Small posh hotel recently refurbished. I can understand why they might not want toddlers running riot in the bedrooms but when DS is asleep and we're watching him on the baby monitor that's still not acceptable. Bedroom is up the stairs and we would be eating dinner in restaurant at foot of stairs, less than 5 seconds to get back to bedroom. It's in an isolated location with nothing nearby so can't imagine policy is for the security of children.
Their hotel, their rules - which we respect but first time I've heard this policy. Anyone else heard such a policy for kids under 12?

It's not a good idea to leave an 18 month old alone in a hotel room, whether or not the hotel has a policy about this.

for some reason I was assuming your child was 11 years old, and even then I had some reservations. 18 months, absolutely not, ever.

She wants to leave her 18 month old alone in a quiet room to sleep while she's a few seconds away with a baby monitor on the table. There's not much risk involved in that.

I used to work in the hotel trade. The reason for inconsistencies is due to differing hotels taking the health and safety of both their guests and staff seriously.

1. FIRE - What happens is the fire breaks out near the room the child is in?

You also have the issue of parents going back to retrieve their children and causing chaos, becoming injured etc. In a small hotel the stairs could be blocked with a disabled guest being brought down whilst parents are trying to bring their children up. A fire drill for a 10 year old at school that has been rehearsed in a familiar way is very different to that in an unfamiliar environment when they have been awoken from sleep and are surrounded by smoke.

1. HEALTH AND SAFETY -it is your responsibility to look after your child what if little Jack jumps on the bed, falls of and knocks himself unconscious. You cant protect kids all the time but in a home environmeny you would hear them do it whilst in a hotel you wouldn't.

1. CHILD PROTECTION - The hotel should only have staff who have been DBS checked by them monitoring them monitoring the children and only quified child carers looking after the children. This is to protect the staff and the children.

Anyone really can gain access to your room and do God knows what to your child. The staff turnover in hotels is high and all it takes is someone with a master key to gain access to the room.

1. STAFF PROTECTION - Blame culture - when a child is injured when they are unattended

Some hotels will look at this more thoroughly than others.

It is likely a small 10 bed hotel has less room for litigation should something go wrong than a 200 bed corporate giant.

TheWhiteRoseOfYork, yes obviously the OP was the only person in the hotel eating, no one went out for the evening and every room was full. We will all admire you standing outside the hotel.

Why on earth would anything think it's appropriate to leave an 18 month old alone in a hotel room. For so many reasons it isn't. Ever.

I've been told I'm pretty lax when it comes to my kids before but my goodness, never would I do this. For a million reasons. I don't know why you even had to ask 🤦‍♀️

Oh come on. I get that not everyone would feel it appropriate but it's hardly akin to child abuse. Other than the risk of fire, exactly what else do you think might happen? Once DS is able to escape a cot there's no way I'll do it but at the moment, in a hotel not a dissimilar size to my house, where I am probably closer to the room where he is sleeping than I am at home, with a video monitor and no exit other than the one I'm sat by, I feel ok with that.

Book a suite and order room service!

I definitely would leave a sleeping 18 month old on a hotel room with monitor as I would in my home or friends homes. Most childhood accidents happen at home so perhaps people should stop judging.

We will all admire you standing outside the hotel.

Sorry Granny but WTF are you talking about now? You make no sense.

It'll be down to the hotel's insurance.

Why can't they just have a late night? Or sleep in the pushchair? I'm all for early bedtimes but nights away are treats!

My 16 month old awake at 9pm would not be a treat for anyone I can assure you. I'd love it if he could do late nights on holiday/when it suited us, but he can't. He screams, takes forever to settle when he does go to bed, then wakes up super early. Hopefully this will improve as he gets older!

It's pretty standard. However, it's more that you can't book one, not that they can't stay...My dd swopped with my DH so she had one room and we had the other. More recently, I just booked her as an adult after the booking system would allow me to have a double bed shared with a child!

Has Grenfel not concerned you about leaving your child alone in a place with lots of rooms on different floors and aren't you afraid of your child being in danger and potentially hurt before you make it back up to the room?

Just yesterday, while observing inattentive parent whose toddler almost got run over by a bus I was in, I also thought back to Mc Caan family and wondered how so many children make it to adulthood.

18 months???? Jeez OP. Thats totally unreasonable

I find it more odd that you would leave your child alone while you ate out...... #mccanns

Do they not do room service?

Are you really that desperate to have a meal just the two of you? Get a bloody babysitter if so!
Honestly, sitting down at the restaurant with a baby monitor on the table... haven't heard many things more ridiculous today

I assumed it was a baby straight away. Makes much more sense to leave a baby if he is a good sleeper and can't climb the cot and u can see him in monitor.

Leaving a 7 or 8 year old who could wake up and attempt to make hot chocolate or have a bath or wander out the room would be much worse. Also this is an age they could enjoy dinner with parents. 18 months more unpredictable.

Either way I couldn't relax so wouldn't do it. But I think leaving an older child say 3-9 years would be a bigger risk.

Sorry, not read the ft...but when we've gone away and wanted a romantic evening to ourselves (even when it was just in the hotel restaurant) we've booked a nanny/sitter either through the hotel or through an agency. Or booked a room where we could be in the communal area just outside our room, but on the same floor so we didn't have to be quiet and in the dark from 7pm! That said I haven't been in a position to be aware of a hotel policy like this. And my decision to/not to leave a(n) older child/ren in a hotel room would also be influenced by the number of them, if they were siblings/cousins/friends who had form for falling out or doing something ridiculous. Am thinking about the types of daft things we all did on sleepovers when parents were at home and only downstairs...the more I think about it. I think the policy is probably a very sensible one and I'd book a nanny/sitter right up to age 11.

You're a family away together, so have dinner together! Not appropriate to leave a child in the room alone. Every company across all industries have their own policies, which in the event of something happening they would be held account for. Up to the individual company what they are comfortable with.

If the restaurant is really so close to the room, I just don't get the huge benefit of eating there compared to the room. Having kids does disrupt some thing you might have done before, and one of those is meals for 2 when away from home.
It'd be better to get room service (and maybe get a baby sleeping tent if he might be less easily disturbed that way than in a cot).
Have a meal for 2 in a restaurant one evening when back home, with a babysitter you know and trust looking after the DC.