To book a family room for 4 when there are 5 of us?

[CollectingCoins]

Planning a one night city trip in UK. Finding it impossible to get a family room for 2 adults and 3 kids. Seems we will need an extra room no matter where we stay. Is it totally unreasonable to book one for 2 adults and 2 kids and sneak the extra kid in?

Depends: Travel lodge have usually said when we've phoned and asked that it is no problem. If you're getting breakfast etc too then no.

I wouldn't imagine that it will be particularly comfortable. Often a room for 4 can be a bit of a squeeze.
Call ahead and see if they can accomodate in one room?

I have done before, don't think anyone slept mainly due to age of kids. We then started booking 2 hotel rooms as it's just easier.

I'd call up individual hotels and ask what they suggest. Surely you won't be expected to stay in a seperate room to your dh. And I'm assuming none of the 'kids' are adults who could have a room to themselves.

Phone- lots of places will accommodate a 3rd child if you ask.

Phone and say two of them are small and will top and tail.

I have three and this often worked - as long as room big enough

Oh calling and speaking to actual people rather than using t’internet there’s an idea 😃
Will try that. Thanks all

Hilton is usually cheaper than travelodge for 5 and you get breakfast

There's an insurance issue, so the hotel would be perfectly entitled to kick you out if you are found out.

If there's a fire in the hotel, would you really want the fire service missing out on one of the guests because they didn't know he was there?

Yes, couples do split up when there's no other choice, one adult staying with 1 or 2 children each. What else can you do if you can't find a suite or a big enough room?

Isn't it a problem to have an extra person there if there is a fire?

X post, sorry.

My mate sneaks her family of five into a four person room at various Premier Inns, Travelodges etc and takes a blow up mattress and sleeping bag. Never been caught yet.

Air bnb? Self catering for 5?

Genuine question how can a fire service ever have an accurate count of who is sleeping in a hotel at any one time? There’s probably rarely a point when all checked in guests are in their rooms. Even if the key card has been used to access room the hotel can’t tell if everyone has returned or just one or if people have left again can they? That’s aside from the guests that may return with people they’ve pulled!!

Seconded re the airbnb suggestion!

We do usually use Airbnb but I read recently how it is contributing to housing shortages for families in bigger cities so I am trying to avoid using it in this incidence.

We’ve done it a few times. It depends on the ages of the kids really. No way was I going to pay for an extra room for a cosleeping 2yo who would easily fit in with us. No choice now we have 4dcs though.

As a family of five, we have discovered the joy of youth hostels - they have family rooms for 5 or 6 that you can book if you are early enough.

From fire perspective - they know how many people should be in each room and can take a register at the rendezvous point to see which rooms the Fire service need to check. If none of you make it to the rendezvous point the fire service would only be looking for 4 people in your room and could potentially miss a child who was a bit hidden - especially if it's smoke-filled and none of you are conscious. This is an extremely small risk and one that a lot of people would be quite comfortable with (indeed there are very few people in the UK who don't take bigger risks with their kids quite often).

A city break with 5 in one room for 1 night sounds awful. Why not stay at home or get a relative to look after the sprogs?

agree with hostels though. We have done that with 5 of us as a 6-8 bed bunk room was fine if you book the whole room and you have the extra room of the hostel so not all cooped up in one room all the time.

We’ve slept 6 in Premier Inn. They’re fine. I do tell them though, for their fire regs but also as I’d hate to be turned away

Premier inn, either book a cot so they know 5 are in the room or just tell them when you check in, we always stay in Premier Inn and have never had a problem. All they need is the number in each room for fire safety.

We stayed in St Briavel's YHA, in a room with I think 6 beds. In the morning they showed us round the hostel (an ancient castle). Beneath the rug/carpet was an oubliette (scary dungeon thing).

We've had two children and an under 2 'allowed' in a family room at Premier inn also have been able to book connecting rooms for 6 of us at a couple of PI's too.
Otherwise we've had to split into two threes until the bigger ones could share their own room.
Although some hotels have good offers on suites which are fab.