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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To book a room for four when there is five of us?

136 replies

Rainer · 07/04/2018 23:12

That really. We want to be in a room together. The kids would easily fit in to a double bed all three. It's for a night before a flight, with parking for our holiday included and the cost doubles or just isn't available if I say its for five. Wwyd?

OP posts:
tenredthings · 08/04/2018 20:54

We have 3 kids, 2adults and we always book a family room and squeeze in , We take a sleeping bag and pillow and put a child on the floor, I have done this in a ferry crossing cabin too ! Costs a fortune otherwise.

DioneTheDiabolist · 09/04/2018 10:09

This thread is hilarious.

But serious question, if I am one person but have multiple personalities for an Internet thread, do I inform the hotel that all of my personalities are in the room using the WiFi? Confused

RepealMay25th · 09/04/2018 11:17

If you pay for train tickets do you pay for 4 and make the 5th person sit on someone’s knee? Same with the cinema?

Well the under 5's go free so, yes. And for cinema we use 2 for 1 tickets, so they get their own seat for free.

Everybody does this. No-one books an extra hotel room for one little kid.

MyDcAreMarvel · 09/04/2018 12:01

SpitefulMidLifeAnimal
My younger dc never shower in a hotel as we only go for a couple of nights. No extra hot water or towels needed. Just the one tv uses power for CBeebies.
Although I will in future hotel trips, keep “ if it’s yellow let it mellow” fresh in my mind Grin

WhateverHappenedToMe · 09/04/2018 12:38

Presumably the hotel will calculate occupancy to conform to its fire certificate. I think you're being unreasonable by ignoring safety.

RepealMay25th · 09/04/2018 12:40

Presumably the hotel will calculate occupancy to conform to its fire certificate

Doesn't work like that.

Hillarious · 09/04/2018 12:41

We've done this, and were encouraged to do so by the hotel, when flying out from an airport. The kids were 10, 9 and 7. The only concern from the hotel was whether they kids would be comfortable squeezing into one bed. They did and they were.

Booking for five is always difficult if you're trying to do it online because having five in your family is just such a freakish thing.

SweetMoon · 09/04/2018 13:27

downthepubofcourse
And children are sticky, and do touch the walls and mess up windows in a way adults just don’t. And rooms with kids in take far longer to service than those without. Fact. I have the stats to prove it.

Not sure what types of kids you get in your hotel, but mine are not 'sticky'.Hmm

I have no idea how you calculate your costs but I fail to see how an extra small child will make any difference to the cleaning and use of a room already rented to 2 adults and 2 children for 1 quick overnight stop. I hope I never have the misfortune of staying at your hotel, with or without kids. You sound a little odd.

Aragog · 09/04/2018 13:44

I don't know if there has been a recent change in policy but on Tuesday last week, for the first time ever at a Premier Inn, we had to give the name and date of birth of DD on check in, as well as having previously had to enter the full names of both adults on the booking. The website asked for the adult's details on booking online - we booked a week previously.

When booking the same hotel branch (different location) in the past (and it is only about a month ago I used PI) I was only asked for the lead name for each room, plus number of adults and children per room.

No idea if it is a change in policy or specific to that hotel - the lady on reception said it was for H&S/Fire regulations - but we've never had it before. It may have been due to the location of the hotel perhaps - near the the Eurotunnel??

Regardless, I am not sure if this would then cause issues if you have too many people for the checked room????

Downthepubofcourse · 09/04/2018 14:41

Sweetmoon I will show you the pictures of angelic children’s mess! If I could be arsed to that is. The last room we had kids in we had to repaint one wall, took it out of action for 2 days.

I’m not too odd, just hate entitled people ripping me off. This is my livelihood, and of course that of the 20 people we employ. Why should other guests subsidise your children?

And before you make assumptions I have 2 kids of my own.

SweetMoon · 09/04/2018 15:30

downthepubofcourse sounds like you just have a problem with kids. Just don't rent to people with kids, problem solved. The ones that wrecked your walls, were they 'snuck' in? if not, your point is totally irrelevant.

I also would think that 99.9% of people have children who don't wreck the hotel walls, just hazarding a wild guess there.

pollymere · 09/04/2018 17:42

Phone and say you need a camp bed in the room. Theyre usually fine about that. I often book rooms for two and add a camp bed. Don't try and book online, it's not really designed for this.

lolalola19 · 09/04/2018 18:08

Don't think there'd be an issue unless they're eating breakfast/having extras that they haven't paid for?

manicmij · 09/04/2018 18:09

Isn't having more people in a hotel room than booked for just the same as people who rent a one bed flat and have 5 people living there. They are considered as acting illegally. I wouldn't do it. Perhaps I'm too honest hence no money.

WorldofTofuness · 09/04/2018 18:15

What if the computer itself was burning and the printer couldnt print that list?
I doubt they would print out a list of hundreds of guests while evacuating a burning building.

There's a 1970s disaster that sometimes comes up in my industry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alfaques_disaster (warning: It's a bit grim.)

The list of people in the campsite was in the (destroyed) reception, as were most of their passports. (Anyone with any paperwork on them would have been close to the site of the fire rather than in the see, so burned beyond recognition.) The death toll is actually more uncertain (ie likely to be higher) than stated.

This was a few decades ago, and hopefully we would never see anything on that scale here, but no, IRL 'official' guest lists are of little help in the midst of a disaster.

CheesyWeez · 09/04/2018 18:18

Do it OP you'll be fine.
I've done it before. And also claimed a child was only 11 when she was 12, so that I could still have a family room for "2 adults and 2 children under 12". At Gatwick airport we just didn't take everyone to the free breakfast as that would have felt wrong. DH only has coffee for breakfast so he bought himself one.

EggysMom · 09/04/2018 18:19

Don't pay any attention to some of the guff people are coming out with on here. Some people just like to argue

I'd agree with that.
Not sure I'd agree with who you think the guff-spouters are though Grin

Moonandstars84 · 09/04/2018 18:36

That's what we did mydc

Moonandstars84 · 09/04/2018 18:43

Also we have recently boomed rooms for an event. The manager showed us around the room and was family for 5 of us to share a room for 4. She said she could add a bed it preferred not to if we were happy.

Moonandstars84 · 09/04/2018 18:43

Boomed? Booked

Moonandstars84 · 09/04/2018 18:46

The expense of the 3rd child is out of proportion. 4 people and parking 145. 5 people and parking 300. Bang out of order.

RepealMay25th · 09/04/2018 19:21

Isn't having more people in a hotel room than booked for just the same as people who rent a one bed flat and have 5 people living there

Er what now? If the 5 people are a family of 5, then thats hardly uncommon. Its not illegal, why would you think it is?

Qwertytypewriter · 09/04/2018 21:36

if the hotel can't provide accurate guest numbers how do they know how many people need rescuing?
They can't anyway (and as has been explained, they don't rescue the correct number then stop).
If you think about it, anyone could have a visitor, either for he evening or all night, they wouldn't be recorded.
Also, at any given time, for a room with 2 key cards, and 4 people booked in, almost any number could be in or out of the room (and they could have friends round), so the booked number is not much help (even if both cards are swiped out, 4 or more people could be in - one person could have taken both out, and lost them, then come back late and been let in!). If both cards are in, one person could have stayed in alone, expecting to let all the rest in.
They really wouldn't look up the number of people to rescue.

villanova · 09/04/2018 22:21

For future, have you tried the 'sleeps 5' website (recommended to me on a previous Mumsnet thread on this subject) sleeps5.com/destinations/british-isles/england/

Voice0fReason · 09/04/2018 22:59

If the systems are showing that rooms x y z are swiped as 'in' and four people are booked into room x, the firefighters will go to room x, look for and if necessary, pull out 4 people. If you're all unconscious, who tells them that there should also be a toddler in the party to look for?
Swiped in? How does a hotel know who is swiped in? Never, in any hotel that I have ever stayed in, has every person from a room had to swipe in and out. They have absolutely no way of knowing whether anyone is in the room at any time.

And the notion of the firefighters walking down the corridor with a list of how many people are supposed to be in each room is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard.

This is ridiculous scare-mongering that people blatantly make up because they object to the idea that someone else might be getting something for nothing.