Suddenly we need to book two rooms as DS is 13?

[deltapips]

I was browsing booking.com earlier for May half term breaks. My eldest is now 13 so the options that came up defaulted to two rooms rather than one which obviously doubles the price, argh!
There's a hotel in Dorset that we've been to twice. The first time our room had a double bed and bunk bed. The second time we were allocated a two bedroom apartment with a double bed and two singles. Both perfectly adequate for my family now. But I can't book that now.
I know I call them directly but I'm not sure I'd get the "free cancellation" option that I really like.
AIBU to be annoyed or should I just suck it up?

With parents.

I'm unclear what your gripe is. You're referring to your eldest has now being 13 which implies you have a younger child(ren). Before you once had a 'family room', and another time you had a two bed apartment. You can still get those but 4 bed rooms are less common so availability will be less.
You can adjust your room requirement on booking.com to 4 bed room but there's a chance the majority might be aimed at 4 adult friends. No-one making you have any more (or less) rooms than you had before.
I recently holidayed with 2 other adults, male and female. We had a 2 roomed apartment for 3 of us, but on the very last night after an exertion we stayed in a cheap triple room as we were literally in the room for 8hrs mostly sleep.
Personally I wouldn't want to spend any more than a night in a family room with a 13 year old plus 1 other but if you don't mind, just change your options when searching. It'll show what they have.

Only children are not rare. Your solution isn't necessary anyway as sharing works for our family as it sounds like it works for many other families here. My DS is 16, almost 17 by the way.

What's grim about sharing a room with a parent?

It's perfectly normal, it enables you to have a holiday on a budget

Especially when abroad

In that case my heart goes out to him.

What's grim about sharing a room with parents?

Can’t believe how divisive the topic of sharing rooms can be! My teens (ds15 dd14) will still happily share with each other / us parents/ their younger sister in whatever combination is necessary. We travel a lot and it is normal for us to have to share.
In terms of Booking.com, as others have said, you can filter to family rooms. In your case I’d just say your son is 12.

Why?

I think if teens and adults are happy
to share then there’s no issue. If one party has a problem then it’s fine to change things. Like in our family, it was a snoring issue..

@Jenniferturkington

there was a thread a little while ago started by someone who argued that teenagers sharing rooms was a violation of their human rights.

totally mad thread.

We all share and put in correct ages and it's never been a problem.

If everyone is happy what’s the problem? DS (19) has shared with Dd (16) when on long haul holidays (they get changed in the bathroom or when the other is out the room). Otherwise we would need 3 rooms.

They’re fine with this (assume backpackers would have mixed sex dorms).

And we’ve shared with either or both kids when absolutely necessary (recently when visiting DS at uni as couldn’t afford 2 rooms- DD fine with this although obviously given the choice).

Our DTs (DD and DS) happily shared rooms on holiday, even in their 20s. They were delighted to get a free holiday with us.
Mist American hotel rooms have two large beds anyway. When they were younger they would share a bed or occasionally DH and DS would share and DD would be with me.

My gripe was that I was being made to have more rooms down before. If I put in the info that he is 12, i get options for rooms that fit 4 people. As soon as I input that he's 13 it defaults to 2 rooms

I did a search recently 5 adults - offered 3 rooms. One Family room, double bed and two singles, and two double rooms, enough for 8 people!
Rang the hotel and reserved the family room and one twin.
No option online to do this.

But going cheaper does not have to mean camping. Airbnb is cheaper than a lot of hotels. Even a flat works out cheaper and you have a lot more space

In that case my heart goes out to him
Oh, yes, heart goes out to the poor, hard done by 17 year old being taken on holiday by his parents. What a terrible hardship that must be.

But going cheaper does not have to mean camping. Airbnb is cheaper than a lot of hotels. Even a flat works out cheaper and you have a lot more space

Sometimes it can, or sometimes it doesn't. Or what if they want to stay in a hotel rather than self cater? Sometimes there just isn't another option, ie we like cruises, our (now adult) kids like to sometimes come with us, but we can't stretch to a second cabin, so they share. No other option if they want to come with. Our eldest doesn't come away with us anymore, but my 20yo and 17yo sometimes do, and they will share with us if need be.

Tbh I haven't booked through Airbnb before, we've just booked the cheapest B&B that meets our needs or a campsite. Maybe I could get two rooms for the same price as one, we've never actually needed to look as we are both happy to sleep in the same room.

Me and DH use Airbnb all the time, here and abroad. Much much better than staying in a hotel.

We like having more room plus usually a comfy sofa to sit and watch tv and not having to sit on the bed or the (usually) one uncomfortable chair in a hotel room.

We like not being told when we can have breakfast and the ability to cook for ourselves if we want to.

We also really like the fact that you don't get the noise you tend to get in hotels. Maybe we have been unlucky but just about every time we stay in a hotel there are guests coming back early hours of the morning slamming doors and talking at the tops of their voices. We also so many times get a noisy sex couple in the room next to us. I am a light sleeper and it annoys me that I need earplugs if we stay in a hotel

I think what has surprised me on this thread is how many people are sharing a room with their DC on holiday for days on end. I have to admit I'd never really thought about it since we always go self catering (with 3DC we'd need 2 interconnecting rooms in a hotel anyway) as did my parents (4DC). I much prefer self catering because we get so much more room (we usually book 3 bedroomed accommodation) and when the DC were tiny it was nice to be able to stay up after they'd gone to bed. Now we have teenagers it's the other way round!

As far as children sharing a room with parents I always think it's worse for the parents who can't have holiday sex, kids are fine sharing rooms (my DDs share all the time at home as well with no ill effects). In fact, more than my (ignorant) surprise that people share a room with their DC on holiday I'm surprised at the other extreme how horrified some are at siblings sharing. Surely that's very normal on holiday?

@mydogisthebest We do prefer having a hot breakfast included when we are on holiday, there's been a decent window so we can come down when we are ready.

@JaninaDuszejko - I totally agree. I also find the idea that staying in an Airbnb or similar means that you have to self cater, it's not compulsory! We do a mix but you can go out for every meal if you like, including breakfast, and still get to enjoy the space.

Hotels don't usually start their breakfast early enough for us especially at weekends. We are both early risers.

Also unless breakfast is included I think they are pretty expensive. I don't eat much for breakfast so don't want a cooked one. Just a slice of toast or porridge is all I want

I don't really understand how this has come about. I've shared a famiky room with two of my friends. It's obvious that we're three adults and it's not been a problem.