Extra cost of babies/toddlers hotel break

[Thehonestbadger]

We were looking to go away just hubby and I this weekend. We were surprised how much this cost for a nice country hotel with pool around £350 for the two of us including breakfast. (First time we’ve been away in 3 years so obviously prices have risen)

Unfortunately we lost childcare so I looked again taking our 3 & 1 year old with us and they want almost £200 extra for the kids. Same room, bring our own travel cot for baby. Kids aren’t even allowed to use the pool other than at very specific restrictive times. This seems like madness. Surely £15 for a breakfast each and £5 for extra hot water maybe £15 to make the toddlers pull out bed. That’s like £50/£75 extra fair enough but £200???

Am I out of touch? Is this normal?

It’s not just making a bed though.
Theres extra laundry with towels and bedding, extra dishes being washed so water, soap, extra cleaning in the restaurant - you may be really clean but the amount of parents who leave tables a mess is disgusting- so that could affect staffing ratios also, along with food that may be taken but not eaten. The items still need to be bought, cooked, plated up, served.

That seems odd if it’s for the very same room. Are you 100% sure it’s not for an upgraded room? A cot and a rollaway bed is a lot of floor space so maybe they’ve made you go for junior suite or something but not explained it properly. The pool thing is completely normal though. Imagine if your childcare hadn’t fallen through and you’re chilling in the spa whilst someone else’s toddler is screaming and splashing, doubt you’d be massively pleased. There are spa hotels that are more kid friendly, if you can cancel and go for one of those instead you’ll probably have a better time and not feel as ripped off!

Contrary to the absolute bollocks posted by the first poster, I think YANBU. I suspect what's happened is the venue doesn't want children so are making it so expensive as to either put people right off bringing their kids or if they do still bring them, to make it extremely profitable for the hotel.

£200 for washing towels and dishes on top of a £350 room rate 😱

My guess is they’re discouraging kids as they don’t really want them staying or that they’re upgrading the room type but haven’t made that clear.

It’s definitely to deter guests from bringing children. And the guests who will spend the most (eg adults) of course don’t want kids in the pool all day.

No room upgrade, exactly the same.

I used to work in hospitality and can guarantee you that cost is nowhere near justified in washing a few extra towels! An extra £30 per child would more than comfortably cover the extra expense.

I suspect it is that they don’t want kids but ironically when you google family friendly hotels in this area they are the first who come up!

I commented this on another thread. I have 2 primary school aged kids. I priced a double room and the exact same room but with a sofa bed. For the price of the room with the sofa bed plus £20 pounds you could have 2x double rooms... absolutely ridiculous. Also all the "deals" in Wowcher or itison are for couples only....it costs a fortune to holiday on the UK with kids.