Hotel - substantial extra cost for toddler

[Wiggleinherwalk]

AIBU thinking this situation is quite unreasonable?

Looking for a b&b for a long weekend in Wales, just a random weekend in Oct, so not school/holidays or 'peak' time.

2 people B&B in a double - £95
2 people B&B in a triple (double bed & single) £115
But if you want to use that extra single bed for a toddler, it's an extra £30pp extra per night. Same fee for baby/toddler or adult.

Queried it as it's already costing £20 more for the larger room, so seemed weird to me to charge more for a Family room then charge more again to actually use the beds, and they've said it's correct as it "covers the bedding, towels, shower and breakfast and labour for the extra bed to be made up."

But surely they're only doing the making up and washing of things once as they're not stripping and changing the beds every day?! And I wouldn't want them to! And if it's only 2 people in there, do they not still have to make up both beds? Might be 2 friends sharing who sleep separately surely?!

Just think it makes it feel quite extortionate when you think what a 2 year old eats and uses... Feel like it would make more sense to have that as a 'one-off' cost for the stay, and then add on a daily charge for breakfast if needed?

Looks a lovely B&B, and really good reviews, so is it just me being tight?!

I think this seems reasonable.

Two people, standard sized room, £95
Two people, bigger room, £115
Three people, £145

Seems acceptable incremental costs to me.

Three people should pay more than two. Superior rooms should cost more than standard. Three people, superior room should cost the most.

Very standard for the price to go up with the size of the room and number of people. As toddlers are loud, messy and generally annoying, £30 sounds perfectly reasonable.

This is standard; B&Bs would usually charge ‘heads in beds’ and per breakfast, rather than room only. Of course they want to maximise revenue. Places I’ve worked before have sometimes had no charge up to 23 months, but charge age 2-10 or 2-12 approx 25-30£ per night. Not speaking about your child specifically, but some toddlers can plough through krispies, juice, toast and sausages and need to be catered for on that basis.

To be fair, that’s not unreasonable.
Toddlers are probably one of the more annoying guests in a hotel - second only to drunk stag/hen do’s!

It's not unreasonable at all, I would choose not to book under certain circumstances, but they should be clear about it if they don't want small children so that all their possible guests knew where they stood before booking.

It seems they are keeping their options open which would prevent them getting the mature guests that want to stay in a child free establishment, as well as putting off those with children that feel they are facing being ripped off by being charged as per the OP states.

Not being upfront is going to get them unwanted reviews.

Actually you usually pay a supplement

But it's not up to you to decide what should be what, if you don't want to book it dont

OP you misunderstand consumer business model, you are not buying a commodity it's not like your gas meter you just pay for what you use.
Consumer business works in quite a simple way. The business owner identifies a target market, which is where the cost to supply something is lower than the value of the said thing. By the largest margin.
Then they seek to structure the business to maximise the value, while minimising the cost.
Competition dictates that the gap is reasonable given supply and demand.
Your mistake is you are looking at the cost rather than the value. As the customer you need to decide what the value of taking your family to that place, and compare with other places.
Thinking about the cost will just infuriate you and waste your enjoyment.

YABU they can charge whatever they want

jf you don’t like it stay somewhere else

This actually makes a lot of sense, and quite see your point of cost vs value as yes in terms of trying to figure out what the extra money is actually buying has completely sucked the fun out of looking for a nice weekend away!

Put some random dates into their website and for 2 nights, 2 adult plus child it's coming out at £320, with an 'offer' taking it down to £300.
So that's £160/night (up another £15 again!) with a 'deal' bringing it down to £150.
So even the prices they're advertising aren't what you pay in the end..

Have you stayed there before OP? I agree with pp, perhaps they prefer adults guests and the rate structure is in place to deter family bookings.

But if those are the terms, you either book or find somewhere else, if you don’t feel it offers value.

I think this seems reasonable.

Two people, standard sized room, £95
Two people, bigger room, £115
Three people, £145

Seems acceptable incremental costs to me.

Three people should pay more than two. Superior rooms should cost more than standard. Three people, superior room should cost the most.

This....? Its not hard to work out. They aren't a charity who should run at cost to provide op & her toddler a cheap stay. A toddler is a far worse guest than an adult.

Op how much is it if 3 adults stay in the room? Im guessing no more. They aren't penalising you for it being a toddler, you just are only just emerging from the baby years and are going to hate how much everything costs when you have to pay for tickets for your kid.

No not stayed there before, just looked nice being on the seafront and thought looked reasonable, but just couldn't get my head around why the costs kept jumping up so quickly.
They're comparatively much more expensive than anywhere else close by, who have much more reasonable child fees, and have got good availability over the whole summer still, so think people are just booking elsewhere.

Think posters saying it's to put off families are pretty right tbh - my toddler is of course a PFB who would behave impeccably (😉) but do realise little people bring a whole new element of chaos. Perhaps they just want adult guests, but haven't gone as fat as to bring in a blanket ban.

Yes you're right, blanket £30pp per night regardless of age.

Suppose the difference I see is fair enough 2+ pays for a seat on a plane as they're getting a seat on a plane that could have been sold for full price. You're paying for what you're using.

This is paying for a bed in a room that's the same whether she's there or not - they'd need to set it up/clean it as a twin if it's 2 people using it as otherwise ick, so apart from an extra single towel and the very nominal amount she'd eat at breakfast it's really no difference in terms of the 'work' they have to do... for £30 extra per night.

But yes, perhaps I'm just painfully adjusting to the cost increase now she's no longer a baby!! 😬

They also charge an extra £10 per night supplement for any one night stays!
Just so many extra little costs and fees!

Get the double room and take a ready bed?

Or book it for 3 adults and see if they add the extra £30 for that.

Failing that go somewhere else. Family ros do usually cost a bit more but I probably wouldn't have booked one for a toddler.

Not in most hotels - they add 50% on

I don't think the extra is unreasonable at all. There will undoubtedly be additional work for an additional person, no matter how little they are. We've already covered bedding, but you'll perhaps need them to warm up milk or prepare or head special food. There will be a bit of mess in the restaurant. They will have had to outlay costs to accommodate toddlers - you've got the cot cost, which they have to cover, plus you'll probably need a high chair in the restaurant.

I agree they don't want toddlers/babies there!

Again, that's pretty standard.

One night guests are a bit of a PITA really - you have to change all the bedding and deep clean the room as normal, but they're taking away the chance for another person or family to book a full week or weekend stay. Lots of places don't even allow it anymore and insist on a minimum of 2-3 nights.

Honestly - nothing you've described on this thread is unusual. If you want to pay by room then go to a bigger chain place.

We stayed in a hotel with B&B for a wedding recently (not the venue just nearby). We had a family room one king-sized bed, one single, the room price is the room price assuming full occupancy, so if as a couple you want to hire a triple room and leave the bed unoccupied you pay the room rate £150 , the double rooms were £130 regardless of whether one or two people slept in them.
It does seem odd to have an understandably higher rate for a triple room but then to add an additional charge if a third person sleeps there, why else would you want a triple room?!

@UndercoverCop
This is my thinking exactly - you're paying extra for the bigger room already, but then they're charging you again on top of it to use it!

You pay £8 for a burger, or £10 for a double burger, but the extra patty costs £2, so it's now £12!

I think you’re right OP, it makes no sense to advertise (and charge more for) a triple occupancy room, and then charge more again because 3 people want to use it?! They should just factor the costs of the 3rd person into the overall room rate. Like you say, 2 people sharing could well end up using both beds anyway.

Yep. This happened to me at a lovely B&B in Lymington we had already stayed at pre-children. Put in us plus 2 year old, it returned a large double as an option on Booking.com and said ask for travel cot. Got an email from the owner saying that was an error and it would be £75 more for one night as 2 year olds are adults. We cancelled.