'Sneaking' two extra children into hotel room booked for two adults and two children

[AlbertCamel]

AIBU in thinking this may have implications regarding insurance etc?

Friend is off on holiday later today to a large hotel abroad with her DH and four DC aged between 4 and 16. Not a package, no meals included and flights were booked separately.

The room has a small bedroom, bathroom and living area with a sofa bed. It sleeps 4. They've booked it for two adults and two children. That's the maximum number of people allowed.

She wants to check in with DH, their two youngest boys and all their luggage, and have the two oldest boys wait outside until they're 'sneaked' in a little while later.

I think that whilst this is logistically possible, it will have implications but not sure what these implications might be. Friend thinks there's no problem with this and nobody will bat an eyelid.

AIBU in saying it's not a good idea?

It has been a while since i stayed in a spanish hotel, is it one of the countries you have to give the passport details of anyone staying|?

Agreed.

Travelodge only has rooms for 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) and when my 3rd kid was in a travel cot we still used Travelodge.

We booked for the maximum 4 and then just told reception we had a baby too, they never cared and often offered a cot bed (we had our own though).

As a non pay per head place I don't think they cared at all but we never 'snuck' around. Its likely more of an issue with older people and maximum capacities, where are these kids sleeping?

I wouldn’t care in the slightest if my friend did this. If it’s a massive hotel, I can’t see why they’d notice. We’ve never done it as a family because we only have 2 kids. When I was travelling in vegas in my early 20s, me and my friend booked a double room (with 2 double beds) and snuck 2 friends in. Hotel didn’t notice because it was huge and it was super cheap for us. Riskier with kids because you don’t want them to be kicked out mid holiday. But that’s their risk to take and I wouldn’t go on at a friend until she got upset with me about it

Some hotel staff are really good at recognising people and remembering where they're staying,

This is true. I used to work in a 300 room family hotel. The restaurant manager has worked there 20+ years and has a phenomenal memory for previous guests, names, when they last came, which room number they're in this time. Some of the receptionists and the Hotel Manager were similarly great at noting and remembering.

As far as I'm aware, yes. I guess she'll just give the details of their two youngest boys.

Not your circus - not your Monkeys.

Yes this is the case now ! We had to send our details before travelling.

I did this abroad last year. Our young adult DD joined us for a couple of days in the middle of our holiday, got a very cheap flight last minute. I went online to try and book her a room but they wanted 300 euros a night. We only paid about £500 each for flights, room and breakfast for a week.

Luckily we had a massive bed and she got in with us, with me in the middle. Had the audacity to moan about my snoring, after me saving her 600 euros!

I did smuggle her a couple of pastries from the breakfast buffet and some fruit, but I don't eat much so I figured it would be similar with someone with a big appetite.

She spent money round the pool on drinks and food.

Huge hotel, reception didn't have a clue who was there, same with cleaners, why would they? As someone else has said, single people must regularly pull on holiday and take people back to their rooms.

No chance of DD doing that though 😃

Might as well bring the food as well like the Dutch do.

It's very easy in a hotel to ask for an extra sheet or towel. I image given this is not a one nighter the chambermaid is going to spot there are too many of them and will report them to reception. Can you imagine cleaning up that room every day for a week.

This is true. The staff in restaurant/ bars/ accommodation are very observant!

I did smuggle her a couple of pastries from the breakfast buffet and some fruit, but I don't eat much so I figured it would be similar with someone with a big appetite.

Never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to justify their grabbiness and scummy behaviour to themselves.

I could not enjoy my holiday doing this, I’d never relax for fear of being caught.

I wouldn't openly criticise my friend's holiday choices, no, unless it was something life threatening. I would nod and smile. It would be different if she specifically asked if you for your opinion, but she didn't.

It wasn't 'concern' that brought you here. You criticised her, she fell out with you, and now you've turned to Mumsnet in a bid to justify sticking your nose in and feel better about yourself.

Hotels have security staff who's job it is to keep a bit of an eye on comings and goings, it's likely to be a whole floor (or wing) of doubles +1 rooms so wouldn't take much to notice extras and if the kids are noisy a neighbouring room may complain. Just saying, they may get away with it, but any suspicion and it will become immediately obvious. And doing this in a foreign country with four children in tow seems a recipe for disaster if you are caught, risk versus reward seems a bit iffy to me. Hope they have plenty of spare cash with them.

We arrived at a hotel in Berlin not realising booking dot com had offered us a one bed room when we'd put in that there were two adults and a teenager. The hotel put in another put up bed and didn;t charge us anything thankfully, they were really helpful and nice about it.

We've also lied about our teenage ds's age at Premier Inns when he was considered an adult and so not allowed in the extra bed. Ridiculous policy by Premier Inn.

In this case though 6 people in a place for 4 for a whole week or more doesn't really sound like a lot of fun apart from anything else. It's not something I'd do but it's not something I'd consider worth falling out with someone over. If she wants to take the chance then it'll be on her if she gets caught.

Its not a risk I would take, especially abroad with kids. But I'm quite risk averse. As long as they have a plan b and thr funds for it, its up to them!

They are! By day three in our hotel last week the breakfast service people had already memorised our drinks order and as soon as they saw us walk in, they'd give us a nod and bring it over. It's their job. Some staff might not care but others may and raise it with a manager.

I do agree OP that it's nothing you can influence, your friend has clearly stated this is what she is going to be doing. If it all goes wrong she only has her own grabby tendencies to blame.

The 0.01% of the time where it’s relevant it’s critically important however.

99.999% of the time your smoke alarm sits there being irrelevant, even annoying. The 0.001% of the time it saves your backside.

Fire safety is crucial.

I can't imagine the hotel cleaners get paid enough to care, to be honest. How would they notice, other than a couple of extra suitcases lying around?

‘Back when I was young my husband travelled a lot for work he had to book as a single and I'd sneak in, hotels don't have single rooms so he mostly had a double.’

I expect the staff knew, they just thought you were a professional ( since that’s the norm).

If you got to the point of asking about wristbands, the conversation clearly went beyond a simple "gosh are you not worried you'll get caught?".

Well, it's theft, isn't it? And of course there are health & safety/insurance issues. This person is a fool.

The cleaners are more likely to notice because they are on the floor a lot and will see too many going in and out, also little things like bedding in odd places and too many toothbrushes. Whether they care or not will depend on if they draw attention to themselves and leave the room in a state every day. It's all very well to do this for a night, but a whole holiday is something else.