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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to us a baby monitor in a hotel

100 replies

frekkles · 02/02/2010 12:45

Sure that this has been done before.

Me and tother half and 9 month old son are staying in a small (15 bedroom) family run hotel for a weekend later in the month. They have a lovely restaurant. They are very child friendly, and they advertise themselves as offering baby monitors. They said on the phone that they could give us a room with a baby monitor so that we could have a meal in the restaurant at night. They said people did it all the time and it worked fine.

The wee boy goes to bed about 7 and always sleeps soundly till atleast midnight. We'd be downstairs (the room's on the first floor) a few hours tops with a monitor. I don't think I'd be comfortable doing this in a large hotel with loads of guests and staff, but this seems different.

What do you think?

OP posts:
frasersmummy · 02/02/2010 12:58

mmmm I wouldn't soo many what ifs

what if there was a fire
what if someone broke into the room
what if they started choking

that said.. what are the chances of any of these things happening... I'm just a bit neurotic.. im sure someone else will be a long in a min with a more sensible pov

curryfreak · 02/02/2010 12:58

No. Madeline mc cann?

EleanoraBuntingCupcake · 02/02/2010 12:59

sounds fine to me.

Chil1234 · 02/02/2010 13:00

I think that's great and I've done this for years when we go on holiday to a private hotel with about 30 rooms. Lock the room from the outside, leave a little light on in case he wakes up, use the baby monitor and go back and check from time to time and your baby will be just fine for a few hours and you can relax as a couple. There's no difference being in a really big house than there is being in a smallish hotel in terms of safety. Baby-snatchers are absolutely not prowling round every corner and the McCanns were just very unlucky with what happened to their child

eastendmummy · 02/02/2010 13:00

We've done the same thing a couple of times in similar small hotels and it's been fine. Maybe wait till you get there and then decide based on proximity of restaurant and bedroom, layout of hotel etc...

BertieBotts · 02/02/2010 13:02

If it was like a house and wasn't so big that in the event of a fire I was likely to be cut off from the baby, I would. I leave DS upstairs with a monitor in my own home every night and would do at a friend's house, if the hotel is small enough it's no different IMO.

I wouldn't in a larger hotel and I wouldn't use a baby listening service.

However this thread will probably kick off and you will be flamed for even considering it! Use the advanced search and type in "monitor hotel" and see all the old threads on the subject!

emma123456 · 02/02/2010 13:04

I think it would be fine. You'd need to test the baby monitor and make sure that its sensitive enough to pick up on the slightest sound i.e a door opening etc and I'd ask for a room as close to the dining area as possible.

Its no where the same as M Mccann..She was left alone in an apartment, no monitor and the doors open.

I've left mine at Centre Parcs and gone next door to sit with friends, my monitor registers the boys farting and turning over so I was comfortable that I would hear more than I would if I was in bed with the monitor off.

The hotel sounds the equivalent of a big house. I'd say go for it. If there was a fire the smoke alarms would go off.

jeee · 02/02/2010 13:05

Sounds fine - unless your 9 month old is that rare one who can already climb out of his cot, in which case I wouldn't feel happy about it.

Helium · 02/02/2010 13:06

I wouldn't do this. A monitor cant pick up a fire. How about settling him and then popping him in a buggy and taking him down with you?

emma123456 · 02/02/2010 13:09

Thats why they have smoke alarms? The monitor would pick up the smoke alarms.

heliotrope · 02/02/2010 13:11

I have done it, have to make a call based on the look of the place when you get there.

EleanoraBuntingCupcake · 02/02/2010 13:14

i have popped across to neighbours with monitor before.

people on here are crazy with their unlikely scenarios.

Sassybeast · 02/02/2010 13:16

Brother and sIL have just come bacj from a wedding at a hotel which advertised a baby monitoring service. When they got there, it actually involved leaving the phone off the hook and the receptionist listening in (supposedly every 15 minutes) on the phone. Not sure exactly what happened but they went out to reception to check if all was ok and the receptionist was on a break, they went to the room and DN was screaming blue murder and by the time they got back downstairs again, the receptionist still wasn't back. Worth checking exactly how the system works ?

RonaldMcDonald · 02/02/2010 13:18

oh my god I can't believe that some fule has trotted out M McCann as a warning
it's not only inappropriate but scaremongering at every level

If you are comfortable, leave your son and enjoy your meal. The risks should be minimal or similar to him sleeping upstairs in your own home whilst you use a monitor

howdidthishappenthen · 02/02/2010 13:19

I'd do it, if the monitor was in range.

moomaa · 02/02/2010 13:22

I'm not saying don't do it as I do think risks are minimal but it is not the same as in your house, as in your house you wouldn't lock him in a room and strangers don't have access to the halls.

saintlydamemrsturnip · 02/02/2010 13:22

sassy - similar thing happened to us years ago. In our case there was a wedding reception going on which was so loud the receptionist apparently couldn't hear ds1 screaming the place down

I would trust your own baby monitor over many hotel baby listening services.

curryfreak · 02/02/2010 13:23

Why is it scaremongering? Was i imaginig that a little girl dissapeared from her hotel roon when she was suppossedly safe when her parents were close by enjoying a meal?
OP, it's entirely up to you if you want to take the risk. How would you feel though if something happened? Is it really worth it?

Bettymum · 02/02/2010 13:24

We have done this in small hotels in the UK and in France, using our own baby monitor. DD was literally seconds away in all cases. I have friends that have done it as well in larger hotels.
Providing your DS will settle OK in a new place I think you should be fine, you may find that he won't settle and you end up in the room with him half the evening while your DH sits in the bar drinking beer [still bitter emoticon].

Lymond · 02/02/2010 13:26

With the obvious caveats about the room being quite near the restaurant, locking the door, checking the monitor works at that distance first, and taking it in turns to go and check on your DC between courses, then do it and have fun!

We've done similarly.

Original poster
frekkles · 02/02/2010 13:27

thanks all! i'll decide when I get there certainly. It's definately a monitor that you keep with you, and the room is upstairs from the dining room. The guy on the phone said you'd hear a baby cry from the dining room without a monitor so it cannae be far. I'd definately not feel comfy with a baby listening service or a big hotel, but this is different. But we shall see! Maybe it'll feel wrong at the time.

different people feel different about different levels of risk i think. that's fair enough! Hope nobody feels the need to get overly worried.

OP posts:
gorionine · 02/02/2010 13:27

I would not do it because I worry for nothing a lot but in that particular setting I can imagine someone doing it and I would not find it weird at all.

I might be wrong but Ithink in the Mc Cann story the parents wre not in the same building which makes a lot of difference to me.

thehairybabysmum · 02/02/2010 13:32

I have done this before in a similar set up and happily would do so again.

Enjoy!

MyNameIsInigoMontoya · 02/02/2010 13:33

We have done this too, providing the room is close, the monitor has good reception and it's not too noisy to hear it. (We did go up and check regularly too). It is very different having a good monitor to just a "baby listening" service, which is just an occasional check and only likely to pick up real loud crying.

RonaldMcDonald · 02/02/2010 13:34

without going into the M McCann case at all

the facts are that hundreds of thousands of children are left on their own, for some period, every year
we cannot and should not run our lives worrying about the absolute worst case scenario. Especially when it has happened so infrequently that it is statistically almost impossible.

suggesting that someone will break into a hotel room undetected, whilst the parents are using a baby monitor a floor away and kidnap a child is just complete nonsense.

Unnecessary scaremongering for the lowest common denominator