Baby listening /sitting service in hotels

[kittycat37]

Hi there,
Has anyone used a baby listening or baby sitting service in a hotel before? Me and DH have been thinking about going away for a night with our two DCs to a hotel where we could have dinner with them safely in bed....We have a 3yr old and 3 month old and have not been out together since birth of the baby (I don't feel ready to leave her with a babysitter at home). I thought maybe if we were all in the same building me and DH could have a 'date night' and not worry about DCs....but I'm uneasy about it, even though lots of luxury hotels offer baby listening / sitting services....has anyone tried them and how do you know if it's completely ok? (I'm guessing 'never' is the answer but maybe people have a good experience of these things?)

IMO & E, the two are v v different. Baby sitting is that - you have a person in your room with dcs at all times. Baby listening is not that at all. It's where they get you to leave your phone off the hook, they maintain a connection to reception and from time to time someone listens to their end of the phone. Not good.

What we have done in the past (and I'm waiting for the burning oil and fire arrows as we speak) is take our own baby monitor (with lights when volume off for obvious reasons) and asked for a table next to a power socket. Obviously we would wait until dcs were fast asleep and ensure that they were properly secured in the room. And despite the ability to listen in, one of us would pop upstairs every 30 mins or so to ensure that everything was fine.

I appreciate that some would find that unacceptable but it worked for us.

Thanks buttonmoon - that sounds like quite a good compromise - much better than the listening service and in some ways perhaps less risky than a completely unknown baby sitter, and afterall it's only like being in a really big house. I'm still not sure what to do though. I'll have to think about it.

Do, because if you're going to be sat there like a cat on a hot tin roof all through the meal you might as well not bother! Like I say, it worked for me for all the reasons you say.

Whatever you do, enjoy your holiday.