Airport creche what are your thoughts?

[justshootmenow]

I'm loooking for some feedback on your thoughts of a creche at uk airports.

I havent yet found any in the uk and think its an untapped market.

Have you used on abroad? what was it like?

Would you use one if it was available?

What would you like to see at the creche?

Any thoughts or feedback would be grately appreciated.

what? to leave the little darlings in when you fly out and pick up when you return?

Brilliant idea.

I don't know how you would ever work out costings though. How many children/staff would you need every day? Charge by the half hour or 15 mins? Pre book presumably? I couldn't cope sending a child back to their parents knowing they were going holiday after they had a bumped head or bruised knee or something

Just come back from Germany where the hit was a small metal plane that the children could play on/inside.

Good luck though

Creche is the wrong word, I cant think of the right one.

Children to Staff ratio would be 6:1, until I see the space available I wouldnt know how many children max capacity would be.
was thinking minimum of 15 minute slots upto a couple of hours?

some ideas floating in my head is
aircraft to climb in and on in the centre
one one side lots of cushions, beanbags and books for quiet area snooze room
the other would be a soft play area and NON messy drawing with pencils/crayons.
Fresh fruit available to all of the children at no extra cost.

These are only ideas and would like your thoughts on them, I want this to be what the parents want not what I tell them they want.

If the first is sucessful I want to have one at all major uk airports both landside and airside.

I'd be far too stressed when travelling to cope with the extra hassle of a creche. I guess some people may see it as a stree reliver but I'd see it as more stress. By the time I've got through security I want to grab a book, water, coffee, go to the loo with DD making sure she's had a wee. Then go and sit right by the gate ti make sure we don't miss the plane. I suppose some people may be more relaxed about the whole thing but I'm not.

The only time I'd use one is if the plane had been delayed by hours. You don't really get that much time airside before boarding.

I am assumming you are perhaps thinking of something along the lies of the ones they have at IKEA? That is, leave the kids here and do your shopping - max 2 hrs stay? Think it is a good idea tbh. Def need a place they can let off steam, perhaps also with a quiet area with books/wii console, and a nap room. Having said that, you may wish to stick to 3 + age group to allow for higher staff ratio and less 'toilet' issues...

tbh the majority of airport customers are not children therefore they don't give a shite about providing soft play

I'm with Viva, with all the extra security hassle these days we are never hanging about much, apart from in queues (and you can't leave the kids behind for those - checkin, security etc.)

Would be useful if the plane was delayed though.

Small (under 8) soft play dotted around the lounges would be good though. Unsupervised apart from by parents. Our local shopping centre has some and the kids love it.

Playareas yes for parents to supervise - but not a drop off childcare.

I think parent-supervised areas are better. You could still provide everything you say - sounds good. I would put a max of 45 mins per session and not pre-bookable. Hope it works out for you.

airports are all about the selling of overpriced shite that you normally wouldn't even consider buying, they are not going to give up perfectly good retail space for some ghastly soft play.

Some airports already have small, free parent supervised soft play areas. Doncaster does and I think Birmingham may do. I've definetly seen it in 2 different airports. Have never flown with kids from bigger airports such as Manchester/Heathrow so not sure if they do or not. I've not seen one at Gatwick.