How do we stay in hotel with toddler and baby?

[KathyMCMLXXII]

Wondered if anyone had any experience of this.

Our toddler is 21 months and normally sleeps in her own room. We also have a 3 month old baby who sleeps in a basket next to our bed and wakes up several times in the night.

We're worried that if we stay in a hotel or b&b we'll end up with none of us getting any sleep: baby will wake up toddler who will be unsettled by us being in the same room and won't go back to sleep....

Has anyone done this and found it better/worse than they imagined? Should we get a separate room for toddler? Any advice?

(We used to go away a lot when there were just the 3 of us but I'm not sure how the toddler/baby combination is going to work )
Thanks.

I recently shared a room with my 5 year old and 2 year old. They both have their own rooms at home and sleep brilliantly from 7 until 7.30 the next mroning!

...not in the hotel they didn't! both asleep at 10.30 each night and waking the same time in the morning.

It was very difficult. Will have inter-connecting rooms next time although that isn't always an option!

good luck-may be better for you. I am sure your toddler will sleep through the baby's waking as they tend to sleep soundly at that age.

I have rather vivid memories of nights in a hotel room with 2 under 2s. Long, noisy, restless nights. Your hunch is right - even if they sleep well at home it's likely to be more disruptive all together in a new place.

my top tip - make sure there's a cot for your toddler if they have one at home, as well as for the baby. Or she'll be up and down and in and out of bed all night from the novelty of both that and sharing a room with the whole family.

I got lucky and ds frequented hotels from quite early on. Im afraid I had to stick to the routine though to make it work. If they bed down at 7pm then 7pm it will have to be. Curtains drawn, lights out and lay there quietly for half an hour whilst they drop off. Once asleep, get the drinks out and the tele on quietly

He is 5 now and still settles the same way.

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Thanks.
Are there many hotels that have interconnecting rooms? Do they cost much more than ordinary rooms in your experience?

We have a travel cot for dd, so even if the hotel didn't have one that wouldn't be an issue.

It's not quite a holiday - dh has a conference in Wales in April and we thought it might be nice for us all to go along. It's a few days midweek and we have commitments either end of it, so I imagine we'd end up paying for a whole week if we got a cottage - might still work out cheaper, though, of course.

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We found s.catering much easier at that age with separate rooms too.

Now it's OK all 5 of us in together - even quite enjoyable. They're 6, 5 and 2 now. But as babies and young toddlers - no no no.

Self catering is the way to go.

We travelled around the world with a 4 and 1 year old last year. We very soon learned that a hotel room was a recipe for disaster.

There are some really lovely self catering places in Wales and a lot offer midweek deals (especially at this time of year).

Hmm. it's a tricky one. we are going away for a wedding in a month and have a 2 1/5 year old and 6 month old. Staying in a pub and planning to buy a wireless monitor so we can at least go downstairs for a drink when (if) they're settled and not have to sit in the en-suite with a bottle of wine!

I tend to prefer self-catering as you have more options when the children are asleep in that you can watch TV/have a drink etc in a different room (not the en-suite ).

However interconnecting rooms would work if they have that option.

This is very helpful. Thank you.

We may investigate self-catering. Of course if it was later in the year we would camp

we always get interconnecting rooms in hotels - they normally price the second room at a reasonabvle rate when they know there's only a child in there

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Gower peninsula, April (can't remember the exact dates but it's after Easter.... however may still be school holidays, in which case the good stuff is probably gone already).

We did this last year after a wedding (only for one night though), it was much, much better than I expected. DD was 2 1/2 and ds was 9 months. They had a much later bed time than normal and time to get familiar with the room before I put them to bed. Ds still woke in the night, but dd (and dh!) slept through it all no problems.

Have 3 yo an 3 mo. Stayed in hotel 2 weeks in family room. Followed same routine as at home.
Ds2 went off as normal (but then he has to put up with his brother's noise at home anyway) in a travel cot. Ds1 also went to bed happily, but was too excited to sleep straight away. Wasn't helped by the brightness of the lights in the room. I read by the bedside light and ignored him while he chattered excitedly and clambered in and out of bed for 1.5 hours.
They both slept through 'til 8:15 (usually up at 7:00). A pot of cereal and pint of milk kept ds1 happy in the morning (Travellodge, so nothing on offer).

2 weeks ago that is

Thanks everyone.
Well DH has managed to find a cottage so it looks like that will be the safest thing to do. It's all these stories about drinking wine in the en suite - I can just see myself ending up sitting in the bath to breastfeed