Keeping 3yrs safe in hotel room

[SafeCircle]

So I've booked a holiday abroad in May and been thinking about the set up of the room and having some worries.

The room we have means my 3 yrs old will be sleeping in the lounge area on a sofa bed (we have a separate bedroom). There is a sliding door out to the balcony from the lounge and I don't know what the set up re locking the door will be. They usually can't be locked and key removed due to fire safety. My 3 yr old is very clever and like most her age will be straight over to figure the door out. This concern is the same for the main door in and out of the room which is off of the lounge as well.

I have an idea of what I might do about it but I can't be the only parent who has faced this issue with their children so wanted to ask you guys what you have done to manage the situation? Any ideas are welcome to ensure I've thought of all options.

Thanks in advance

Put her in the bedroom and you have the sofa bed
It will also means that you dint have to go to bed when she does

'We' need to spread out a bit so one of you sleeps with the child and the other in the lounge area.

Personally when they are that young, in unfamiliar surroundings that are not fully child proof, I would put the 3 year old down to sleep in the bedroom so we had the lounge for the rest of the evening, and I would sleep in there with her while dh slept on the sofa bed.

IME balcony doors are lockable with a (stiff) catch, and as they are usually the width of the room, incredibly heavy and hard to open. I doubt a 3yo would manage it.

Again, the main doors usually have a stiff locking mechanism that a 3 to wouldn't manage.

We stayed in similar accommodation with both DCs and never had any problems.

We had this set up on our last holiday, I was also worried but when we got there there was a hook at adult height on the doors that led out to the terrace so she couldn’t open the doors herself. There may also be a security chain on the main door but can’t be more help in that one as the terrace doors were the only ones we had as it was ground floor.

We used to either sleep on the sofa bed, or move mattress from sofa bed onto the floor in the bedroom.

I think that most people either don't worry about it and assume there won't be any issues, or they book accommodation that avoids the situation.

We didn't have a holiday until we could afford a separate bedroom for DC (which was when the 30hrs free early years kicked in and we made a huge saving on what we had been spending on nursery fees)

With the room setup you are planning, I imagine that you and DP will be sitting out on the balcony while DC is getting to sleep so you'll be a physical barrier to escape from that direction. If you think there's a serious risk of her escaping from the room into the corridor then there are various ways you could secure against that. Google "hotel room security devices" and there's a wealth of options including a good article on tripsavvy that reviews various ideas. I would probably go for a prong alarm that you would wedge into the gap between to door and doorframe which would sound an alarm if the door was opened.

I would evaluate when you get there but if you think she's likely to be able to either leave the room or get out into the balcony, you'll have to switch up the sleeping arrangements.

Also agree with a PP that if she sleeps in the bedroom, you'll get a bit more of an evening

Putting a small child to sleep in the lounge is the worst idea. You want to have to tiptoe around from their bedtime?

I would put the 3yo in the bed personally. You get free reign of the lounge and balcony at night, and are putting yourself between your child and the two entrances to the room.

3year old has the bedroom would make more sense.

Put her in the bed with one of you and the other take the sofa bed.

Put the child in the bedroom with or without a parent. The parent/s on the sofabed

There’s no way mine could have opened a patio door at 3. There will be a locking mechanism, likely a latch that will be impossible for small fingers plus the doors will likely be too heavy for a toddler to push. I have an almost 5 year old and she still can’t get out of the patio doors at home. But take a look at the door when you get there and if you’re not happy in any way then the 3YO gets the bedroom and you guys have the sofa bed.

I really don’t think a three year old will manage to undo the catch and open the door. They are heavy.
If it’s unusually easy to open the door you’ll need to swap your sleeping arrangements or sling a chair in front of it at night. It’ll be easy enough to sort out once you’re there.
Even if it wasn’t, the odds of her wandering in the night, opening the door and then being able to get over/through the barrier seems vanishingly small.

Start teaching your child that the do not open doors.

My three year old linens not go touch the front or back doors.

Knows not linens

If the doors to the balcony are patio style doors, you can get patio door locks for them.

Just in case your lock doesn't fit, I'd also recommend taking a pack of blu tac as that's very useful for jamming door handles/locking mechanisms so they don't open easily.

I agree with everyone else that it's easier to put a small child to sleep in the bedroom though as then you can have the living-room to yourselves in the evening.

We've never really stayed in hotels, usually self catering accommodation.
But if the configuration of the rooms didn't suit, we would take airbeds, so the child could sleep on the floor of an appropriate room.
Could the 3 year-old not sleep on the bedroom floor?

Thanks everyone! I was planning to either have my daughter in the bedroom and us on the sofa bed or an air bed in the bedroom with us but I might see if we can move the sofa bed mattress to the bedroom

Thanks again it's offered me some reassurance and ideas to think about but to see I wasn't missing anything too obvious! 👍🏻