What age did you start booking separate hotel room for kids?

[Yopy]

When looking for family room so many have a double bed and double sofa bed. My kids are 11 and 13 so I feel they are too old to share sofa bed for a week. Maybe we need two rooms and one adult and one child in each room ?

Last time we shared a room was when our 2 sons were 10 and 14, it was in the USA where you get 2 double beds, which was ok as we were only in room to sleep, shower and change. We then had interconnecting rooms abroad, we’ve also cruised so have had additional cabin for them.

It just seems that when I try and book interconnecting rooms there is always a clause that they may not have any available on the day. Or the hotel just doesn’t have them at all. I wonder when they could do a room r together without us probably quite a way off yet. So I guess adult and child per room is best option

We book aparthotels purely to get 2 bedrooms behind one "front" door.
It's not a holiday for us if everyone is in one room.

I think I would be ok with 11 and 13 yo in a separate room as long as it was next door. I haven’t got to that age yet tho so maybe that’s optimistic.

We have always looked to have our kids in a separated section of the same room, ideally with a door to separate. Usually called a “one bedroom suite” or “family suite”. We are all light sleepers and struggle to sleep if we are all in one room, they wake early too. Definitely reduces the choice and ups the price though!!

Yes airbnb or aparthotel works well for us too.

what type of hotel?

just find one with interconnecting rooms. Loads of them about in the traditional holiday country resorts!

Interconnected rooms. We've always done this as I hate having to creep around or sit in the bathroom to read a book after they've gone to sleep and my two eldest sharing a bed was a nightmare for more than one or two nights when they were little.

I wonder when they could do a room r together without us probably quite a way off yet.

or I’d ask for adjacent rooms at that age. But no need to split the parents (unless you want to of course!)

Ds is 14, if we can’t get interconnected rooms then it has to be an apartment.

I try and book hotels that have a sofa bed and camp bed as DS 10 doesn't want to share with his sister anymore ( and they don't sleep if they do!)
If that fails DH shares with DS and I share with DD ( although this isn't great as an adult has to share the sofa bed). I suspect I wouldn't have this issue for a few more years if they were the same sex.

We've never had a problem with interconnecting rooms not being available but we once stayed in a hotel with DSS in his own non connecting room when he was 15. Not sure how we booked that as websites require an adult in each room, probably using a travel agent but he was next door and it was fine.

I am looking at booking via either tui or via British airways and they don’t give a huge amount of options. I am not booking with hotel direct to ask questions about interconnecting room etc. I could try and book everything separately but kind of wanted the ease of having it all booked together including the transfer

We have booked places with interconnecting rooms in the past but have booked two separate rooms for a holiday this summer (they don’t have any interconnecting ones) and DC will be 13 and just turned 15.

When I was 13 /14 maybe my parents started booking villas on holiday that had an extra bedroom so me and my brother didn’t have to share.

If they’re both boys, or both girls though I’d just book them an extra room to share in hotels. I think from maybe 11+ it becomes uncool to share a family room.

We’ve been trying to do the same thing and have given up. We are going to have to book accommodation and flights separately, do our own research and find a hotel or apartment that works.

Try booking over the phone - you sometimes get more joy with requesting specific things that way - I've found BA quite good in that regard in the past.

Well it would seem this option isn’t actually giving you “ease” because it’s restricting your option of booking an interconnecting room or a sufficiently large enough family suite.

because I can assure you OP… there are loads of options available! 😂

I started having a separate room from 13. This was holidaying in the U.K. That having been said I had a very bad experience in my separate room when I was 14. I never told my grandparents who I was travelling with about it though.

With 2 together that’s a much smaller risk however. I don’t think it would have happened if there had been 2 of us.

Thanks everyone. I just checked on booking.com and there are a lot more options this way plus the hotels seem to say they do airport transfers which is good. So I think I will book separately. Glad I thought this through now and didn’t just tell them they were going to have to share sofa bed. We haven’t been on holiday since before covid and they were more amenable to sharing then

Use booking.com to identify the hotels that interest you, but I strongly recommend you then contact the hotels direct.
In my experience, the price could be cheaper, or for the same price you'll get extras such as breakfast included.
You can also specify exactly what you want.

About the ages yours are although it was only ever for a night or two max, wedding or on our way somewhere else and it’s a long journey we wanted to break up.
holidays we booked self catering with enough bedrooms.
Sharing a room with the kids is just unpleasant for me at least! Plus dh snores and keeps me awake at the best of times, wouldn’t want to subject them to that either. Or our naked sleeping 😂

Either s/c property or two bedrooms since DD is 14. But she is sensible, we have rules in place and it works really well.

Lots of suites/family rooms have a second room but they are all sofa beds, not proper ones and they are very expensive, especially if you book direct and the hotel classes over 12s as adults.

Last year ages 17 and 14 was the first year in practice, but probably would have done it a couple of years earlier, but we didn’t go abroad in 2021 and in 2020 we had a 2 bed apartment so wasn’t an issue.

13 and 11 is probably a bit young, but depends on your kids, where your staying and whether you can guarantee that the rooms will be near each other.

We did this last year with dd1 14 and dtds 10 but rooms were next door and hotel had full WiFi so we could WhatsApp. Dc really sensible and so we were comfortable but we were next door. We didn’t leave them and go to the bar, just bought wine and sat on the balcony reading.

I booked my DD's their own room from 12&14. Prior we shared. Even with their own room they sometimes shared a bed, they still share when dd2 comes as we don't have enough rooms