Aging child down to get a hotel room together

[Thematic]

My kids are 10 and just 13. We want to be able to stay in one hotel room on holiday in Greece this year but everywhere I'm looking considers kids as kids only up to the age 11 or 12, and over that they are adults. They won't allow us to book into one room, even though it has two double beds (well, a double and a double sofa bed) if I put 3 adults and 1 child. This is only b&b so he won't be consuming excessive food, and we're booking flights separately as it's not a package holiday. I wouldn't mind paying more for him, but I'm finding that rooms suddenly aren't available at all if I put in his accurate age. Do you think it will matter if I put him in as 12?

This isn't package holidays, it's for 5* hotels booked directly or via a booking website.

Definitely recommend just emailing them directly and asking. Greek hotels are usually pretty accommodating. You might have to pay a bit extra for the "adult" portion of food but will save a lot on the extra room rate.

Most 5* hotels have adjoining rooms. Just get 2 rooms that adjoin and put the DC in one of the rooms. Since you’re not on a tight budget.

Most 5 star hotels I've stayed in have a 2 bedroom room option or at least connecting rooms. Have you tried messaging the hotels directly?

I would contact hotels directly and ask what their policy is. I find online booking systems are very black and white re spaces for kids.

Eg my little one is still young but if I put in 2 adults and 1 baby under 1, it always wants a bed for the baby and costs more, even when it says children under 2 are free. So for now I just only book 2 adults.

So you may find you have more luck contacting them directly outside of a programmed booking system.

None of the hotels in the area we're going to have adjoining rooms, only suites. The 2 room suites (bedroom and lounge) are affordable with the kids in a sofa bed, but the 2 bedroom suites (which are 2 beds and a lounge and usually a private pool) are astronomical and out of our price range.

Unless you've got very small children then there's no way the double sofa bed will be big enough. Plus a 13yo and 10yo will eat adult amounts. Mine are that age, well 14 /11. We just get the interconnected room that has a king in one room and a twin in the other.

Greece is just very expensive now. You might have more luck with other countries. Tenerife? Germany?

We also just get 2 hotel rooms and DH goes in one with one child. I go in a separate room with the other. Did that in san sebastian last year with 10yo and 13yo.

The rest of the time we air bnb or get self catered.

Ok, well you might have to slum it at a 4* hotel instead.

I also don't trust adjoining rooms after the time we booked one when the kids were only 2 and 4, and then we arrived and they couldn't supply the room. So my husband and I ended up having to sleep in separate rooms at different ends of a corridor and had to go to bed at 7pm. 😂

No thanks. That sounds horrible 😂

Call the hotels in question then. It's not hard.

Doesn’t sound very 5* of them, they should have upgraded you to a suite with such young DC.

My kids aren't big eaters and happily sleep together cuddled up in a sofa bed. Everyone is different! I'm 5'9 and happily sleep with my 6'2 husband in a sofa bed if we have to so can't see why a 13 and 10 year old can't . Anyway, we're not booking catered, it's just b&b.

We're going to a rather off the beaten track area (the peloponnese) and there aren't a lot of tourist hotels. nowhere that's the sort of standard we like has interconnecting rooms, and I don't trust adjoining rooms anyway after the time we booked one when the kids were only 2 and 4, and then we arrived and they couldn't supply the room. So my husband and I ended up having to sleep in separate rooms at different ends of a corridor and had to go to bed at 7pm. 😂 I'd really only go if we can have a suite so we can be guaranteed we'll get rooms together. I'd honestly rather not go on holiday at all than have to go in separate rooms. That would really spoil the vibe of us all hanging out together in one space which is half of the reason we go on holiday at all. We actually quite like each other's company and a chance to be together for a couple of weeks, and at least some of that is in our room.

We've already booked flights so we're tied to Greece.

Just because you're sleeping in separate rooms, don't doesn't mean you can't hang out in one room until bedtime.

The problem here is your inflexibility.

Contact the hotel. I doubt they would want kids aged 12 in rooms alone

They will ask to see passports, but ime they just scan them and don’t really look at them to compare names and dobs. Not sure I’d risk it though.

@SpringIsSpringing25i don’t think it’s being inflexible. We go to bed a lot later than the kids. My husband and I like to watch tv together in bed before we go to sleep and after the kids are asleep. I’m an insomniac and would probably disturb a kid if they shared with me whilst my husband sleeps like a log. We only usually take one suitcase as we travel around on road trips staying in several places and like to travel light, and we share things like an iPad and wash bag etc so separate rooms would mean moving stuff around constantly. The kids are super close and would hate not being in the same room as each other. So many reasons. And this is my holiday too so I’d like to enjoy it rather than feeling stressed and disconnected. We’ll make it work somehow

I just put your requirements into booking.com (5 star Peloponnese) and lots of options came up.

Every Greek hotel I’ve been to over the last few years have asked for passports on arrival so you won’t be able to lie about his age I don’t think .

Look at Grecotel - nice hotels and we’ve always had enough room for older kids than yours in family type rooms

That’s what’s we are looking at. But half the rooms types aren’t available if he’s considered an adult. At the mandala rosa you can’t book a room with a bed for the kids to share and suddenly have to go up to the villa level. It’s really frustrating.

Although they probably will take your passport, it’s highly unlikely they’d be analysing the date of birth to check it did match exactly with age 12 if it’s a years difference. Staff probably do not even have time to do this… in any case you could just say you made an error by one digit when booking. I’d honestly have no concerns at all if I was doing this.

But the prices and room types are different when he’s considered an adult. Lots of room types not available anymore.

I’m inclined to follow this advice. I recon I could get away with just saying he was 12 when I boomed and I didn’t realise. Worst case we’ll just have to pay a bit more I hope.

I've done this multiple times and nobody has EVER commented on it. I did it once at Al Naseem in Dubai, once at Banyan Tree in koh Samui and most recently in domes Zeen in Greece. They will take the passports but they don’t actually study the ages or even give a shit what age the kids are. It’s not like you’re trying to bring an extra child into the room without telling them (I’ve also done that when DS3 was a baby in a cot though!) They’re not going to cancel the room and leave you with “nowhere to go” - whoever said that is just being ridiculous

I put the ages of your children in. There were plenty of options. Maybe not the exact hotels you’ve pinpointed but I don’t know which ones they are.