Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Hotel with toddler, what were we thinking?

30 replies

kingfix · 04/02/2009 22:46

In a late night fit of extravagance, DH & I booked 5 nights in a nice hotel as a pre-baby number 2 treat. The hotel says it is v child friendly, does children's meals and has a play area etc plus is in pretty countryside, so we congratulated ourselves on planning a break that would give us a chance to relax and that 2year old dd would like.

Now in the cold light of day (deposit paid) the thought has suddenly struck me: DD goes to bed at 7. What on earth are we going to do in the evenings? We have one room for all of us so do we sit silently in the dark once she's asleep? Take turns to go to the bar? Keep her awake (shudder)?
Any tips?

OP posts:

hellymelly · 04/02/2009 22:49

no tips at all sadly but am watching and bumping as we have to go to a wedding in a few months with a four year old and a toddler who will have just turned two,have just the same worries-will we have to all go to bed at 7?

Doozle · 04/02/2009 22:52

Call them up and ask if they do babysitting so you can go out?

naturalblonde · 04/02/2009 22:53

DH and I spent 2 nights in a hotel with 18mo dd. Sorry but it was awful and we swore we'd never share a hotel room with her again.

(A friend of mine said she often orders a pizza and sits in the bathroom eating it until her dd has fallen asleep)

Does she still have a daytime nap? Perhaps making it a bit later in the day, or reintroducing it if she doesn't may mean she'll stay up later.

What about a babysitting service? If hotel is child friendly it may offer this.

choosyfloosy · 04/02/2009 22:55

Holidays are best between 3 - 5months and then after about 3.6.... however, I have heard of someone who put their child to bed in the hotel bath. Nowt wrong with this IMO - worth trying?

Original poster

kingfix · 04/02/2009 22:56

I will ask about babysitting thanks. Am a bit nervous as one friend told me that a hotel said they did babysitting, but just left the phone in the room off the hook and the receptionist just listened in now and again.

OP posts:

ConnorTraceptive · 04/02/2009 22:56

Ah yes we did similar a couple of years ago. DH and I sed to drink wine in the dark

And it pissed it down with rain all week. Was a truelly bobbins affair

Original poster

kingfix · 04/02/2009 22:59

Can't believe we didn't think of this before, was blinded by thoughts of us gazing at each other over a bottle of, well, water for me but you know what i mean. Oh well we'll just have to hold hands in the bathroom.

OP posts:

MadamDeathstare · 04/02/2009 22:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

choosyfloosy · 04/02/2009 23:02

tell a lie, not in the bath itself, they put the travelcot in the bathroom. worth finding out if your bathroom has enough space and if not, getting moved!

Leo9 · 04/02/2009 23:03

We did this when DS was three - my advice would be to treat it like a camping holiday! By which I mean, you do lots of lovely stuff together in the day, have dinner together, and basically all go to bed at the same time!

I actually really loved our hotel holiday. It was really, beautifully relaxing. DS was in bliss because he was allowed to stay up later, and we had lots of lovely early nights and caught up on sleep and felt rested because of that. It was also lovely all being together and again DS loved being in the same room as us so he was happy.

I can highly recommend it; but you have to completely forget IMO any idea of hotel holidays as you may have had them pre-kids.

Leo9 · 04/02/2009 23:04

oh and we forgot about TV and DVDs and all that and did some lovely evening reading while DS dropped off/slept and that was really relaxing, too!

Original poster

kingfix · 04/02/2009 23:08

Leo9 I like your camping idea (although camping is cheap and hotels are not, kicks self again).
It's also the idea of someone else doing the cooking and washing up and cleaning that is so appealing about a hotel. Self catering/camping, which is what we've done so far, is great but you know, same dishes different sink.

OP posts:

Leo9 · 04/02/2009 23:10

oh yes kingfix that's another thing; no bed making! we just toddled off and had breakfast made FOR us (wow!) and when we came back to the room all the beds were made, fresh towels, bathroom cleaned......

I am sure you will love it, so long as you treat is as a different type of holiday to pre-kids!

Original poster

kingfix · 04/02/2009 23:14

Ok I'm sold. Thanks! Actually an early night or two would be great (which is why I am on MN at 11.15 tsk!).

OP posts:

Ivykaty44 · 04/02/2009 23:15

Hotels babysit by leaving the phone of the hook - usually. Unless you call ahead and ask if they can arrange a person to actually sit in your room and what the charge would be and what the credentails are of the person.

But what leo says, let toddler stay up a little later and lye in, take dc down for dinner and relax.

Ask for a downstairs room - so one of you can nip to the bar to collect drinks and take a pack of cards.

Caz10 · 04/02/2009 23:20

We couldn't bring ourself to use the listening service so ended up sitting in the room in the dark the 1st night thinking WTF have we done?!

2nd and subsequent nights all prepared and clued up - DVDs and headphones on laptop, or Ipod with something to watch, wine open before lights go off!

But as previous posters have said, we really were to all intents and purposes in bed at 8pm - but that was fine.

Can you call hotel and ask for a family room? We met friends with a similar aged wee one while we were away - they had sensibly paid a little extra for a connected room - so their LO slept in the adjoining room, but they could still have lights and TV on in their half, and go out their door (one at a time!) to the bar.

GrimmaTheNome · 04/02/2009 23:23

We had hotel holidays when DD was a toddler and it was fine... can't remember what we did, probably caught up on sleep a lot. She never went to bed by 7 though. If you're driving around the countryside, chances are DCs will sleep in the car and so want to stay up later than usual.

Mind you, we did have one around 9/11 and the next exactly a year later in the same room which was very weird...plenty to watch on TV,and NOT in a good way and repeats the next year ... well, at least you're not likely to have that!

dearprudence · 04/02/2009 23:27

Can't she sleep in a pushchair while you're having dinner in the restaurant? Otherwise, just let her stay up a bit later and get out of routine for a few days.

How big is the hotel? Small enough to use babysitting service and take a baby monitor to watch yourself?

Enjoy yourselves!

BexieID · 04/02/2009 23:39

Thats why we always go self catering and have at least one bedroom when we go away. Fortunately, we are in such a bad routine with Tom that his bedtime is 9:30-10pm. When we stay with my parents, we have to vacate my old room so that he'll sleep, or just sit in the dark playing on our games consoles, lol.

We choose self catering because of his rather odd eating habits, like back in October when we went to Blackpool. The only meal he would eat was shepherds pie, so we had to make 4 nights worth as soon as we got there. Funnily enough, he seems to have gone off that. Now he'll only eat carrot and those Asda potato stars .

dinkystinky · 06/02/2009 21:14

We've stayed in several places like that with DS (now nearly 3) - when he was younger, we did travelcot in the bathroom (when we booked, we ensured the hotel knew that requirement! Sometimes they can give you a little annex room which is handy with a cubby hole for little one to sleep in). As he got older, we relied on babylistening services (as once DS is asleep, he's out for the count) or our own baby monitor. Go and enjoy it...

kissmummy · 14/02/2009 19:02

We stayed in a hotel with DS, then about one, last summer and hadn't thought it through either. But we went for the baby-in-the-bathroom option! luckily the hotel room had a big enough bathroom to put his cot in there. It meant a lot of creeping about - and no nice long soaks in the evening for us - but we were able to watch TV/DVDs, read, etc. We also felt comfortable leaving him sleeping while we had supper in the hotel restaurant - it was a very small hotel in the countryside, we were only a few feet away from his room, and we had a baby monitor and checked on him regularly. before anyone leaps at me it was NOT a Madeleine McCann type scenario!

mrstimlovejoy · 14/02/2009 21:20

we're going to a wedding in april and were planning on taking dd [4],but i've decided not to take her as hotel's about 20 mins away from reception and i'll end up going back with her about 7 pm [it's dh's best friend that's getting married].dd won't get to nap in the day as wedding at 2 pm,so my mums coming to our house to have her.if we'd been staying at hotel where reception was probably would have took her and used baby sitting facility

bellabelly · 16/02/2009 23:43

Whenever we've stayed in hotels with our two, we just take it in turns to nip upstairs during the evening and check that they are ok. Think there are some hotels that can offer good baby monitors so that you can relax and enjoy your evening - if your hotel room is fairly near to the bar/restayrant/terrace, I can't see it's very different to them being at home tbh. If it's a gigantic hotel and your room is several floors away then arranging a babysitter to actually stay in the room might be nicer.

sandcastles · 17/02/2009 02:43

We have shared a few hotel rooms with our dd, starting at about 9 months & more recently at 4.

She would eventually fall asleep, no more than about 30 mins of chatting/messing around etc. She was used to noise etc, so we could watch TV & talk etc, have lights on to read etc. Infact all our planning for the next day was done while she slept.

We are due to do it again at Easter with dd now 5 & 7 month old dd2...not worried at all.

Sachertorte · 19/02/2009 14:01

Why not check if a baby monitor works? It has for me in the past (only aproblem in v big hotels?) DH and I used to also take turns to run up and listen at the door (taking the occassional peak to check she was really there ; )

Flip

1 2