Hotel room on holiday - baby monitor and restaurant

[Northby]

Hello everyone
I've just been reading a thread where people were saying how much easier it is to go on holiday at a hotel rather than a self catered apartment. I had a genuine, if possibly stupid, question.

If your kids are in a hotel room and you have a video baby monitor, would you think it was ok to use a hotel facility? Like a restaurant downstairs. The door is locked, you can see and hear the kids via the monitor.

I don’t live in a palace so I feel like being a couple of minutes rather than up to ten seconds away is too far, in case something happens. (Also Madeline McCann’s story is seared into my mind as it happened when I was growing up.)

I’m curious, what does everyone else do?

That's why we prefer apartments/air bnbs to hotel rooms, then you can sitting in the living area with the door to their room closed. The only hotels we go to are places like theme park hotels, as they sometimes only have hotels not apartments., and they tend to have evening entertainment for dcs, eg kids disco at 8pm. So dcs stay up later and we hang out with them.

Omg

Omg. All I thought was about poor Madelene McCann reading this, please bring your kids with you no matter what age 😩

I was sitting on balcony of a hotel room (sliding door slightly ajar) once, while my nephew slept, so his parents could go out for dinner. I heard the door open, thought they were back, stepped into the room to two VERY startled looking employees. They said "baby cry, we check". My nephew was sound asleep and definitely not crying.
Dont leave your children alone in hotel rooms ever.

Holy sheet that is the stuff of nightmares

I wouldn't. Last year in a huge hotel complex in Greece where rooms were in small blocks the French people in the room next to us did this....and left the baby to cry itself to sleep. I thought it was quite irresponsible....expecially as many parts of Greece were experiencing wild fires and as I said the complex was enormous ( 7 pools, 5 restaurants, 5 bars etc. At the main restaurant they were a good 5 min walk from the room.

You're in the restaurant, they're asleep in the room, the fire alarm rings, you can't go back to your room, what do your children do? Imagine as an adult being woken by a blaring alarm and people shouting, never mind if you're a small child and you are calling for mummy/daddy. Oh the horror.

We never booked hotel rooms for that reason. We always booked a cottage so that they could sleep in their rooms and we could use the downstairs in the eves without having to creep about.

Whether the door locks and the monitor is on is irrelevant compared to distance from parents.

Eg all hotel staff have a key, keys can be stolen from reception or even duplicated electronically, locks can be broken, doors can be forced. And wardrobes can fall on children.

If you’re more than 30 seconds away (eg on the balcony) it’s too far in all these instances.

We would book hotels if they had a balcony. No chance if not - I'd rather stay at home!

but we never left them alone in the room - it was baby in pram, (up on two wheels so was looking at sky and not anything interesting) a few times round the block until asleep. The toddler would sleep on a couple of chairs pushed together. Eventually. Bloody kids ruin a good holiday 🤣🤣🤣

No I wouldn't feel comfortable with that.
We preferred holidays in an apartment/cottage with young kids just so we could have a separate living room for the evening.

I’m impressed with all these families where the kids, on holiday, obediently fall asleep at 7pm in the evening!

I think it depends on the kid, but ours ended up sleeping later on holiday (probably being asleep closer to 9pm) and then we sat on a balcony and watched TV there, or watched it in the room with a lamp on and the sound a bit lower once they were asleep. They made up for sleep by sleeping in later in the morning.

I would like to see hotels creating some better solutions to this issue, though, like having a separate very tiny kids bedroom where you can put them to bed in there and shut the door and have the rest of the hotel room to yourselves.

@GreenTeaLikesMe I don't think it's about it obedience for us, just they like their sleep and have a strong circadian rhythm

I agree that it surprises me that hotels don't have more solutions to this. Often even rooms designed as family rooms still have no divider between areas

No you take baby with you in a pram or buggy and they sleep in that.

No, you take them with you (if they are in a buggy yo take them for a long walk to get them off to sleep first) or you can use the hotel childminding service (though I know someone who did this and when she popped back unexpectedly found the chid screaming and the sitter ignoring her while she watched tv.)

I took mine everywhere. And that was before the Maddie McCann tragedy.

@TheTigerWhoCameToEatMyArsehole
Where did that username come from? 😆

Controversial opinion but the tragedy of Madeline McCann is memorable precisely because it was so unusual. There is also a huge difference between a ground floor room with doors left open and no monitor vs a 1st floor room with no external access route.

My children are of an age where it was considered quite normal to leave them in a hotel room above ground floor with the hotel offering a corridor based listening service that you had to sign your child in and out to their charge while you went to dinner/bar.

Nope.
Fire alarm goes off they're buggered aren't they. They won't let you back in.
Get a room with a balcony, buy wine and playing cards.

Depends what the hotel is like.

If it’s a small hotel, and the restaurant is close to the room, I would probably leave them with the monitor on - so long as I could see them on the camera at all times.

In a bigger hotel or where the restaurant was in another building - I would not. Recently stayed in a bigger hotel which was nice but the restaurant was a five minute walk away - that wouldn’t feel safe to me. Smaller hotels can just feel like big houses.

We also did sleeping in pushchair (when small enough to tolerate) and then just got them out having dinner early once bigger. A 7-8 bedtime can be stretched out to come home at 9 after dinner easily.

This is why we did French campsites when kids were small. You could have dinner in or out and then have a drink on the deck whilst they slept

This is why it's easier to camp with young children!

Tent or caravan.

But they can sleep and you can sit outside with a takeout and glass of something cold!

Or you do it in a hotel room in the balcony. Card games, book and a drink/snacks.

But please don't leave your child in the room even with a baby monitor.

You can get hotel rooms with separate bedrooms/separate sleeping areas

Take them with you! Keep them up late, let them sleep in a pram?

My parents never came back to the hotel room early to put us to bed, we stayed out as a family and then when we went to bed later, they would sit on the balcony. Or we’d fall asleep with the lights on.

We were never ever left, and this was before Madeline McCann.

No. They’d have no chance if there was a fire.

Book a room with balcony or other living space.
have sex. Read a book with a torch light or backlit kindle. Use a small light to play a game and quietly chat.