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?

We've done this. Seconds away and no access to the room except via a staircase that we were facing.

Otherwise we booked a room with a balcony where we could. We've spent a lot of time hanging out -with wine- in hotel corridors outside the room whilst waiting until the kids are sound enough asleep we can go back in and put a light on to read.

I wouldn't, no, the potential risks are too great (even if pretty remote).

To be honest this entire thread is reminding me why we've decided not to bother going on hotel holidays until our child is at least 7, it just sounds like a massive waste of money. The choices are sitting in the dark from 7pm onwards or attempting to snatch mouthfuls of dinner in between entertaining my screaming, over-tired toddler in a restaurant? And I get to pay hundreds/thousands of pounds for the privilege? No thanks, think I'll just stay home.

My children are all older now but this was just never an issue. We just adjusted their routine to match the holiday. Theyd have more/later naps and we'd give them a snack later in the day/early evening so they could have dinner later with us then theyd go to sleep in the buggy when tired till we were back at the room or theyd go to bed and we'd sit on the balcony.

We've always kept our children with us, mind we go back to our home country and all children stay up late. They usually go to bed around 11pm/12am then up about 8am/9am. We have a rest time during the heat of the day for them to sleep if needed or just chill with a movie. We were in the river last night at gone 9pm having a last splash before the sun went down then had a drink/ice creams/play at the cafe before heading home for baths and bed.

I used to work in hotels and here's the reasons why you should never leave a sleeping child alone in your room:

• if there was a fire you probably wouldn't allowed or able to get back to the room easily. You'd be fighting against the flow of people coming out, lifts will be off so you'll be racing up busy stairs. If the fire is on the floor/area where your room is you won't be allowed in so a staff member or fire fighter will have to do it which adds extra time and stress to the situation.

• the doors unlock from within meaning a child could open their door and walk out and go pretty much anywhere in the hotel including being escorted back to someone else's room.

• sometimes keys are duplicated by accident and a stranger could easily walk into the room your child's in which could scare/upset the kid and obviously could have disastrous results.

• many staff members have room keys. Staff members arent vetted

My friends stayed at a family-friendly hotel recently which was set up specifically for this, so every room had a monitor that came with it, and I think there was a babysitting service too.

Other than that, no I wouldn't. We usually do self catered and have a separate room for DS. He goes to bed normal(ish) time and we eat and do whatever. I find it funny when people let their kids stay up til 9/10pm on holiday - by the end of a day with 2yo DS I often want to be in bed for 9pm latest, by the time we've reached the middle of the holiday I'm shattered and go to bed after our dinner😅. Holidays with toddlers are next level exhausting.

Hotels are an awful choice if you have young children in my opinion as of course you can't leave them alone, even with a monitor! We always did self catering type holidays when they were young, much more space and you actually get a chance to chill out and relax in the evenings. The kids are a bit older now and we occasionally stay in hotels for a few nights, but still much prefer self catering for a longer holiday.

This is exactly why we're doing our first abroad hotel holiday this year with DS who is 7. He's old enough to be able to cope with late nights and changes to routine without it having a lasting impact

Absolutely not. What if there was a fire?

You either a) take them with you in a pushchair or b) accept that you have small children and make sacrifices. That's either eating together earlier in the evening and sitting in the hotel room / on the balcony with them when they go to bed or staying home and not holidaying at all when they're tiny.

We’ve always done this. Plus DS was hoodini who could open hotel room doors without any problem from the moment he could walk. We’d actually have to go to bed with suitcases in front of the door as once we woke up to find him opening the door (not all hotel rooms have chains)!!!

Options - if you somewhere like a Greek island - 7:30pm local time is 5:30pm uk time, you keep your child on UK time and have dinner together.

or if they are tiny, asleep in the buggy next to you at the dinner table, and later do the slightly squiffy “move the bomb” of trying to move the sleeping baby out of the flat buggy and into the crib without waking (they always wake at that point)

Or you go somewhere that’s “family room” isn’t just extra beds in one normal hotel room, but a separate sleeping area for the kids that can be curtained off or interconnecting bedrooms.

Or you have drinks on the balcony while kids are in the room asleep. (Bonus points if you are in an AI resort where glasses of wine /beer /G&T are included, but if you want a whole bottle of wine you pay for it, and your dh refuses on principle to buy a bottle of wine, but helpfully your room isnt far from the pool bar so your dh keeps going getting free refills)

Or (and this was the best discovery!) you spend a small fortune and go with Neilson- they do a separate kids dinner at 5pm ish, then have an evening kids club while you go have dinner, little ones asleep, older ones either watching a Disney film or playing supervised games.

before you know it, they are teens and you have dinner together in a civilised fashion and find yourself having amazingly interesting conversations with these massively tall nearly-adults you’ve produced. (And marvel at their ability to eat a 3 course meal yet be stick thin)

Yeah you can’t leave a baby or child in a hotel room then go off somewhere. Get a more appropriate room so there’s an area for the child and for you when they’re sleeping. As a PP said you won’t be allowed back up to the room if there’s a fire alarm. Also, SO many hotel staff have a master key that can open any door - it’s not just yours that can. Or go self catering or go to dinner early together or put them in a buggy. Lots of options but please don’t leave them on their own.

We always put the kids in the bedroom so that we could have the living room/balcony when they’d gone to bed. Meant we slept on sofa beds usually but was best compromise we could find. Dinner was early and then back to the room for a glass of wi e and to play cards etc. plus side was we rarely stayed up that late and did get quite a good rest.

That must have been a scary experience for you and your sister!

I tried to have a drink in the bar whilst my children were two floors up in a hotel..impossible to relax so took the drink up to our balcony.

i was left alone in Apartment in Portugal whilst my parents went to the bar for the night, difference being I was 11. Woke up at 11:30 pm to a figure at the bottom of my bed, thought it was my drunk mother until I realised they were a) male and b) getting into bed with me. So these things do happen , don’t leave children on their own.

Nope have never and would never do this! Either take kiddos with you and they can nap in their pushchair or stay up late (ours wouldn’t sleep in a buggy at all) or have an apartment with a seperate living room and or/balcony and after keeping the kids up a bit later than usual going out and about, come back, put kids to bed and relax on the balcony with some drinks/card games etc.
They’re only tiny once, and no it’s probably not what you would choose to do, but holidays with kids are all about compromise.

Depends on hotel size really. Tiny b+b where they're closer than in your house? Fine. Bigger hotel with babysitter sat in the corridor listening to make sure they're ok and all windows/balconies secured? Ok. Giant hotel and all adults miles away? No.

I'd never trust a baby listening service. The person is often not properly vetted and/or trained.

Reminds me of years ago when my kids were smaller. We ate earlyish with the kids but noticed many in the bar with baby monitors. We went back to the room around 9pm with the kids & the fire alarm went off about an hour later. All the baby monitor parents were fighting against the flow to try and rush back to their children in the rooms.
I do remember when I was younger though and watching the entertainment at butlins when a large screen would flash up ‘baby crying in chalet 123’ 🙈

Hi everyone, I won’t be able to reply individually, but thank you very much to everyone who has given a thoughtful reply and shared their experience. I’m also very sorry to hear the personal stories of bad experiences with this.

As I said it isn’t something I would want to do, so it’s really helpful hearing everyone’s point of view, and the different experiences of holidaying and how that does (or doesn’t!) work.

@TorroFerney

That is terrifying, I hope you were ok.

I wouldn't leave my child/baby personally.
I'm quite happy to sit in the dark on my own, on my phone though

But TorroFerney makes a good point Hotel rooms aren't that secure, I've had housekeeping etc enter my room without permission in the middle of the day/evening when they have assumed I wasn't in my room.
My keycard has worked in the wrong doors in hotels before (me getting the wrong room, but it still opening).

Surely this is a joke

No way. I would have them in a buggy with me.

No way!

We gave my DD a later nap than usual when we went to Spain and then she ate with us around 7:30pm then went to sleep in her pram whilst we watched entertainment bar a few nights she wouldn't settle so we took her back to the room, put her to bed and sat on the balcony reading/playing cards etc.