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?

My parents did this, back in the 80s, when I was around 2, except they used the hotel listening service as this was pre video baby monitors. I climbed out of the cot and appeared in the dining room. The listening service didn’t notice.

I’ve done it before but only when the room was super close, like right above the restaurant, and the monitor had a strong connection. I kept checking and always had the monitor in view. Kind of like how I felt at ease having a few minutes to myself during evenings with drink deals Singapore while still being hands-on and alert. It really depends on how secure you feel with the setup.

My inlaws suggested this to me when we met them in Hong Kong. My daughter was 18 months and it was a massive hotel so we were on floor 15 or so. They wanted us to meet them for dinner at the restaurant on the ground floor. I burst into laughter as I thought they were joking. That was the end of that conversation!

Anyway... we have pretty much always done self-catering for lots of reasons, but this is part of it. My daughter doesn't love a change in routine (turned out she's autistic but we didn't know that when she was little) so she did much better with a busy day and quiet evening (or the reverse). So we'd always have another space to hang out after the kids were asleep. Now they're 9/12 and we basically all go to bed at the same time but we always have at least 2 bedrooms anyway.

Yes, going to a hotel restaurant/lobby/bar where you can quickly reach the room where you are supervising sleeping children with a monitor is perfectly reasonable. Great article written about this on Slate recently (4/15/25). Do not listen to all these holier-than-thou parents damning you for even having such a thought - people love to judge, and the vast majority have probably done this (or similar…or things that actually put their children in danger) many times themselves but are afraid to admit it publicly.

Balance may have changed, but denying yourself your own life and enjoyment of a holiday benefits no one, and is not a requirement of parenting. Neglecting your own interests, hobbies, and personal life will only hurt both you and your children. Something most of these responders seem to need to take to heart.

I hate self-catering, but not all hotel rooms are built the same. We stayed in a place in Lanzarote where each room was like a one bedroom apartment. We put DS to bed, closed the door and had a lounge and balcony to relax and have a drink or play cards. Breakfasts and dinners all catered for us, which is the bit that makes it feel like a holiday! To answer the question though, no, never. Although I worked for a while in a ‘naice’ family hotel and plenty took advantage of the baby-listening service, which is nothing more than a busy receptionist picking up a phone and listening in to the room every 5 minutes 🤷🏼‍♀️

My parents did this when I was little. I woke up frightened and screamed and cried for hours. My brother was older and didn't know what to do. Mum and dad sat downstairs in the restaurant and mum said they were saying to each other "goodness listen to that poor child, won't someone do something about them!?" Only to discover it was me. I still remember how scared I was.

My parents used to this (pre monitors) and I remember being scared.
No way would I have done it to my now adult dc.

Is it worth the risk?

I wouldn't leave a child even with the monitor.

Imagine if the fire alarm goes off? Everyone is evacuating and you would be trying to get up the stairs to your child.

Did you not see or read any news in 2007?

We're on holiday in a hotel at this moment. Our room has two bedrooms plus DD was up dancing until 11 last night and has just woken up at about half 10. Take them out with you. Why do you think holiday resorts have evening children's entertainment on? The idea is you don't put them to bed at 7pm on holiday.

Self catering isn’t the only option. There’s plenty of all inclusive family hotels with one bedroom apartments. I have never, and will never restricts myself to a single room that 2 adults and a young child have to live, sleep, eat, etc in.
But I’d also never leave my child alone in a hotel room.

In fairness, MMcC and her siblings were left in an unlocked apartment on the edge of a resort that was open to the streets of a significant-sized town, with no monitor, and their parents having dinner quite a walk away across a holiday complex.

No because I would habe no need to, I couldn't really enjoy it knowing if my child cried or called out so I would be waiting for that

Taking the kidnapping and a million other safety reasons people will ever increase in dramaticness I just couldn't realx so couldn't be bothered

I never book a hotel room for more than one night. We have always used Airbnb or similar and have an apartment with two bedrooms so my son could sleep. He was an early riser too and knew he had to stay in his room until a reasonable time with books and iPad etc.