3 Children and hotels

[scrummymum]

Me and DH are currently deciding whether to try for DC3 next year. When DC3 arrives, DD will be 7 and DS will be 3.5 (or older depending on the time it takes to conceive. We have talked through the usual worries, money, car, room etc and I feel like we could cope with that. The only thing I didn't think about was holidays. I have just been reading a thread that mentions how difficult it is to stay in a hotel with 3 children. I knew it would be more expensive and that supplements would need to be paid sometimes but I assumed we would all get to sleep in the same room.

I have just booked to go to Legoland with me, DH, my 2 DC's and my niece. We have got a family room for 5. I never realised it would be such a problem.

How big a problem is it and is there any way around it???

Well we've got 4, and the only problem we've had was a couple of weeks ago when we wanted to go to the lake district. We could not find anywhere that could or would accomodate us for 2 nights - either rooms too small, or no kids under 11 or min. of 3 nights . totally ridiculous. Our only option was the youth hostel, and frankly, I am pretty laid back about these things but it was imo shockingly shit. But it was only 2 nights.

Other than that, we normally book an appartment or apparthotel, where apparently everywhere other than childhating Britain will let you book for just a couple of nights.

Mind you, 2 of ours have occasionally topped & tailed, which isn't a problem as they often snuggle up together at home, and dd is still in a cot. When the boys get too big to occasionally share and dd no longer is in a cot it might get fruity, but so far, no probs (apart from 2 nights in UK)

1 or 2 nights in a hotel will be more difficult than a week or 2 holiday.

hth

we went on our first family (me, dp and 3dcs) trip away last month and luckily managed to get a family room at one of those travel inn type places. i was honestly quite surprised at the size of the room as it was quite big. however, if we do the same thing next year, its gonna cost us double as ds2 wont be able to go in a cot (he'll be 3 by then) so will need two rooms and we'll be split up. i dont understand why more places dont cater for larger families.

in1981 - we've got 4 dc and never had to book 2 rooms....

I think it depends on the types of holidays you are talking about. I have looked a few times for us to go away with our 3 dc and quite often (including Dineyland Paris) we would have to be separated and not only that but one adult in each room for insurance purposes lol. Not quite my idea of a weekend break not even sleeping with my husband!! Also cruises are difficult as the large rooms get booked up years in advance as there are so few of them. If you were being purely practical no-one would have more than two children!

There are hotels eg at Eurodisney that cater for larger families eg Explorers Hotel we stayed in has rooms which can accommodate 6 people. But as a general rule it is a problem once the youngest outgrows the baby/cot stage as most hotels allow only a max of 2 children in the (by then very squashed and hard to get to sleep) room.

Then you have to book 2 rooms and if you are lucky some places will have inter-connecting so you arent split up. Most places dont.

We have, once or twice (in 10 years), had a "suite" which cost no more than 2 rooms and was a bit of a treat!

But going anywhere with 3 DC is so expensive now that we usually want self-catering which tends to be more of the type of place with 2 or more rooms!

Having said all that, having three DC is still worth it I certainly wouldnt let holiday arrangements be the deciding factor.

There is a website dedicated to family rooms for 5, that's quite useful.

Some hotels have rooms that sleep 5, it's not totally rare, it's just rare in the Travelodge type hotels or those package tour hotels. Individual hotels, not the chains, often have rooms for 5.

We stay in youth hostels a lot, they are good for families of 5 or 6, we like them for being generally child-friendly, they aren't particularly cheaper than the cheaper hotels but they have common rooms, self-catering kitchens, gardens, not so much to break or disrupt.

So really no we don't find it a particular problem. Occasionally we have to pay more but dd3 is worth it

Travelodge and Premier Inn state their maximum room occupancy to be 2 adults+2 children+cot, so that's handy to know while dc3 is under 2 years. We've done this a fair bit, even on the £9 Travelodge rooms. We've simply rung them the day before to ask for a cot.

I have four and we've just had to split up for hotel stays. It is really difficult to find bigger rooms especially on a budget. We jsut put up with it for short stays. We have snuck in the extra two once!

For our proper holidays we rent a villa/chalet/static caravan where we can all stay together.

I dn't think it should be a deciding factor.

Travelodge and Premier Inn-we take a ready bed and walk in in 2 trips. Nobody has ever noticed as very few staff around. One of them even does free breakfast for all kids if you order 1 adult full English.

When we go to London we often stay in the Citadines aparthotels. The one-bedroom apartments have pull out beds in the living room and there is a kitchenette as well which saves on hotel breakfasts. The one off Trafalgar Square is shit though, the others are quite nice.
Otherwise it is a right pain finding a family room for five.

We Eurocamp or stay in chalets/villas. Last summer we were trying to book a bog standard hotel somewhere cheap like Turkey and it was going to cost £5k!!!!

we always stay in travel lodge rooms and never get stopped and we have DS age 9, DSD age 8 and dd age 3. We do tend to go in 2 trips though so as not to appear too blatent! LOL
rooms are more than big enough and the 2 girls top and tail in beds.
DH used to work at motor way service areas and used to help run the travel lodges and says they really dont mind! they are more concerned about 4 adults! LOL

marriott - alays did give you a double room (two double beds) and a cot or put up bed

oh dear its seems like we're all at it with the Travelodge rooms (we do the two trips thing as well).

yep us too with the travel lodge scam- our ds' look very alike which helps as well. what's the worst that can happen? dh has to sleep in the car evil laugh mwhhhhhhaaaahaaahaahaa

You wouldn't have to face this for a while, anyway, as most quite a few places will let you do 2 + 2 + cot (and you can be creative about DC3's age for a while and do the readybed thing)

That said, friends of ours have 3 (age 1 - 6)and I know it is starting to be an issue for them - but it will be an issue at some stage even with 2 - they are not going to be happy to share a bed/room indefinitely, are they?

The place we went to this summer tried to tell us we needed 2 interconnecting rooms for us + 2 DC. Whilst yes, it would have been nice, the price was per room so it would have doubled the cost and we wouldn't have been able to go. Faced with a choice of accepting us all in one room or no booking, they caved. We had told the DC they would have to go head to toe in the one 'extra' bed, but in the event the hotel produced a super-long travel cot and DD (3) was perfectly happy in it, and the room was plenty big enough.

Sanfairy I'm always leading trip 1 in for that very reason.

I have twins(there are some benefits) so it is slightly easier to carry the whole thing off

The only problem I have ever had being mother of 4 dc, was this autumn in UK where we had to stay in YH. Is this a UK thing? Do people often stay in hotels? We tend to have appartments or apparthotels like I said earlier. Or KInderhorels which have all been great. Except one which was really shite. DOn't stay in the Kinderhotel in Ladis

speaking of travel lodges....they are doing £9 rooms at easter again starting yesterday! LOL