What are the little things that make a big difference on a family day out/ holiday/ meal

[carriemumsnet]

Hi there,

I've been asked to speak at the British Hospitality Association conference next week, where there will be top folks from restaurants and cafes, hotels and travel and theme parks/ attractions and I'd love to know from you what are the little things that make a big difference to your enjoyment of a family day out/meal out/ family holiday or hotel? What makes a place feel welcoming to families, what makes you want to go back? Who is getting it right do you think and why? And what could they do a lot better (apart from making it all much cheaper!). I can't promise to fit everything in but think it's a great opportunity to let them know what we think.

They are also talking about whether you would encourage your child to take a job in the hospitality industry (or would take one yourself) and if not why not? So any thoughts on that also welcome.

Thanks so much as always.

Not being kept waiting an hour for food you merely heated up or deep fried.

Toilets that have space for a pushchair. Children's cutlery. Hotel rooms that cater for families with 3 children. Free wifi. Also love a restaurant that will happily give an extra plate. 2 kids meals does all 3 of mine as they are quite young.

Speed of service, especially at chains where most people know what they want to order the minute they walk in.
Please let us order drinks when we sit down, especially on a boiling hot day, or at least bring water if you say you will. And then let us order food within a few minutes, and when we ask for the bill when ordering dessert, we really mean it.

Failing that, if someone has a screaming child, asking if they'd like the bill and yarn enabling them to do so would be really appreciated by the parent of the screamer as well as everyone else in the restaurant!

Lack of horrendously noisy hand dryers in the loos, and lack of really heavy doors that a 6yo can't open, in said loos, would be great.

Beyond that just get on with it.

Paper towels in the toilet as well as / instead of really loud hand driers - many small children hate these.

This is a really small thing but when dining with 2/3 yr olds who are able to feed themselves every single time without fail I have to go and beg for a teaspoon. Especially if they are having beans, peas or sweetcorn please provide a spoon.

Clean
No crusty high chairs
Water fountain to help yourself
Mini portions of adult menu rather than grim kids menus of nuggets and burgers.
Colouring sheets and crayons
I think the family offering at Carluccios and Nando's is pretty decent.

It's the little things.
Colouring pages are always good. A decent supply of crayons too.
A decent children's meal.

The places that stand out though did little things they probably didn't notice that made a huge difference.

The café that said they could make DS a child sized portion of an adult meal when his face fell at fish fingers and chips rather than fish and chips.

And didn't snigger when I asked for plain pasta with cheese on the side for another DC.

The staff who tried to help me manipulate the buggy DH had wedged into the corner, whilst he nipped out to add money to the car, the toddler sat baffled and the baby wailed.

The staff who, when I asked if I could give the baby some grapes from my bag whilst waiting for the food to come, said, "Of course," in a very nice, why wouldn't it be ok, sort of voice.

That's what makes my meal, and has me tipping for great service above the crayons/children's menu/colouring pages but grumpy staff venues.

At a restaurant, if staff talk to children rather than through parents, it is really appreciated by them.

Staff that talk to children, instead of parents, and a little more imagination In Children's menus...some chains actually aren't too bad at this.

Parking. Usually too far away or too expensive. I can handle one or the other but not both.

Timings. Why don't more places give you time slots.Cheaper admission if you are only doing morning or afternoon. So every parent isn't having lunch/ leaving at the same time.

Lots of detailed information. Where things are ( toilets - helps if they are in good supply and clean), food and drink prices etc.

Agree with above comments about cleanliness and speed of service above. Having to wait to pay is the worst.

For a day out - kids guidebook/audio guide is good if there is an adult version. Anything interactive is always a big hit. Costumes to try on, things you can touch, buttons to press... Don't close the cafe just as we are all getting tired and hungry and in need of caffeine and cake (those places where the cafe closes at tea time...wtf? Have lived abroad for a while and this is a thing about the UK that completely perplexes me).

Hotels - it's great when the kids can share our room. But as we are then 4 people we will also need 4 towels, 4 drinking glasses etc.

Family hotel rooms. We're a family of five. Travel a lot but not in the UK generally because the UK, unlike rest of world, doesn't really cater for five.

We don't even mind paying for two rooms but want to book the good rates and do it online at a time that suits us. For two rooms in the UK we always seam to have to call a premium number and then can't necessarily get two guaranteed next to each other. Rest of Europe appear to be able to cater for this easily, why not the UK?

The Hilton Metropole in London is the exception to this. We took the DC at Feb half term. DS1 a 5ft7 13 yo was on verge of Autistic meltdown when we arrived. We'd been on the underground and he'd freaked when the doors closed between him/ DH/ DS2 and me and DD. Fab train driver reopened them for us. The receptionist identified his significant additional needs and speedily sorted our room, sorted breakfast fast track to avoid need to queue and fed him copious amounts of complementary pillow chocolates which ment we just made it to our room before he fell apart and we sat out a few hours downtime.

We enjoy travel and going to places but need information in advance. DS1 is autistic and so we often use a carers pass system. We have anual passes for Merlin this year, we like repition, however the goal post for what makes a carer and what paperwork is needed is forever changing. This year Alton Towers required a consultants letter specifically saying DS cant queue. Consultants appointments cost the NHS sometning crazy like £250. They're highly skilled people. It actually sickened me to have to ask for this letter so we could access things at Alton towers. The knowledge I've taken resource from another struggling family saddens me. I'd like the hospitality industry to think carefully about this sort of blanket request and society impact. Is higher rate DLA, EHCP, carers paperwork really not sufficient to show disability? DS1 has a whole cupboard for his paperwork, we dont want to crate the whole lot with us when out and about.

If it's a theme park / attraction aimed at younger families, the fold-down toddler toilet seats they have at Peppa Pig World are brilliant.

Baby change that's not in the ladies and has plenty of room for your pushchair.

Tables that are big enough to put stuff out of reach of babies.

IKEA antilop highchairs WITH TRAYS. If no trays then tables that are the right height so the baby can pick up food from the table.

Plenty of room between tables so that there's room for pushchairs and room for more than one highchair at a table.

A kids menu that includes something like a little pot of breadsticks/veg sticks/cut up fruit. My son is 10 months so I don't order him a kids meal, but places that have this kind of snack pot I always order one.

Don't put my plate/drink down where the baby can reach it!! You'd think this was common sense but the amount of places that put a boiling hot plate in front of him.

If there's a play area, some kind of area for crawlers. If the child can't walk yet there's often not really anything for them.

It would be good for teens to be more aware of careers in hospitality, school careers advice so far has been more focused on the forces, emergency services etc. because these are the people who come and talk to schools. I think DD and her peers are of the opinion that the hospitality industry is for part time jobs when studying, rather than fully fledged careers, possibly because it is known for having to work long hours and around here it can be very seasonal.

Paper towels in the toilet as well as / instead of really loud hand driers - many small children hate these.

Yes - this!

As Vonklump says above, great service - which means making small accommodations for customers (eg making something that isn't actually on the menu but is a very simple combination of things that are on the menu - fish fingers with mashed potato, for example, rather than with chips).

As PP say - speed of service, plastic cups and plates, child-sized cutlery. Clear labelling of allergens. Antilop with tray. Very clean - preferably large - toilets. Nice waiters. Milk as an option rather than squash/juice. Low-priced set meals for dc.

Puzzle sheets etc are much appreciated by small dc.

Wetherspoons and Pizza Express are very family-friendly IME.

For hotels - the option of booking a standard double rather than a family room, when you have a co-sleeping toddler (with perhaps a small extra charge for breakfast). Usually there are only a few "family rooms" available, but if you don't actually need the extra bed this shouldn't be a problem.

For hotels generally it's all about getting the main things right (clean, attractive, great showers, great breakfasts, great service) and then the little touches on top that make you remember the place (fancy soaps, really nice china, butter curls).

Pay first so you can just run out when done-so much better for everyone. Plastic glasses for dc. If giving colouring pencils make sure they're sharpened once in a while. Yest had a meal out & out of about 60 colouring pencils, only 5 were useable, grrrr!

A few toys & books in a corner go a long way

Plastic cups for children who have outgrown baby cups at 3/4/5 but next size up is a giant glass with ice (even when we asked for none) and a straw. The kids will still try and pick it up and inevitable tip it all over the table or themselves. A jug of water/squash and small cups would be great.

Ditto cutlery that a under 7 can fit in their mouths, you can't eat much food with just a tea spoon yet adult size are huge and heavy.

More than one tiny napkin per person, ideally being kids food first so you have few minutes to sort, chop, before yours starts getting cold.

Haven't read the whole thread so sorry if I'm repeating previous posters' suggestions.

In restaurants and cafés, we would choose places where we could pay for food or drinks upfront. Places that accept credit cards are essential.

Also having one of the restaurant staff to seat customers is a bonus; we went to a great café in the Yorkshire Dales which did this and it made us feel really welcome as on that occasion we were a large group (9 of us) and not to have to go round begging odd chairs from different tables made the whole experience more relaxing.

Clean toilets. Sufficient toilets if it's at an attraction or somewhere where there is likely to be a high number of visitors needing to use the loo (suggest unisex to avoid the popular problem of much longer queues for the ladies').

As pp said, high chairs that are same height as table or trays. Plus child sized cutlery and glasses. And as others said the standard beige and chips,.and brownie and ice cream is pants..we don't eat this at home, so why choose it when out?.My kids love things like noodle dishes, donburi, quesadillas etc but they never come in child sized portions.

My son also has a learning Disability and as such many places are no go areas for us despite being previously well travelled pre kids. He loves to explore and won't sit at the table very long so ideally we need somewhere engaging and closed in for him to play in like a.decent sized soft play while we eat. Hotel rooms that are kid safe as we found he got out once and was wandering naked in the foyer once Hotel rooms with actual listening service so we don't have to sit on the balcony when kids are asleep watching everyone else having fun below us. Actually I despise hotel rooms for this reason and now only get places with actual bedrooms. With full sized beds as we all co sleep anyway. If you have a children's club then put the sessions on all at the same time. Last place we went to our kids of different ages had to go to different sessions so there was no time off for the parents as we always had the other child to look after?!

Lastly I wish someone would set up a staycation company where we just hire chefs and a cleaner for a week. I find these days that going away is an expensive faff that never really delivers what you have at home.

Accessible toilets that are big enough to get a wheelchair in and space for several carers. Bigger places having a changing bed with hoist for disabled children ( and adults).
Theme parks having a calming space/ chill out room for those with sensory difficulties that is specifically for them. Space for wheelchairs/older children's buggies in cafes and restaurants. The option of booking tables. Staff having disability awareness.

One thing which would be great is if you're out for a meal for the children's meal to come first. It gives me time to cut up, etc and get them sorted so that when mine arrives we can all start together. Quite often the child's meal seems to be the last one to come out so you've got a little one thinking they've been forgotten and a full table with no room to manoeuvre plates!

I've been regularly annoyed by the amount of toilets that are unusable for small children.

Ok a teeny tiny loo is unrealistic to expect but there's no reason for any of these issues:

Cubicle too small for an adult to assist

Filthy floors/walls

Sinks too high/water too hot/pressure too high/taps too difficult to operate/soap too high or too hard to operate

Noisy hand driers that are too high for a child to use even if they aren't screaming in terror/pain at the racket. Either that or they are so feeble there is no way you can get a toddler to wait around long enough to get their hands properly dry. They often seem to be installed just above baby changing tables for a lovely extra 'surprise' when you put your child down as well.

Oh, and those stupid toilet paper dispensers that mean you have to struggle to find the end. Or the ones that mean you have to rip out a massive wodge altogether because they are so tightly packed.

Agree with you on the toilet paper dispensers hamwich, they're always useless and difficult to use, but I think sadly, if you put normal ones in, people steal the toilet paper.

It probably also runs out very quickly and would require intervention to be replaced.