Hotel help needed....stupid question alert!

[minettesmum]

Hello

And apologies for my complete ignorance on this subject! My DD is 4.5 and we're looking at taking her to Peppa Pig Hell, sorry World, this weekend. This will be our first experience in a hotel with her...and the prospect looks so unappealing that I'm having 2nd thoughts.

She's asleep by 8pm. The room options I have seen have all been a triple...What in heaven's name are we meant to do with our evening? Sit quietly in a darkened room listening to her snore??

I've found one hotel that offers babysitting for the bargain price of £13phr, min 3 hours. Gulp.

Am I missing something really obvious, or are we all expected to eat dinner ridiculously early and watch very very quiet TV once we're parents?! Oh, and pay through the nose for the experience.

I haven't booked anywhere yet...so all suggestions really welcome, as have spent so long on google and trip advisor that I'm going cross eyed.

TIA.

Sarah

We sort of meet halfway - the kids stay up a bit later and we go to bed a bit earlier. After a day at Peppa Pig World we didn't want to do anything else but fall into bed anyway.

I agree with Panda. We've done the half compromise thing, kids staying up a bit later and we tend to get a bottle of wine and watch tv/film quietly whilst they dose off. Not without it's hiccups...

Some places you can get adjoining rooms, so you could be in separate rooms with the door open or baby monitor?

We've also stayed in one where there were to areas separated by the bathroom, so whilst you could hear the kids (and they you) their area could be dark while we still had lights and TV on.

She stays up later, you go to bed earlier. Or you book connecting rooms. Or you look for hotels with family rooms where the kids beds are partitioned off. Or you stay in a self catering apartment. Or you sit in the dark..

When we stayed in a hotel I found a local babysitting service. The babysitter joined us in the hotel restaurant whilst we were having puddings, so we could check her out, and then either DH or myself took DD up to our room together with the babysitter, and then left after a couple of minutes.

DD had a great time and settled very easily with the babysitters. It was £10 an hour with no minimum time limit, we had a 2 hour session and a 3 hour session.

We stayed in the hotel bar so we were on hand should any problems arise, but everything went fine. It meant we could relax and enjoy a drink knowing DD was safe upstairs.

We have done the same as Lowlevelstabbing - kids stay up a bit later, us watching tv quietly with a bottle of wine.

I wouldnt want to put a 4.5 year old in a separate adjoining room, but maybe that is just a reflection on my children and the chaos they can cause.

Does the hotel have a listening service? If so, you put her down for the night, then go for dinner with the hotel reception listening to the phone off the hook and they come to get you if she makes any noise, you go to bed after dinner.

As the hotel that you ae booking what options they have for doing this. we were incredibly lucky our kids go to sleep really quickly and stay that way so we used to sneak down to the bar and one of us check every 30 mins. Much easier once they get older and can be left on their own but agree it is always tricky sharing with your kids.

This is why we stay at Premier Inns - they are cheap enough for me not to resent a quiet night in.

We usually take a bottle of wine and some nibbles with us. and settle down in front of the telly. We've found that the DCs sleep through most TV noises (unless they are very loud and unexpected).

Thanks for all your responses. I'm not sure whether I'm happy or despairing that there isn't an obvious solution I was missing (other than the option to lump it).

Lydia, I haven't booked a hotel but I haven't yet seen one on my searches advertise a listening service...

We've always stayed self catering before, but that's just not do-able for a night or two.

The person who opens up a chain of genuinely family friendly, reasonably priced hotels where you are not expected to resign yourself to watching telly and eating cheesy wotsits for the evening will be a very rich person indeed. Tho I do like cheesy wotsits.

If it's a very small hotel and you know the exact format and your child is still unable to climb out of a cot, then using a baby monitor and staying in the bar/lounge is feasible - BIL arranged a family break a while back doing that so we got to play games in the lounge.

However now ds and dn are 3 and climbing about and wanting help with toilets etc, I think it's time for simply collapsing on the bed and reading with MrNC, possibly a film and snuggling once ds is asleep. Or finding a self-catering cottage as we do for summer holidays. And bribing my parents to babysit while we have a night away...

hotel with room service so you can have a proper meal delivered to your room while they sleeping

What about a very little B and B with a sitting room downstairs? We have done this often. We do keep DD up a little later then we make a cuppa and go down stairs and watch some TV.

We always try and stay in apartment so we can spend the evening relaxing in lounge. If not then adjoining hotel rooms are the way forward.