Grandad and Granddaughter staying in an hotel/motel?

[DayAtTheRaces]

My daughter is a single parent but has an on/off boyfriend. He has a landmark birthday this week and my daughter is planning to spend and day and night with him.

She wants our 8 year old granddaughter to stay with grandad so he can ‘babysit’. She hasn’t seen him in person for nearly a year as we have been living overseas and in the process of moving back to the UK (I am currently overseas and he has just moved back to get the house ready).

This would involve an overnight stay in an hotel (especially one with a pool) or motel as the distance is 100 miles to drive and no spare room at our daughter’s tiny flat.

My husband is very nervous about this; is he likely to be regarded with suspicion (paedophile?) if he books a twin (2 beds) room? In the US he would have booked somewhere like Embassy Suites where there is a seperate bedroom within the suite and they are reasonably priced and family friendly, but I don’t know if there are similar places in England?

I would think that an 8 year old can’t really have a seperate room of her own (I think she would be scared tbh) but I don’t know which UK chains have interconnecting doors? Also need to keep costs down as daughter will expect us to be paying for everything as she is constantly broke.

Holiday Inn Express have interconnected rooms but no pool. Fabulous breakfast though and for a budget chain I find them really comfy.

Hotel motel holiday inn - say whaaaaat.

Sorry, this just made Rappers Delight come into my head.

She’s 8, she’s his grandchild. Book one room; you’re overthinking this.

Also. 100 miles isn’t that far. There’s no need for an overnight stop if you don’t want one.

If genuine opinions are being asked, mine is that personally, I would find this strange if I was working at the hotel and an elderly man arrived with an 8yr old. But I wouldn't think he was a Paedophile? Just unusual 🤷🏼‍♀️

I haven't come across interconnecting rooms in the UK, but nominally an 8 year old normally needs an adult IN the room. When we booked interconnecting rooms in Spain we had to book at least 1 adult in each room, even though they were interconnecting. To give them separate space in one booking you'd need something like a "junior suite" (£££)

He should just book a twin or family room in a big chain like a premier inn, and stop worrying about it. I'm sure single parents stay over with their children all the time and some of them will be older parents.

I wouldn't think twice about a grandad sharing a twin room with his granddaughter.

Why would having an interconnecting door make him any less likely to be a paedophile? They'd still be together unsupervised.

I also think you're overthinking it - wouldn't think twice about it at all & would simply assume grandparent or even parent, depending on how old he looks.

I thought I’d post an update.

First of all I nearly spat my tea out over my keyboard over the comment that my husband is ‘an elderly man’....he is 59 and runs in marathons lol!

In the end they both stayed at a Holiday Inn hotel in a room with seperate beds. He stays frequently on business with IHG hotel group which includes the Intercontinental Hotels/Holiday Inns/HI Express etc. and has a loyalty card, so there is a traceable record of him.

They enjoyed their little trip, although when we were talking on FaceTime she told me that she prefers to stay with Nanny as Grandad is too bossy! (He isn’t as soft with her as me but she did get a nice cuddly toy from the zoo they went to!) :)