Why does Booking.com want to put my 10 month old in a separate room (and charge us for it!)

[vallaloop]

Surely I am doing something wrong!

We would like to go away for a few nights and all we need is a king size bed as we co-sleep.

If I select ‘2 adults and 0 children’ then guesthouses with king size beds show up in the search results.

If I select ‘2 adults and 1 child, <1 year old,’ the previous availabilities disappear and the only properties shown are those which have two rooms available, and consequently are double the price.

Is the only option to contact places directly and explain we are 2+1 but we don’t need any additional beds or rooms?

Booking dot com is rubbish for this.

I check the children policy. If it says children under X free, then I book for two adults and let the hotel know separately. Never ever been a problem.
Even if not free, I just pay for them extra at the accomodation as usually booking charges them as if they are adult as well.

Something is broken in their programming (by design or otherwise, who knows).

That has happened to us a few times, what I have done is email the hotel and ask if they allow cots/extra bed in the room. They normally say yes and just book one room and then email them with the request.

By the way @vallaloop I realise this is irrelevant and equally unacceptable but they are not trying to get you to put your 10mo old in a separate bedroom. The Ts&Cs if you were to book would be (a) no more than 2 people sleeping in each room and (b) each room must contain at least one person over age 18yo. The expectation would be that you and your DH would sleep separately, with DC in with one of you. It's madness.