In line with the post on whether you can travel with more than two young children, our reader Del69 proposed another interesting topic that we address today: the difficulties of finding accommodation when traveling with children, especially in hotels.
The first problem we face is when we want to book online, either in a reservation center, or directly in the hotel web system. It is rarely specified if children fit in the same double room, or the ages from which that is not possible.
In this way, we may travel with a baby who would sleep without problems in bed with parents or in a crib, but the system leads us to a triple room, with which the price increases considerably.
It is also frequent that if you indicate that there are two adults traveling with two children, the system only offers you two rooms (or a family suite in which one night costs more than the rest of the trip as a whole).
Not to mention when we travel with two or more children. In these cases, I had to contact the hotel staff directly in question to ask all the details while I told them the ages of our daughters: do they have cots and extra beds available? Does the price increase? Is it possible for the smallest to sleep in the same parents bed?
Then, everything is easier, once the real conditions of the accommodation and price are known when traveling with children. That, simple and acceptable, in case you do not want to charge the price of two double rooms or excessive amounts for extra beds, or even if you intend to place in two separate rooms, as they once offered us.
All these difficulties make many families give up staying in hotels and decide for apartments or rural houses, with greater facilities when it comes to housing families. Normally the price is cheaper and above all it is more suitable spaces for the family stay, especially if you travel with more than two children.
In any rare, it is not strange that in these types of establishments the ages of the children are not well specified either to be able to choose the houses or apartments that best suit us.
Due to this greater comfort, in recent trips I have been seeing the possibility of opting for apartments, but in the end I have always found hotels more or less suited to our needs, such as the hotel in Dublin that did not charge a supplement for children under 12 years: the children slept next to us on a sofa bed.
Or in Porto, where we find a little hotel with a attic quite wide for us and without price increase. A very "kid-friendly" detail by these establishments that do not claim drive away clients traveling as a family with their astronomical prices.
The “tests” of our reservation with children
One tip: if you have spoken directly with the hotel staff to establish the conditions and price, keep the mails and in the reservation documents Add it to “Observations”, lest you get surprised and try to change the conditions when you arrive at the hotel, as has happened to us.
It was on a trip to Cartagena, when we were going with the 18-month-old girl, and when they saw her they told us that we had not said that we were three people, that we would need a triple. Luckily, I had a printed page with the reservation on it indicating that we were requesting a crib for the girl in a double room, as the hotel actually offered.
In any case, we can hardly resort to online reservation systems if we want to find a reasonable price, although these systems can be combined with direct contact to the hotel to know the conditions.
But from my experience I tell you that many times that is the most effective, and the hotel staff will tell you clearly if we can stay with babies or children (they can also tell us no) and even small hotels can offer more interesting prices than hotels. of the centrals or that their own website (if they see that the dates have them empty ...).
I hope these tips to solve the difficulties of finding accommodation when traveling with children Encourage you to pack and enjoy all the adventures of a family trip.
Photos | Deborah Leigh (Migraine Chick) and bealete on Flickr-CC
In Babies and more | Visit Versailles with a baby, Travel to Amsterdam with a baby, Go skiing with children, Travel with children: accommodation in hotels and apartments, Hotels that do not accept children
