Babyphone friendly hotels
 

Friends have told us of great success going to small hotels where they could use their babyphone (aka baby monitor) to dine in the hotel restaurant with the child asleep in the room, or else leave the babyphone with the hotel desk and dine nearby to be alerted by mobile phone should the child awaken.

Does anyone have suggestions for small hotels or inns in Western Europe that either have a good restaurant in the hotel or very close by where the babyphone 'trick' could work?

Thanks,
MG

Hi bx,

>..suggestions for small hotels or inns in Western Europe ...<

Could you possibly limit your scope to a single country?

((I))

A limit on countries would be good, but until then, we've done this at the Lamb Inn in Burford, England. They have use the phone system to listen to your baby while you enjoy dinner.

I might have some others bookmarked, I'll check.

I can't imagine asking a restaurant or hotel to contact you if/when the baby wakes. My reaction as a hotel employee is that it's not my job to monitor your child's situation. Add the language confusion and uncertainty of what to look for, and this seems like a mess. My advice is that, if you choose to take an infant to Europe, pay the price and take them with you when you dine. It's less fun, but you were the ones who made the choice, not the hotel or restaurant staff.

Do you have to take the baby with you? Isn't that what grandparents or brothers/sisters are for? Why else were they invented? :=)

Wait -- you're going to leave a baby alone sleeping in a room while you are someplace off in a restaurant? How could you possibly think that is a good idea?! Perhaps if it were a REALLY small inn with a restaurant right downstairs, but...

Hi bxlexpat,

The hotel will be able to recommend baby sitters for you -- that's what my parents did when my sister and I were traveling infants.

s

I think your "friends" were pushing it depending on exactly where they managed to do this.

With the greatest of respect for you I would not in any way, shape, or form, consent, or allow any of my employees to consent to monitoring a babyphone.

Why? What happens if the device fails in some way? If it is to be effective then it must be monitored constantly and that could not be guaranteed.

You need a paid sitter IMO or take the child along with you.

First you don't give us ANY idea where you are talking about.

But that is the least of your problems. Leaving an infant/small child alone in a hotel room while you "dine elsewhere" would be criminal offense in many States. Don't know about the place(s) you are traveling - but that seems VERY irresponsible.

Either 1) take the child to dinner w/ you, 2) engage a hotel recommended baby sitter, or 3) leave the child at home w/ the grandparents . . . . .

These hotels are generally rather small establishments and offer baby listening as an amenity for families. It allows you to put your baby to sleep and go downstairs (not off the premises), no different than what one does at home. The desk clerk listens through the phone line and you tell them exactly where you'll be.

Google on 'baby listening hotel' and the country you are interested in visiting and you'll find loads of places throughout Europe that offer this service. These are a couple of sites I've marked through the years:

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/travel/
Great Family Hotels, throughout the UK


http://www.breakswithtradition.com/
Family friendly hotels

Yes - baby-listening when you nip downstairs for dinner is one thing. My comment was re the "dine nearby" comment.

I personally would never be comfortable leaving my baby alone in a hotel room with strangers, <b>hopefully</b>, listening in. And, no way, not ever, would I leave my child in a room while I left the premises to dine.

What if the person who is <b>supposed</b> to be listening for your baby gets distracted:

- She gets a phone call and gets into a big fight with her boyfriend
- There’s a small fire, and everyone’s running around looking for a fire extinguisher
- A hotel customer has a heart attack (my sister’s father-in-law died at a hotel counter just this way)
- An irate customer comes in and starts yelling at the staff
- There’s a malfunction with the monitor, and the staff doesn’t even realize it

Not to mention, you’re letting hotel staff know your baby is alone; all it takes is one pervert to turn off the monitor and sneak into the room. And, I’m sure even Europe has a few perverts.

Ok, so I have a vivid imagination.

Isn't it the custom of some of the Scandinavian countries to leave babies outside restaurants in their strollers? I recall a Scandinavian (perhaps Danish?) couple visiting NYC several years ago who left their baby in a carriage outside a NYC restaurant while they dined inside. I recall that they had some explaining to do to the NYPD.

I can't imagine leaving a baby alone in a room for dinner, in the building or out. Please reconsider, and ask the front desk for help finding a babysitter instead.

Jules

If anybody knows a child is alone in a hotel room, to me it's a recipe for disaster.

Only if I'd bring a portable babyphone which I can install and use myself, I'd have a dinner downstairs in the same building while the child is asleep.

I had forgotten that story, Padams,but I just googled it. The Danish mother apparently sued for $20 million - don't know the results. Here are some links for that story.

http://tinyurl.com/krvae
http://tinyurl.com/qzmv5
http://tinyurl.com/k7tb3

Addendum to my earlier post: that pervert wouldn't even need to turn off the monitor: s(he) could sneak in, grab the baby and be gone before anyone could do a thing about it.

I believe Annette Sorenson lost both lawsuits.

I guess all my imaginary perverts must be living in Marie's mind.

Regardless of specifics of what could go wrong, I can't envision wanting to trust a hotel employee to listen in on a babyphone. Most of the time nothing disastrous will occur, obviously, but if something does go wrong, how would it be addressed in time? (I'm thinking, for example, that a crib might collapse, as one tiny possibility.) I know people leave their babies unattended briefly when at home in order to do laundry or something, but that seems different than leaving the baby so far away in order to eat dinner. And even so, I'm fairly certain that many baby accidents (strangling in blinds, etc.) do occur when there is no parental supervision. How many times have we heard something like, &quot;I was only away for a minute!&quot;

This is the one and only post from bxlexpat.

Am also thinking of the poor people in the room next door who have to listen to the &quot;awakened&quot; baby before parents get back to room from the restuarant!

There is a poster here on Fodors, who told about going to a restaurant in Portland Or and leaving their little child asleep in the car..so I don't think it is so uncommon here either :(

Now , my wonder is...if the hotel desk were to assign an employee to baby-listening duty and the monitors are all lined up in front of him. How does he know which baby is which, who should he contact and if he can hear the monitors with those iPod thingees in his ears ..

Part of our <i>travel with children reality</i> was that we had to eat when and with our children and save the romantic dinners alone for babysitting days or when they grew up :)

We went away several times with friends when their daughter was tiny and they tackled this in 3 ways. 1) In some bigger city hotels, they got the hotel to book them a babysitter to sit in their room with the child while we all went out. Obviously the babysitter had their mobile phone number in case it was needed, but it never was. 2) In some chateaux in the French countryside, they left her in their room &amp; brought the baby monitor with them while we ate there (these places were generally booked through www.chateauxhotel.com I think). 3) When the weather was warm enough to eat outside, e.g. in Rome, they would bring her out in a pushchair (stroller) &amp; she'd sleep alongside our table. But she was an extremely placid baby who slept from 7pm to 7am.

P.S. jules, re &quot;I can't imagine leaving a baby alone in a room for dinner, in the building&quot; - isn't that what people do in their own homes ? :-)

for caroline_edinburgh,

You don't have strangers roaming the halls of your own home (or do you?).
***

Common or not, leaving an infant in an unattended car is insane. When my mother had her fender-bender a few years before she passed, the stationary car she hit had a -- yup -- infant in it. Thank God it was just a fender bender.

s

swandav2000 : well maybe in my younger days :-) But hotel rooms do have locks on, &amp; I'm talking about quite small places where they used the baby monitor.

I think all of this could be avoided by leaving infants and toddlers at home.
4 times in Europe and I have seen SO many little ones being dragged from sight to sight crying. Let them stay at home in familiar territory with their toys. This wont make you bad parents. this will make you happy parents. Wait until your kids are older so they truly enjoy all the wonders of travel. To me, it is a no brainer.

Hotel rooms do have locks, but can you imagine how many hotel employees have keys to those locks? Managers, front desk staff, maids, etc. I wouldn't want that many people having free access to my unattended child.

Hey sprin2, We also did this at the Lamb Inn in Burford. Also another time in Burford at the Golden Pheasant. And a third time that trip at Fifehead Manor near Middle Wallop.

We always had the baby monitor with us while dining in the hotel restaurant.

Caroline, there is a very big difference between my home and a hotel, only one of which is the fact that strangers are walking about in a hotel.

I wouldn't go to the next door neighbors for dinner and leave my baby alone in our house, baby monitor or not.

I've been a newspaper reporter and have had to report on the tragedies of what happened when babies were left alone, whether it was fire, kidnappings, or suffocations because they were left unattended. No precious child is worth a dinner out alone with my spouse when a babysitter can be found.

Jules

Well, that was eloquent...I must edit to say &quot;No precious child's life is worth <i>risking</i> for dinner out alone with my spouse when a babysitter can be found.

I have stayed on to hoels that used ths type of service- and it's more common than most Americans would know.
First place was in Cornwall and the front desk had a listening service. Parents could only be at dinner. Flame me all you want, but we left our kids tucked in bed watching two movies on the dvd player while we ate dinner downstairs. Ok, the oldest was 11 at the time and our kids have spent a lot of night in a hotel, knew where we were, and had the threat of one of returning to check on them.

The other hotel is in Austria in a small mountain village. The couple at the table next to ours would come down to dinner late after putting their kids to bed. They ate with a baby monitor on the table. ( We usually ate a bit on the early side with out kids before they ran off to the hotel movie night.)
I might add that unless you've seen the hotels that have this service and understand it, you'd be quick to cast judgement!!

Highledge, the original poster asked for input about using a babyphone, and who what hotels use such a service. It stands to reason that some of us responders would question the wisdom of such a move, given the vulnerability of a baby being left alone.

Given my experience in quoting all too many distraught parents that they &quot;only left the baby for a few minutes&quot; after tragedy struck, I'm hardly passing judgement, only passing along a caution that should be seriously considered whether &quot;those in other countries do it routinely&quot; or not.

It's only out of concern for the child's safety, nothing else, that motivates me.

Jules

Well bxlexpat is not asking whether we think her idea is a good one or not but rather whether anyone has suggestions regarding facilities that offer this service.

But having said that there is no way at all I would leave my baby in a hotel room alone for even ten minutes..babyphone or not. I would go without dinner before I would do that.

Ditto.

There is an A-Rosa resort in Kitzbuehel, Austria, which offers a great feature:

The telephone in the room can be programmed to call your mobile number when a sensor detects the baby making a noise.

The property is brand new and does have some service glitches, though.

Here's the link:

http://www.a-rosa.de/index_en.htm

Maybe the baby could just use the cell phone

My God, I cannot believe such a service exists. What if there is a glitch in the system and the baby is choking? I would NEVER trust the Hotel desk to listen for my child...

We take our children on our overseas vacations, but we didint leave them alone in the room until they were well in to their teens.
I am just shocked to hear anything positive about this - really!

Ditto again. I notice the OP has not responded.

I've noticed that too Maire. Makes me wonder.

I can't conceive of leaving a baby alone in the room with front desk monitoring. Good grief. Baby spits up, chokes, he's going to call your cell so you can run back to the room? Give me a break! :( My kids were reared in an era when &quot;stranger danger&quot; wasn't nearly the concern it is today. We did use hotel baby sitters on the occasions we had to go out, but once our oldest was 11 or 12 we felt she was capable of staying alone with her brother, 2 years younger and a really &quot;good&quot; kid, <i>if</i> we were <u>in</u> the hotel for a function. With Dad being in the hotel business and usually staying in one of his hotels, they were pretty hotel savvy and safe, IMHO. Young and alone, never, not in my wildest dreams would I consider doing that.