I am planning a trip to Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and Mt.St.Michel this July. I hear that hotels in Europe only allow up to 3 guests per room. It's 4 of us (me, my husband, and 2 sons), so what should we do? I don't want to 2 rooms!

And if the answer really is "no" what is Plan B?

There are hotels with quad rooms But you have to search for it, it's not the common thing so your choices are a bit less. But I don't think you will have any trouble on finding them in big cities...

we have had that problem. You can hunt for the occasional place or see if you can get a family room.

Hotel rooms in europe are MUCH smaller than in the US - unless you go for very upscale hotels. There simply isn;t room for all those beds in most rooms (you usually get 1 double or 2 twins).

You can look for family rooms - but then you have only one bath. You don;t mention age of the sons. If you go for the family room be sure to tell age/size - since the hotel may well assume you're talking about small kids that can sleep on roll-away beds - not teens or even big tweens - that will need real beds.

you can find family rooms, family suites, etc. Just ask. We had a family suite in paris at the Claude Bernard and were very happy. Same with Lion D'Or in Bayeux. have only done doubles in Amsterdam and Brussels but you might want to search on Venere.com and see if the hotels offer family/quad rooms. How old are the boys? Once ours reached 14 and 16, we just bit the bullet and got two rooms albeit either connecting or on the same floor.

Hmm. We'll be traveling with our 6 and 3 year old daughters. When I tried to make a reservation on venere for 4 it said nothing was available (Madrid, Kris Cazadoza, because it's near the airport--we just have one short night there--feedback, anyone?) but when I said 3, it gave me a room. I thought we could just "make room" for our second daughter...is this a bad idea?

We stayed at Marriott hotels in Amsterdam and Brussels in one room with our two sons. We had double room with rollaway bed. Brussels Marriott has great weekend rate during the summer for 109 EUR/night, perfect location, comfortable beds.

Mo_ G, it's better if you write them an email (to the hotel) and just ask..maybe they have room for a little bed for your youngest daughter and you can manage with the triple

Mo_G: &quot;<i>I thought we could just &quot;make room&quot; for our second daughter...is this a bad idea?</i>&quot;

You can't assume it will be OK. You should definitely contact the hotel and ask if they can accomodate an additional child in the same room.

(Some places the laws are very strict about the number of people allowed in a room certified for a certain occupancy)

It is difficult but possible. My husband and I have been to several European countries with our 2 kids. We have always been able to find a room for four. Not easily, of course. Call the hotel directly and ask them what kind of beds they have in the room and whether they could add a rollaway bed for a child and how much it would cost. Some larger double rooms or junior suites have sofabeds that can sleep two children. There are some double rooms with two double beds (we had one in Vienna). Good luck.

When we traveled with our 2 teenage children, we were sometimes told in Germany and Austria that the price was per person. One room or two made no difference. I can't say this was the rule, but it was frequent.

As others have suggested it is possible. Look for quad or family room designations. You'll have much better luck searching individual hotel websites and emailing hotels directly. These rooms don't always show up on the booking agent sites and I like to hear about the bed configuration.

Also when on the hotel websites look for cottages, apartments, and other different designations. Many hotels will have a little different spot for families. Just tonight I was looking around Amsterdam and saw multiple of these type rooms in the center at not much more than a quad room. In rural areas we've stayed in converted stable blocks at Inns.

Mo_G:

It is risky to book a room for three if there are four of you. Typically, local regulations dictate number of occupants permitted based on square footage of room...

Best to communicate with the hotel ahead of time, so as not to be refused checking in when you arrive.

yoba, you will definitely find rooms for 4 people (quad or family) in Paris.I was also looking for a room that can accommadate 4. I checked out the Hotels with Triple rooms and mentioning of an extra bed at an extra charge. I then communicated directly with the Hotel to find out exactly what could be done - and what kind of beds we are talking about.

Do a search on this forum for &quot;triple&quot;, &quot;quad&quot; and &quot;family&quot; rooms and you will get a lot of good information!

There are sometimes rooms such as Quads or family rooms in some hotels which might work for you but I find they are often not listed in the hotel web site or hotel search engine. Often times the hotel will offer you two connected rooms. I work this issue by finding some hotels that seem to be the type we like and sending them an email with our specific needs. Do not assume that you can make a triple into a quad. We often rent apartments. Choices will be in large part dictated by what you want to spend per night.

There are lots of family rooms around (after all, Europeans have kids too) but they tend not to fit into a nice easy category for on-line booking so don't always show up.

Contact likely hotels directly.

Otherwise, I always use www.octopustravel.com to look for rooms - you put in number of people AND number of rooms in the search and it always seems to come up with a few options. We found plenty of choice for 4 adults sharing one room in Amsterdam a few years ago. Not in the 5 star hotels, but they were ok.

Oh I've just looked at the site and they have changed it a little, but you can still specify a wide range of room types including quad for 4. It came up with 73 hotels in Paris and surrounding area in July with available quad rooms.

I have never found hotel websites to be very helpful in these situations. Emailing or actually calling the hotels has always worked best for me.

We stayed in a &quot;quad&quot; room at a very nice Holiday Inn in Paris for 1 night (we went on to an apartment after that). There were 2 queen beds and it was just fine.

Now that our kids are teenagers - we just fork over the money for 2 rooms. I like the extra bathroom and the privacy!

Thanks everyone. I will take your advice and call the hotels directly and/or try to find apartments. Our itinerary includes Prague, Budapest, (possibly Bratislava), and Krakow. Any apartment suggestions there, or sites to investigate?

Thanks!