My husband and I are planning a graduation-from-college-trip with our 22 year old daughter in September to various parts of Italy. When booking hotels in the States, we typically try to book rooms with either 2 queen size beds, or a king size bed and a sofa bed. Do hotels in Italy offer these types of accommodations? Obviously, we are trying to hold down our costs and avoid booking 2 rooms.

You will need to look for family rooms...rooms in europegeberally just have 1 double bed (referred to in Europe as a queen size) or two twins. Family rooms will offer beds for more than two people.

Should read in Europe generally...

It will depend on the location / hotel - I was on a trip with my 2 adult daughters - we did find triples in Rome and also on Capri. I think I used the website www.venere.com to search for hotels with triples but many rooms will not be able to squeeze a cot / rollaway into the double room, as many EU hotel rooms are smaller than in the US.

You'll have no problem finding a room for three if you reserve early enough.

Just find the place you want and contct them - just keep in mind that it will more likely be a double and a twin or a queen and a twin. Also, because these family rooms represent a small fraction of the rooms a hotel may have, you want to find one and book it ASAP.

A hotel room with two queens or even a king and a twin or sofa will not be nearly as common as in the US - especially in the old central city areas. If you're set on an American style room with two queens or a king bed, you may have to look outside the historical centers at a building built very recently (less than 100 years ago).

I can recommend a B&B in Venice that has triples. B&B Corte 1321 was lovely, located just 7-8 minutes walk from the Rialto. It is in a lovely neighborhood called San Polo. Here is a link: http://www.corte1321.com/en/description.htm

(They even have a room or two with bathtubs. If you want one of those, make sure you mention it when you book.)

The configuration you want is typically american - not european. Even triple rooms usually have one double bed and one twin bed - or perhaps a roll-away cot. Be careful when reserving that you will be getting an actual bed versus a roll-away.

If you reserve at major american chains you will have a better chance of getting what you asked for - but the prices are likely to be very high and often the locations are not great.

Depending on how long you stay in place X, go get an apartment.

I'm not as familiar with the terminology in Italy, but I've never been in a European country where they routinely called regular double beds a queen. In Italy they call them matrimoniale beds. That should be between queen and king, but you really should ask to make sure. It should mean it is made up as one big bed (the linens), even if made of 2 small beds pushed together.

You need to ask bed size in cm. A regular double is 140 cm, a queen is 160, king 180 (which is usually 2 90 cm beds pushed together in hotels). In Italy, a "French double" is actually smaller than a US double bed, it's just a big twin (they don't use that term in France, but do in some other countries like Germany, also). The distinction is it is one bed, not two small ones pushed together.

The term queen bed is really American, and while some European hotels may use it, you never know what it means for sure without asking. In Italy, they often don't even given the bed a term (like queen), it seems to me, you just look at the photos and the type of room (double or single). A superior double room should have a larger bed than a standard double room, and cheaper hotels often have smaller double beds.

But there are some hotels with triple rooms, they aren't necessarily going to be cheap, though. LIke this one http://www.albergodelsenato.it/rooms.php

If you are trying to "hold down costs", by all means- look at renting apartments. Cheaper per night, usually more space, and you can save by fixing your own breakfasts/sandwhiches, etc. Food is a big expense in Italy if dining out every night.

The hotels in Italy usually don't come in the form you are interested. If they do, they tend to big brand souless business hotels catering to US and other business travelers traveling on someone else's money, that is, contrary to your desire to hold down costs. You need to look specifically for rooms allowing 3 people. If you look at availabilities, there aren't that many of these at hotels, if any at all, and they are often the first ones to be booked up months ahead by families with the same motivation. Depending on the length of stay, apartments offer more choices for larger groups. However, apartments come with their own restrictions in lieu of cheaper long term stay and the space. Apartments usually have multiple day minimum stay requirements, stiff cancel policy, cash on arrival depending on the agency, often lack elevators, and narrow check-in time windows.

Christina - in the uk a queen is a double, a king is a queen and a super king is a king. When booking what you think to be a queen in North America many times turns out to be a double in Europe in our experience...

Booking.com allows you to specify 3 adults in 1 room in the search function (choose more options).

Then, you can also specify areas of the city or prices. The results search will also allow you to see the configurations of the beds for most of the rooms. For example, choosing 3 adults, 1 room, Pantheon area, 3 stars brought up 24 results for a specific date I entered. I looked at Hotel Regno, and they had a double bed and a single listed. Albergo del Senato had three triples or a double and sofa bed.

You don't have to book with Booking.com, although I have and have experienced good results. I usually look at the pictures too to get a feel for room size and also look at reviews to glean more specific info (were the beds crammed?).

But, when we have stays of 3 or more days, we find an apartment usually works better since it gives a greater feeling of privacy for adult family members.

Wow, thanks everyone! These are incredibly helpful responses!! I had no idea! This is really good information.

I am also researching hotels through Booking.com for a trip in August. As the previous poster stated, the website makes it easy to search for hotels that have "triples" available. In some cases I was able to specify if I wanted a double plus twin or 3 twins. Good luck