Hotel Rules in Europe?? Help!!
 

Dear fellow travelers,

I am planning trip with family and suddenly finding myself in difficult situation. Ours is family of 4 - myself, my wife , 3 year old boy and 1 year old girl.
While making hotel reservations online, I am getting very high rates of Euro 250-300 in a hotel where average room rate is Euro 100. When I called up 1 hotel, I was informed that hotels in Europe considers even children as separate person, so they provide bigger room and extra bed.
Coming from India, we don't let child sleep separately and don't need extra bed at least for 1 year old. The situation will almost double my living expenses in total cost.
Can you please help me with alternative options like service apartments, etc.?
Does any hotels/ hotel chain allow kids in same room rates? Does this policy differs from country to country in Europe?

Cheers
Abhi

Children are allowed in the same room as the parents but you need a room for 4 people. You cannot book a double room and have 4 people in it. Many chain hotels have quad or family rooms but smaller hotels may not have that type of space.

There are apartment rentals all over Europe. You can try various sites and look for places. One place to start is vrbo.com

If you have specific towns/cities you're visiting it may help to identify these. It's no good to recommend an apartment in a city that you're not visiting.

Our experience has been that if you advise the hotel that one of your children will be sleeping in your bed you frequently don't get charged as much, but they won't provide you with the extra bed or cot if that is the case. Harder to make the case for this if you have 2 children.

In Germany at least the price is calculated per person (our experience), and not per room.

Lavandula

I know some hotels also provide cribs.

cribs = cots.

Booking apartments may work out better for you, as the rate is usually for the apartment, not per person, and you will have kitchen facilities to make breakfast or other meals if you want. Often they have a washing machine and dryer which would be handy. If you have separate bedrooms this might help at night if you and your wife want to stay up after the kids go to bed. In one big hotel room you couldn't easily do that.

I agree with Adrienne, perhaps post which cities or villages you are interested in and people can help with apartment ideas. My sister has travelled in Europe with her two children and I'm pretty sure she didn't pay anything like 300 euro a night so there will be cheaper places around.

Kay

I can't imagine a hotel being keen on a baby or toddler sharing a parent's bed. The mattress in a cot is small and usually waterproof. Accidents will happen and replacing a large mattress would be expensive.

I will be traveling to Amsterdem, Antwerp,Black Forest Area (Germany), Cologne, Munich

As far as I am aware the hotel MUST know how many people are in the room for fire safety reasons. And agree that hotels will not want an infant in diapers sleeping in a bed with adults. Aother potential issue is breakfast - if you are paying for breakfast for 2 but eating for 4 at a buffet - that just won;t fly.

There are 4 of you and you will have to tell that to either hotels or people you will rent apts from. The 3 year old will definitely need a separate bed and the baby a crib (cot). And since rooms in europe are typically very small - there won;t be room for these in the basic budget rooms you are looking at. Also, are looking at rooms that have mini-fridges, which you will need to have meals/snacks for the little ones?

An apt might make sense if you are spending enough time in each place (sometimes a week, but almost always at least 3 or 4 nights) but you will also need to tell them about the babies so there is a place for them to sleep as well as bed linens and towels for them.

I fear 100 euros per night is very low for a room for a whole family.

Sorry - this is just like getting plane tickets for small children - just part of the cost of the trip.

As far as I know, a hotel never charges for an infant (= -2 yrs). In the Radisson Blue in Antwerp, for instance, the price for a room for 2 is the same as for 2 + 1 child. It's the only hotel I have checked, I'm sure there are more like this.

Well I understand that you do not need a room that would work for 4 adults or pay for breakfast for 4 when two are small children. You might have better luck with an apartment or trying to find hotels with quad rooms. I would think that some larger hotels, maybe part of US chains, would have more roo, could add a crib, than the smaller ones. I think the booking site, booking.com has a pretty good search feature for adults and children - you may find some hotels there with rooms for 2 adults, 2 children - good luck!

How long will you be travelling? How many nights will you stay in each town? Vacation apartments (Ferienwohnumgen in German), are almost always more economical than hotels and offer more space, but are self-catering (you provide your own meals, there is no nightly change of bed linens or towels). Most, not all, charge a set end-cleaning fee (Endreinigung) which can cause the price to really jump, so the fewer apartments you rent mean better savings. And many, if not most will not rent for less than 4-7 nights. However, I personally love staying in apartments, and growing familiar with "my" neighborhood.

www.booking.com allows you to search for vacation apartment rentals as does www.homeaway.com
of course, city centers are more expensive than city edges/suburbs...

thanks for all your suggestions. I may not go for apartments as we will not be at one place for more than 2 nights except Antwerp.

@MyriamC - I have checked Radisson Blu. They don't charge for 1 kid but the price is double for 2 kids.

But as 'nytraveler' rightly said it is like plane tickets.
I will continue my search but other suggestions are also welcome.

Good luck finding accommodations . . . BUT this raises a real <B><red>red flag </B></red>>>I may not go for apartments as we will not be at one place for more than 2 nights except Antwerp. <<

You have two small children and are not spending more than one day most places during your trip (Two nights equals one day or sometimes 1 day + a few hours. This will be very (VERY) hectic packing and moving every two days and dealing w/ all the travel.

What is your itinerary like? If you slow down a bit not only will you have more time to see places -- you can also maybe find apartments. While some flats have a 7 day minimum, other are OK renting for 3 or 4 nights.

Check airbnb also. You do have to join to book and it is a bit of a process to join and to book.

@caabhi
You don't have to book for 2 adults + 2 children because your little girl is an infant (-2 yrs) and you don't have to pay for her! Maybe you even don't have to pay for your 3 yr old.

The best you can do is send the hotels that you like an email and ask the price for a room for 2 adults + 1 small child of 3 yrs old + 1 infant of 1 yr old. (Do mention the children's ages!) It is as easy as an online booking and then you know for sure.

booking.com allows you to put in details for adults/children etc. I'd use that to chose the hotel then go to the hotel website and send them an email to make the booking/check the price.

I would book a double room and request a rollaway and/or crib. You can do this online on some websites, using advanced search options. I couldn't see that option on booking.com, but could see it on Marriott for instance. There might be a charge for the rollaway and crib.

The Radisson Blu Antwerp website states 1 child under 17 is free of charge if existing bedding is used and for extra beds, it is EUR25.