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.

We are a family of 5 and have encountered the problems of family rooms generally only sleeping 4 at most. As others have said emailing the hotel and quoting child ages helps. In hotels that do not have family rooms ask for interconnecting rooms - the door can stay open so it's just like a family room. Many hotels won't count/charge extra for an under 3 - e.g Disneyland Paris is the only place we have managed to get us all in 1 room because my youngest was 2.5, we had a cot in the room but he just slept in our bed and no-one commented on the fact that the cot hadn't been used.
For our upcoming trip to Switzerland, we couldn't find interconnecting rooms but did find hotels with 'apartments'. No catering facilities but we are all in 1 area - double bedroom with beds in the living area and bathroom and for cheaper than 2 rooms.

We just stayed in the place in Amsterdam:
http://www.lecoin.nl/en/
It is not posh, but had a lot of space. We had the triple room, which would have easily fit a crib. The downside of our room was the adult bed was in a loft that required climbing a ladder. I am fairly fit, but really didn't like that.

<<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.>>

Not true. A couple with an 18-month old reported on the TA forum that they were denied check-in in a Paris hotel because they booked a room for two people.

Our family of four also stayed at the Hotel Residence Le Coin in Amsterdam. Because our kids were older teens, we had two connecting rooms. Each room has a small kitchenette, and lots of floor space. That was a bit of a splurge, though.

Mostly, I search for hotels with a "family room" or a "quad room". They aren't easy to find, but they are out there. Keep looking.

Also, good idea to notify the hotel directly about the young age of the children.

The problem is that the OP is looking at budget hotels - which are more likely to have smaller rooms and often not able to accommodate a cot or roll-away. Naturally many hotels have larger rooms and will accommodate both - and may have reduced prices - or just a little extra for renting the extra bed - but these will not be the hotels that are 100 euros per night.

The ones mentioned here will be at least double and perhaps triple that.

It is certainly possible to get family rooms or larger rooms that can accommodate cot or roll-away - but usually not at that price point.

@djkbooks is correct. After all your suggestions, I called up Radisson Blu Hotel in Antwerp and quoted the age. They told me "irrespective of age, we will be counted as 4. If I will not tell them in advance and book normal room and turn up at hotel, they will refuse me or I have to take bigger room at room rate of that day."
Pretty straight forward but may differ from hotel to hotel.
Best is I will select few hotels and talk to them or send an e-mail for clarification.
I don't want to ruin my holidays due to arguements at check-in.

IMO you honestly need to rethink your whole trip - not just about contacting the hotels. If you are actually only staying two nights/one day in most cities you will have other problems than just where your infant will sleep.

Agree that a trip with SO many moves and such short stays may well be an issue with 2 small kids. Don;t be surprised if their sleeping and eating patterns are thrown off and they become very grumpy and difficult.

And esp for a 3 year old - not being able to run around or have access to a playground every day can be a problem. And you know how difficult and loud they can be at that age if they are miserable.

"I don't want to ruin my holidays due to arguements at check-in."

Especially an argument you will not win. Their rules, their rights.

And seriously, you might want to rethink the itinerary and make it more child friendly. A few extra nights here and there in one place could make a world of difference to the little ones.

try Accord hotels - many of them have rooms for 3-4, and will provide cots for infants. What you need to ask for is a double, with a cot for the 1 year old, and a roll-out or "put you up" bed for the 3 year old - you don't need 4 beds, [or a quad] and in fact that that would be a disadvantage as you can't put the baby in a bed. a triple with a cot would probably work best.

http://www.accorhotels.com/

booking.com does provide for you to look for triples - you could then e-mail the hotel to ask if they could put a cot in there as well. you should specify the ages of the children so that they understand what types of beds you need.

I agree that if you are moving around a lot, this is going to make things a lot more complicated. Reducing the places you are staying will probably enable you to have a more relaxed trip in more suitable accommodation.

Out of curiosity I went to booking.com and looked for a room in Antwerp for 2 adults, a 3 yr old child and a 1 yr old child. There are dozens of possibilities, hotels and apartments. You didn't tell when you were about to travel, but prices in the fall are very reasonable (102 euro for a 2 bedroom apt, hotels starting at 93 euro, for instance).
If you don't believe me, just look for yourself.

I have 2 kids - 6 and 2 and yes it can be difficult sometimes to get accommodation in Europe. I live in Belgium and we travel all the time. I usually decide on a hotel and then ring them. Usually they can work something out and have a family room or a suite. We have found the NH chain to be really helpful. Hilton generally unhelpful. Apartments are a good idea.

It won't be difficult to find a hotel room at all for two adults and two small children, the problem is you MUST tell them and pay for it, that's all. That really isn't unusual, a family of 4 where two are small children.

The problem is the OP doesn't want to pay for it, that's all. But there are many hotels that do allow very small children for free, or a very small fee (like 10-20 euro extra). But you must tell them. And the more modern new hotels are more likely to be able to handle this. I do not understand a hotel quoting a rate of 300 euro for a family room when the "average" room is only 100 euro, that just doesn't sound likely. At most, it should be about double the rate if it were two connecting rooms. I could see this happening once, but most of the time that is what is being seen?


I do know apartment-hotels in Paris that won't charge that much more for the two children, but the problem is they are about 250-300 euro per night to begin with, not 100 euro. That's the problem here, 100 euro barely gets you any hotel in Paris, but you won't get one with large rooms for an entire family for that rate. Here's one for example http://www.adagio-city.com/gb/booking/room-dates.shtml

Accor hotels has a lot of choices in Paris at all ranges and you can search by the number of people you need. I know they have family rooms at the Novotel Les Halles. I don't think they allow a family of four in any of their budget Ibis hotels, however. If worse came to worst, you could just book two double rooms and each of the adults would have to sleep with one of the children, and you'd have to be in separate rooms. You could do this if you had to, of course. My parents did that with us kids when we traveled when young, it was sometimes just a necessity in cheaper hotels.

try using www.booking.com You can specify rooms for 2 adults plus 2 children. IN Paris, I got the Novotel Vaugirard Montparnasse for 133 euro per night for such a room (in mid-November). The Hotel Apollo OPera is very cheap and is free for children under 2. A triple room (one double and one twin bed, they allow the 2 kids and 2 adults in such a room) is only 110 euro a night. It may not be a real nice hotel, but what can you expect at that rate in a major capital like Paris. It's just one example, booking.com is a good tool for lots of cities.