Traveling with kids - hotel

[af1212]

The previous thread has me curious. When you travel with your kids and stay in a hotel, what kind of room/rooms do you get?

What is your family makeup and what are the sleeping arrangements?

[af1212]

I have three kids. We usually have stayed in a room with two doibkes or queens.

Two kids and me in one bed and one kid and my H in the other bed is frequently how it works out.

Once we stayed in a room with a king - at the time my youngest was under 2 so she was in a PNP, two kids in bed with me, and my H slept on a rollout bed for one night. The next night my oldest slept on the rollout and my H and other kid slept with me in bed.

Sometimes if there is a couch or something one of my kids thinks it’s cool to sleep on that. I call for extra sheets from housekeeping.

[Deleted]

We usually rent a house when we travel because there are 6 of us. The one time we needed a hotel, we got adjoining rooms and split up girls in one room, boys in the other.

[goldengirlz]

I’m one of three kids and my parents always got two hotel rooms with an adjoining door.

(We only have one kid, so traveling is a bit easier — we just get two queens or she sleeps on a pullout couch.)

If I had a larger family, I’d probably be more inclined to do an AirBNB.

[gastro]

Suites, adjoining rooms, or air bnb. If we are somewhere for more than three nights I prefer having a kitchen or kitchenette. Or make arrangements to leave some or all kids at home.

[katie80]

We only have 1, and he technically still fits in the pack n play (although we're quickly coming to the end of that). We get one room with whatever size bed, but I really try to get something that at least has a separate sitting area or something so it seems a little bit divided. None of us sleep well if we're all in the same room so honestly we don't travel a lot these days if we can help it.

[erbear]

2 kids, 10 and 8, and we travel a lot.

Right now, we do either AirBNB (preferred) or one hotel room with two beds. When they are a little older, maybe we'll do 2 rooms but I doubt it. Being all in the same room isn't a big deal anymore since they can stay up late. When they were younger, it was annoying to have to be in the dark...

[mrssandro]

We always look for a room with a 1 bedroom suite of some kind to allow for more space/separation. The older one will use a pullout. I usually bring the toddler blow up bed. I feel like hotels are finally getting that concept since most new ones have that type of layout. We always compare it with a airbnb or vrbo place to see if it's less expensive.

[lacey]

We have an almost 3 year old and a seven month old. If we are going to a location where we can get an Airbnb and be a little more spread out that is our preference. We have also stayed in rooms with two queen beds and 2 double beds. I was pretty afraid the first time we did it, but DD did great! She sleeps in one bed and DH and I sleep in the other. She moves and kicks and no one gets any sleep if they sleep in the same bed as her so, for now, this works out. DS is in a pack n play. We are leaving for a trip in a couple weeks and will be in rooms with two queens for 13 nights (which is a long time and not really my preference but it's how this trip worked out).

[docholly]

Three kids (8, 5, and 2)...

We try to get a two room suite if we stay at a hotel. The two boys on the pull out in the other room...

The toddler sleeps with us.

If we don’t have a choice, we get a room with two queens. Boys in one bed (toddler with us).

As they get older, we will get two adjoining rooms and do boys in one room and girls in another.

This summer was our first renting a house, and I greatly preferred that. We will try to do that as much as we can.

[ssmjlm]

We've either rented something with 2 bedrooms or at disney, we were in a 2 bedroom with my parents, so we had the room with 2 queens. DH and I in one, her in the other. Thankfully at Disney we were all so wiped everyone was asleep quickly.

We're going on a cruise for Thanksgiving and sharing one balcony cabin. I'm hoping she'll be so tired it will be a non-issue then as well.

[dochas]

We have one child and get 2 beds. If we could get 2 queens that would be ideal, but usually it's 2 full beds. My husbands shares with son.

When he was a baby and then too young to be up late we didn't stay in hotels.

[Loco Coco]

Right now my littlest is in a pnp so 2 beds is enough. In future, idk. I love when I can find hotels with bunk beds, suites, or 3 beds but that’s not easy. AirBNB has been great for longer trips but is expensive.

[eb777888]

We just have one kid so we usually sleep together. If we get two beds, he sleeps in his own bed.

[CurlyQ284]

We have 3 kids. My SDs are 16 and 17 and DS is 6. The last time we tried to stay in a hotel room I wanted to jump out the window so I refuse to ever do that again. We have used VRBO or airBnB since then, I find it's always less money and more space than 2 hotel rooms.

[candreco]

If it's just an overnight stop or a couple nights somewhere we try to get a one bedroom or studio suite (we have lots of Hilton points from work travel so we generally use those). Usually DH and in one bed and kids (10yo DD and 5yo DS) in the other or one gets the sleeper sofa if there is one.

For actual vacations, we almost always do AirBnB, HomeAway, FRBO, or similar for at least a two bedroom apt/condo/house.

[icedcoffee]

Growing up my parents had 2 kids and always just got a standard hotel room with 2 full beds. It was fine. They didn't seem to mind it and obviously we didn't as kids.

Now that I have DS I wonder how the hell they did that. We haven't traveled extensively with DS, but when we have it totally sucks to share a room. One of the times we got a 1 bedroom suite so we put him out in the common area in a crib. That worked well. Another time the room had this long hallway from the door to the bed so we rolled the crib all the way down the hallway. That worked really well too. We got lucky that room had a weird layout like that. Another time we just had him in the room and that sucked. I told my H not to look him in the eyes or he'd wake DS up. LOL In the morning when I had to pee I just had to hold it otherwise I knew he'd be up for the day. The hardest is nap time because we have nowhere to go while he naps.

TLDR: We've dealt with standard hotel rooms, but if we were to go on a longer trip we'd look for a 1 bedroom suite.

[madringal]

We have 3 kids: 10, 7, 3. For just a night or two, we just do a two bed room - big girls in one bed, DH and I in the other, and we bring a cot for DD3.  For longer vacations we get a two room suite.

[Deleted]

2 kids, ages 6 and 3. My 6 year old will not share a bed with anyone so we usually get 2 queens and put the 3 year old in an air mattress. I love rooms with bunk beds for the kids but they’re not easy to find. We also sometimes do 1 bedroom suites.

[steamboat185]

We have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. When reasonable we will book an Airbnb or a hotel with a separate bedroom. When we stayed at Disney last year we stayed at Bay Lake Tower and brought an inflatable twin air mattress and put #1 on that in the kitchenette area, which made it feel more like a bedroom and removed some extra distractions.

If it can’t be helped then we all stay in one room. We try to keep the older one out of the room for a bit so the younger kid can fall asleep.

[tracita]

If it's more than one or two nights, we try to get a suite. DH and I get the bedroom with a closing door, and kids get the pullout couch.

[cabbagecabbage]

2 kids. We get the cheapest room.

[wildrice]

I grew up with 2 sisters and my family always just got 1 room. 2 sisters would share a bed, and we'd rent a cot for the 3rd sister (usually the youngest, for some reason). It was fine, if a bit annoying. My family never was the type to spend much time in the room anyway so we'd literally just come back at night, get ready for bed, and sleep. Then leave first thing in the morning. I'm sure if they could have afforded it they would have gotten 2 rooms, but it wasn't feasible.

Once we were all teens/adults and went to a resort my parents did get us girls a separate room, though.

[mala]

We have the 6yo and the 9mo. So far we've gotten a room with two queens (and the baby in the PnP after she came along) but we don't sleep well. B is not a quiet sleeper, the baby is a really light sleeper, and H has sleep/insomnia issues so we are miserable if it's more than two nights. We will probably start getting adjoining rooms in hotels or looking at other rentals (airbnb and the like) for anything longer than two nights at this point.

[lolalolalola]

We are timeshare owners and most of the time we stay in a condo or timeshare exchange. If we are in a hotel room, we always do a Queen / Queen. 

We tend not to stay in regular hotel rooms for longer than a couple of days. If we are staying somewhere for a week, we will be in a timeshare usually.  This spring break we will be spending 10 nights in Queen/Queen hotel rooms together so we will see how that goes, LOL.

When DD2 was a baby we would cram the PnP in the bathroom at bedtime and not use it until morning. Or use the lobby bathroom.

[stephogirl]

Our family includes me, DH, DS1 (13 yo), and DS2 (8 yo).

We try to find something with two beds and a couch/a roll-away. Especially if we're spending a lot of time together. My 13 year old is much happier if he doesn't have to share a bed with his little brother. He'll be a sport if he has to share for a night, but I try to give him the space if we can make it work. Suites are ideal, at this point.

[waverly]

We usually rent a house for vacations. If we have to stay in a hotel room in varies. One room if we will be there only one night. Beyond that we look into more or a suite arrangement but it's not ideal.

[expatjen]

We (family of 4- kids are 8 and 16 months old) usually try to get connecting rooms or a suite when booking a hotel. We have had good success with Airbnbs - usually ones with at least 2 bed/2 bath since it’s inevitable that my H and our 8 yr old DS need to go #2 around the same time.

[cajunmom]

When the kids were younger we would just get the cheapest option with 2 beds plus sofa.

Now that they're older (12 and 16) and especially if DSS (21) travels with us we only do a vacation rental home or apartment. It's always been cheaper than two hotel rooms and much more comfortable, as well. I hate sleeping in hotels.

[sugarbear]

Our boys are 8 and 5. We get a room with two queen beds and sleep 1 kid + 1 parent in each bed.