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humanaevitae
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 1:41am | IP Logged
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We have four children (8 and under) and I was wondering if hotels will allow us to all stay in one room. Are any hotel chains better than another? Do hotels normally ask how many people will be staying? When did you start having to stay in suites, etc? Do your children ever sleep on the floor in a sl. bag?
Thanks,
Nicole from Minnesota
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ourladyslilac
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 5:57am | IP Logged
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There is a limit to the amount of people per room allowed by fire law (I think)
If it is an inexpensive hotel, we get two adjoining rooms - kids get one room, mom and dad and baby get the other. If it is a higher price room and we are just stopping enroute, we get one room and pile in!
Some hotels ask the amount of people, some do not.
This year, with the addition of our fifth child, we will not have a choice but to get two rooms wherever we go.
Hotels at the beach have suites, which sometimes come out cheaper than taking two rooms.
Also, try to get hotel with refrigerator in room - helps with bedtime snacks and stoing lunch for the next day.
Good luck to you.
Marianne
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 6:13am | IP Logged
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We have four children and have not had a problem getting one hotel room. I think the limit must be six. We stayed at a Comfort Inn and Suites on our way home from Florida (in Tennessee)that was very nice. There was a queen size bed and a pull out couch. DH and baby and I slept in the bed, the 3 other children slept on the pull out. Everyone did fine although I think the 3 kids were a little crowded.
Blessings!
Becky
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Donna
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 7:10am | IP Logged
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Nicole,
We just got back from several nights in an Embassy Suites. There were 2 double beds and a pull out couch which was plenty of room for 6 of us. It was a great hotel.....free breakfast and free evening drinks and snacks from 5:30 - 7:00pm.....The kids enjoyed sodas and nachos after spending quite some time in the pool each afternoon before we headed off to dinner  .
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Donna
DH, Keven
Jason, Stevie, Marie, Jackson, Clara, and Aaron
Jacob, Sam, and Regina with God
Grandbabies Leigha and Elsie
Moments Like These
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dhbrug
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 8:06am | IP Logged
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In are last trek (over 3,800 miles across the US) we either stayed with other homeschooling families or tried to stay at Hampton Inn. When booking over the Internet I always booked for 2 adults and 2 children, but piled in with all 8 of us on arrival. The rooms with 2 beds are big enough and there is space for the inflatable Queen size bed we also bring. Dad, Mum and Baby in one bed, 3 others in the other bed and the remaining 2 in the inflatable.
The best thing about Hampton Inn is the good free breakfast. So when you take into acount paying for only one room and free breakfast the price is less than a "cheaper" hotel that charges by the person and doesn't have breakfast.
When we had to sleep at a hotel with smaller rooms - Best Western or Holiday Inn - the smaller children have slept on sleeping bags, in room lounge or just folded up comforters on the floor. When staying at other homeschooling families we slept wherever and on whatever was available - like a huge family sized sleep over.
You can read about our travel adventures on our blog.
Cheers
David
http://bruggietales.blogspot.com
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JSchaaf
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 9:26am | IP Logged
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HI David! Nice to "see" you here-I've enjoyed your blog the past few months.
Jennifer
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dhbrug
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 9:38am | IP Logged
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I'm always listening in to the More the Merrier area. When a topic comes up to which I can add something worthwhile, I post.
Our blog is an interesting experiment for us. It is a good excuse for the children to share their ideas and hopefully have a forum for their narrations, and we get a record of our daily adventures and get to share with our family and friends. I'm glad you are enjoying it.
Cheers
David
http://bruggietales.blogspot.com
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MaryM
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 12:35pm | IP Logged
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We have four children and have rarely gotten two rooms. If you get a rollaway the rooms easily sleep 5 and the youngest sleeps with us so all 6 are accounted for. Now as they have gotten bigger (2 are teens) we find that if we can get a room at the Comfort Suites that is the ideal. They are less espensive than the other suite-type hotels. Becky mentioned Comfort Inn and Suites. They usually only have a limited number of suite rooms. The Comfort Suites are run by the same company but are an all suite room hotel. You can get 2 queen beds and a fold-out sofa (or murphy bed) in one of the suite styles (they also have the 1 king 1 sofabed and I've heard some have a Kid's Suite with 1 king and bunkbeds). They are designed to sleep 6 and you could easily add an additional baby and toddler to those rooms and have plenty of room. Technically the room limits relate to firecode regulations and not having the floor space blocked. If you have all the kids in a bed they don't seem to care even to the letter of the law.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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ALmom
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 1:05pm | IP Logged
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We have run into what you are talking about. It is related to the fire laws and some areas are more concerned than others. Since we use sleeping bags, no cots or cribs to block access to the room, it isn't truely a safety issue.
Here is what we do -
Always talk to the hotel directly, instead of the 800 number. The clearing house will not be able to make exceptions. The actual hotel will, if they want to.
We let the hotel know that we are not comfortable with having our little ones in a room seperate from ours (even now as we have teenagers, we would not do it)and we are also honest about expense if that is an issue. The wife normally gets better results than the husband here.
Only in very rare occassions have we not been allowed to stay in one room (DC and bigger cities with greater fears of lawsuit and less appreciation of children tend to be sticklers more). Generally, when it is denied, it is really because they don't want a lot of children and we would be unwelcome at the hotel anyway.
The maximum occupancy of a room is very variable even if published - we have told different numbers by the same hotel in the same city. When a hotel allows us to all stay in one room, it is confirmation that children are welcome. If they won't allow it, we find somewhere else to stay!
Janet
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 2:02pm | IP Logged
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We've never had to use two hotel rooms either, and if they don't ask how many children we have, we don't offer.
Another option that we use at some point on all road trips is staying in a KOA camping cabin. You have to provide your own sheets, pillows and towels, and they provide the cabin with a full size bed and either 2 or 4 single bunks. The rooms are small, but there's enough space between the beds for a pack and play, which we've used too. I love staying in the cabins because I feel the air is fresher than in a hotel, and it feels so much more like camping. They keep the bathrooms clean too. When we're planning a big trip, we buy the KOA yearly membership card, which gives a discount on every visit. It always pays for itself, since we stay 2 or 3 nights over the course of our trip.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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momwise
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| Posted: July 29 2005 at 8:39am | IP Logged
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cathhomeschool wrote:
Another option that we use at some point on all road trips is staying in a KOA camping cabin. |
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This is a great idea! We're planning a vacation to Mesa Verde in mid-Sept. to a resort cabin by a lake. I really want to take 2 days to drive there but don't want to stay in a hotel or tent camp. I'm going to google the KOA's right now! 
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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Kelly
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| Posted: July 29 2005 at 8:27pm | IP Logged
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We've stayed in the KOA cabins and they are ample. As for Mesa Verde, we stayed in the cabins in the park there (very convenient, it's a long way up the mountain to the park) but it was pricey and SMALL. Still, we squeezed in.
We've done the 8000 mile trek across the country and back several times, and I would second Janet's comment about contacting the hotel directly, AND second David's comments on the Hampton Inns. They are usually very good, with free continental breakfast, and the rooms are more ample than the Holiday Inn Express (which are usually nice, but not always very spacious). They also have more adjoining rooms and reasonably-priced suites with fold-out sofas. The only negative is that most hotels, including Hampton Inn, don't like to reserve adjoining rooms, so I usually call them and emphasize (read: beg!) that we have lots of small children and they often accomodate us. Because we have large children as well as small, we usually have to spring for two rooms (traveling with 9 in all).
My policy on the road is to Sleep High, Eat Low. I'd rather have the sanity and space at night, and a good night's sleep, and eat lots of Chinese food along the way and picnics, than eat fancy and be too packed into a room if we can help it. Feeding that many people on the road really adds up, too---and the Free Breakfasts at Hampton Inns and Holiday Inn Expresses make a BIG difference.
Kelly in FL
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dhbrug
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| Posted: July 29 2005 at 9:32pm | IP Logged
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One of the hotels we booked in advance did NOT include breakfast and we had to wonder what to do. Breakfast is too expensive at the hotel so we went to the nearest supermarket and purchased cereal and milk and made do. The savings from feeding a large family breakfast really has an impact on the daily budget.
Further to what Kelly said - sleep well, travel well. Children get tired and grumpy without a reasonable sleep - especially the older ones. The younger ones tend to drop off to sleep in the car, but the older ones stay awake and get cranky.
Cheers
David
http://bruggietales.blogspot.com
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: 4 kids=2 hotel rooms?
