Booking Family-Friendly Hotel? Here are the Considerations
When traveling with kids, booking family-friendly hotel is essential. For kids, each hotel stay seems like a chance for new adventure. Anything, the key card, mini-fridge, and others, is new and exciting. They offer material for curious minds and kids’ wild imagination.
Due to the competition in today’s lodging market, many hotel managements have known better. They work hard to book such kids and their families. To do so, they offer a broad variety of discounted services. Most of the services are especially relevant to kids. They make kids feel at home.
The kid-centered and family-friendly hotel philosophy began in the 1950s. That was the golden age of the famous American road trip. Then, you couldn’t easily tell a seedy hotel and the nice one apart. Consequently, you had to first of all inspect a room. What’s more, they often charged you extra fee for each child you stayed with.
However, after an especially miserable cross-country adventure, the then young Kemmons Wilson projected a chain of predictably safe and clean hotels. He envisioned the kind of hotels where children could stay free while enjoying a swim at every location. Kemmon’s idea birthed Holiday Inn. This establishment improved the manner hotels conducted business and people spent vacations. The industry has never been the same again.
As a result, today’s family-friendly hotels commonly feature special kids’ rates. You’ll also find several swimming pools.
Moreover, some hotels are starting to offer more elaborate services. They include field trips and also babysitting. These services are more appealing to families taking holidays. Hotels of this kind help keep your children happy and well engaged. Therefore, you spend less time solving your kids’ issues. Consequently, you all get more time to enjoy your vacation.
Here are the Tips that offer good guidance for booking family-friendly hotel and what you should expect:
Check Online and in Guide Books
If you’re planning family-friendly holidays, you’ll get plenty of helpful information out there. First of all, you can start with the Internet. You’ll find several websites designed particularly for such vacations. A Connecticut wife and mother, Kim Orlando, for instance, designed TravelingMom.com. The site offers a forum for different mothers to share ideas and advice for enjoyable family trips.
Other websites help you in searching kid-friendly hotels by location, such as BabyFriendlyBoltholes.co.uk. The site focuses on the UK and other European holiday destinations. CiaoBambino.com is another example. It offers you with information about several countries around the world.
Furthermore, if you love the written word, you can buy guidebooks designated for family travel. Many offer information about particular locations. Frommer’s, for instance, is a leading travel guide publisher that sells a helpful series of family-focused guide books. You’ll get issues for San Francisco, Las Vegas, different national parks, and more.
You will have no problems in locating places for both you and your kids’ convenience. You should use these resources.
Red Flags That This Hotel Isn’t For Kids
As common as cars are in the parking lot, so are kids at most hotels. Therefore, you can easily forget that some premises are for only adult occupants. While such hotels may not publicly declare their distaste for kid guests, you can find some red flags to help you identify them.
When the hotel has some no-go zones for kids, that’s a clear sign you should look elsewhere for hotel room. Amenities that pose danger to kids are another indicator that a hotel is not family-friendly. Open balconies and hot tubs are such red flags. Size also matters. Small hotels mostly want to champion for intimate and calm interactions among the guests. They are therefore not welcoming to kids.
The cost and style are less reliable indicators. Mostly, families like staying at cheaper hotels. They will save money. Mature crowds often go for the more expensive lodgings. When booking a family-friendly hotel, maybe the most relevant factor to consider is whether the place is romantic. If it is, you probably ought to avoid it.
Read: Breathtaking and Exotic Beach Holiday Destinations
Look for Family-friendly Services
Hotels are becoming more and more family-friendly. This may be the most evident trend in the several kinds of guest services hotels now offer. If you plan to have some private moment with your spouse, confirm whether your hotel offers babysitting services. Most resort hotels offer such services today. As parents, you also want to enjoy features such as the Baby Butler Service at the popular Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort.You can lower the overall cost of the hotel by using a Marriott discount code.
Look for Family-friendly Services
Hotels are becoming more and more family-friendly. This may be the most evident trend in the several kinds of guest services hotels now offer. If you plan to have some private moment with your spouse, confirm whether your hotel offers babysitting services. Most resort hotels offer such services today. As parents, you also want to enjoy features such as the Baby Butler Service. For instance, Marco Island Marriot Beach Resort offers that service.
Do you worry about your safety in the hotel room? Well, you are covered. Some hotels, such as the Holiday Inn family suites, offer free childproofing kits. All you need to do is to place your request. While such services may be left for parents, not in every hotel. Some hotels provide products designed to make kids enjoy. For instance, Loews Hotels and Resorts offer rentals on games, toys, movies, strollers and cribs at no extra charge.
In addition, family spas are becoming more and more common. In Costa Rica, for instance, you find the Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort. This hotel provides back massages, chocolate body wraps, and also mineral pools for both kids and adults.
Consider a Kid-friendly Locale
You sometimes will have to consider “where” more than “what” as you choose a family-friendly hotel. A resort may be offering parents lots of incentives to bring their kids along. However, if that hotel is in the middle of business district or unfriendly suburb, your kids may not enjoy the experience.
You therefore should choose a hotel that’s close to things children love. Your pick should provide proxy to amusement parks, water parks, beach, or children’s museums. When you are not visiting a major resort destination, choose a hotel near a shopping mall or city park. Your children will enjoy hanging out and running around. If they are not excited enough, ask if you can get “family concierge”. You will be informed of whatever family attractions found in the vicinity.
Finally, you should book a room that provides a view. The beauty of a mountain lake or excitement of downtown cityscape may offer great entertainment for kids. They will be happy to view from their bedroom window.
Are there field trips for kids?
Thanks to improved attention to family-friendly hotel experiences, you’ll discover that field trips are no longer a reserve for schools. Different hotels have developed their individual versions of field trips. These activities help children explore the community. Parents also get the freedom for some alone moment.
These can be simple excursions, like taking breakfast on the beach at the California’s La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. Here, Kid’s Club members never depart the resort property. Your children get more venturesome trips at Montana’s Paws Up Resort through the “Kids Corps of Discovery.” Here, children celebrate Lewis and Clark Day by exploring the outdoors. They take fly-fishing and gold panning lessons at a neighboring creek.
The Peninsula New York is another hotel that offers field trips. Downright extravagant, a personal shopper accompanies children to FAO Schwarz. They therefore can browse the newest selection of the American Girl dolls. While not all the kids may love such planned activity, most will probably be happy. Most will enjoy the special experience hotel trips provide.
The room configuration
At home, kids and parents mostly don’t share bathrooms and bedrooms. Perhaps they don’t share a whole house in which to play and work. However, in a hotel, all the activity is restricted to a small space. As such, a standard hotel room with only two beds can be inconvenient. Yet, hotels now provide a reduced price tag for adjoining rooms.
Yet some parents book a complete suite. For instance, you can get two-room suites featuring private bedroom for the parents and a separate dining and living area including a pullout couch for the children.
Are you planning to stay for several days? Therefore reserve a suite. You may get 50 percent larger space than standard hotel rooms. Some hotel suites even provide two bedrooms and bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room.
In such a space, you will definitely enjoy family vacation while not sacrificing your privacy or kids’ play.
What about the Dining Options?
First of all, let’s agree that a restaurant that satisfies the whole family is hard to come by. In addition, unfamiliar locations make it even harder. Yet some resorts try solving this problem. They provide several dining options. These options include special menus and discounts that interest the kids’ taste buds and their parents’ budgets.
Holiday Inn, the pioneer family-friendly hotel, offers “kids eat free” in addition to their “kids stay free” service. They offer free meals for even four children of 12 years or less at their onsite restaurants.
However, you find kids’ menus at almost any family-friendly hotel. Your kids will probably enjoy grilled cheese. They also probably enjoy Pop-Tarts, ice cream, and chicken nuggets offered at Hyatt Hotels and Resorts. Other hotels offer enhanced dining options for families with more intricate tastes. Kids may accompany their parents for diner at off-site restaurants. The hotel may gift involved kids with special presents.
Can you bring along the family pet?
Many vacationers consider pets an important part of the family. For such people, family-friendly is also pet-friendly. While there are several hotels allowing pets in, the fees and rules differ rather widely. Many hotels allow only one pet per room. Others may let you bring up to three in one room.
The fees are similarly varied, with some not charging you anything while others charge up to $35 per night for each one pet.
You need to find the appropriate pet-friendly hotel? The PetsWelcome.com has you covered. On the website, you get a comprehensive list of the hotels that welcome in pets. Furthermore, you get detailed pet policies of each of the hotels. With such information, you won’t leave the family’s dog out of the holiday. You know he lights up moments.
Any discounts for kids?
You’ll commonly find discounts for kids. Many hotels tend to emulate Holiday Inn’s “kids stay free-eat free” policy. Yet you can get other offers at a reduced cost.
Most noteworthy, some hotels provide a “Family Plan.” This allows parents to book a second room for kids at half the usual price. In the same vein, other hotels offer discount tickets to pretty theme parks and other nearby yet costly diversions. For instance, The Jolly Roger Hotel in Anaheim, California, is incredible. Here, guests get discounted tickets to Universal Studios, Disneyland, San Diego Zoo, and the Sea World.
And if you need coupons good at area attractions, hotels are quite reliable. You just need to ask for their brochure. You can also read the tourist literature in your hotel room and get wiser in saving on your family holiday.
To sum it up…
In conclusion, you don’t need an uncomfortable family vacation. Neither are your kids. You all want to enjoy to the fullest. It is a holiday, and you can’t imagine experiencing the opposite of what you expect. So choosing the right hotel for your family is integral to the success of your adventure.
Therefore, you should make a point to observe the above mentioned tips. They’ve been voted as the most helpful factors to consider when booking family-friendly hotel. And do not forget to share this article. Many parents struggle with kids over vacations for choosing the wrong hotel rooms. therefore, help them discover the secret.
Your kids will be free and comfortable. They will enjoy the vacation. And you will easily have your private time. You only need to choose your family-friendly hotel wisely. As a result, you will happily enjoy the experience.
