[tia2009]

Just wondering what others do when booking a hotel for a family of 4+? A lot of hotels only provide a maximum occupancy of 3 in a room, and it’s usually a rollaway bed or cot added to the existing bed. We have a 22 month old and a 4 year old, the toddler is small enough to share our bed however the bookings won’t allow 4 despite one person being an infant. We’ve left it a bit late to book a family room at the few hotels that offer it. I think we will just have to book 2 rooms but it’s so expensive...

[fliss9]

Can you contact the hotel directly, rather than booking through a website? They may have more flexibility

[Jersey Caramel]

Yes definitely contact the hotel directly, they are generally far more flexible and can usually match prices you've found on the booking websites anyway.

[JJ98]

I have found it depends entirely on each hotel. We used to often take our own portacot and a lot of places didn't count that in their max occupancy.

Definately phone the hotels and check what other options are available before booking 2 rooms.

Or if the little one is sharing your bed and doesn't require a cot then I shouldn't say it but maybe they wouldn't know?

It is a real pain in the behind though and quite ridiculous that there are so few options for a family of 4 or more.

JJ

[2bundles]

Our kids are 10&7 and we have never had to book 2 rooms.

Try websites like wotif that allow you to put number of kids into the search. Otherwise look for self contained options that might have a fold out couch.

Usually when we do strictly hotel style it is 2 double or queen beds in a room.

[lsolaBella]

Contact hotel directly. We often can't book online but get what we want- at the same cheap price talking to the hotel directly. We get a family of 5 sharing.

[Peanut]

So many hotels have two double/Queen beds and should be readily available. It could be the time that you are travelling though, perhaps all of these are booked out?

I agree with all the other pp's who mentioned it, find the website of the hotel and contact them directly. I'm sure that it shouldn't be too hard to book a double bed room.

[Ashtonsmum]

I had this problem when booking Bali accommodation. I tried to book hotels that I knew had two queen beds in the room etc, and they all came back saying I was exceeding the number of guests for each room.
I contacted the hotels directly and was able to score the room I wanted at a better price.

[mumto4boys]

We have a family of 6 and it hasn't stopped us from travelling.

If you're starting with 'Google' and the name of a city you want to stay in then goole apartment hotels Melbourne, or apartment hotels New York.

You will get a lot more options of suitable accommodation that way.

The other option is to hire a whole house. We have good friends who frequently travel with us so we're are often after accommodation for 8.

In Australia we've used Stayz and in the USA we've used Vacation Rental BY Owner (VRBO) and Flip Key with great success. After initial contact through the website you then deal with the owner direct by email and phone.

Maybe if you let people know exactly where you are wanting to go they will have some other suggestions for you.

[tia2009]

It's all good! Thanks for the helpful suggestions, I contacted the hotel I wanted and explained the situation. They actually had a room with 2queens which I've now booked! The websites I was using didn't show this as available and added bonus, the rate was cheaper than the quoted rate I saw