Travel Q & A

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How to Book Your 5 Person Hotel
Room Outside the United States

There's an easy way, and a hard way to book a 5 person hotel room for your family trip. For the easy way, rely on sleeps5.com's list of hotels, and skip to #3 below. For the hard way, or just to learn about part of what we do here at sleeps5.com, follow our hotel research method, starting with #1 below.

First, there are two reasons to find a hotel room that can sleep parents and children together:

One, it will save you money. A large hotel room is cheaper than two smaller rooms.

Two, it eases your parental stress. No, not the kind of stress reduction you might get by adding romance or achieving peace-and-quiet (but really, how much romance or peace-and-quiet can you hope for if you're traveling with little ones?). It eases parental stress by allowing you to be in the same room and speak with your spouse about crucial travel logistics and maintain a team approach for taking care of your children. Neither of these elements can effectively happen if the adults are in separate rooms chaperoning and caring for a child or two.

1. Search for Recommended Hotels

I started booking hotels in the Fall of 2007 for our trip to Germany and Denmark, which was scheduled for June of 2008 -- nearly nine months in advance. Large family hotel rooms are rare in countries such as those in Europe, and doesn't that make you worry that their availability must be scarce, too? Booking early gave me peace of mind.

Buy some guide books, and check out travel books from your local library, and look up other travel sites on the internet that recommend hotels in the cities where you'll be traveling. Identify the hotels in your price range, and in your desired city location. Write them all down -- keep a big list.

2. Determine if the Hotel has a Family Room that Sleeps 5

Through online hotel resources, or travel books, or a hotel's own website, investigate each hotel's room configurations and possibilities for extra beds. If you get lucky and find a hotel with a room that can sleep 5, go ahead and place a 'star' or other such happy symbol next to its name on your list. When you determine that a hotel has rooms that can accommodate only 2 or 3 people, cross it off your list. When you have exhausted all the resources above, and you still can't determine whether a hotel has a room that can sleep 5 people, contact the hotel to ask directly.

To save time -- when you contact a hotel to ask about a room for 5, combine the "do you have a room for 5" question with the "is it available on (insert date)" question, as described in #3 below.

3. Ask if the Hotel's Family Room for 5 is Available for Your Travel Dates

There are a few ways to contact a hotel manager.

Online: Every hotel website has an inquiry or reservation page available. However, these internet pages usually have forms that are set up only for the standard room request, not a special request of sleeping 5 family members in one room. If there is a sizeable 'comments' box in which to add text, you can explain your situation and receive a reply back via email.

Phone: Phone numbers are often easier to find than email addresses. But it would have been difficult for me to make a call because of long distance costs, time of day differences between my home in Seattle and Germany, and language barriers, as unfortunately, I don't speak German.

Email: The email address for a hotel may be listed very clearly on its website, or in tiny print, hidden on a lesser used web page. The advantage to emailing in my own language is that hotels can then respond to my email with help from an English speaking staff person.

Regardless of which method you choose for an inquiry regarding room capacity, availability for your travel dates, and price, be sure to include the number of people in your family, and the ages of your kids. That way there won't be any confusion about the size of each guest and their sleeping needs, nor any confusion about the relationships between your 5 people. A hotel may have policies about allowing parents and minor children to book one room, but may not allow multiple adults to share that same room, and may not allow adult children to stay in a room with their parents. So I was always sure to make all of our details very clear in my inquiry email. Thinking that it could only help in generating a positive reply, I also added that my kids are well-behaved! The hotel email replies typically arrive within 1 - 3 days.

4. Select and Book with Credit Card

Once you know what your hotel options are, and you have researched travelers' reviews about the hotels, you can make a selection and let the hotel know you'll be faxing your credit card details to guarantee the room. Using fax safeguards your credit card number from thieves who may be lurking on email systems. It also generates a detailed document that ensures clarity in your booking.

Print a letter with the names of your family members, the ages of your kids, your arrival and departure dates, the number of nights of your stay, the hotel's booking number if they've provided one, the details of the hotel's offer and any included items (such as breakfast and private toilet), the type of room with the number of beds and extra beds, the price per night, your credit card number, its expiration date, and your home address. At the bottom of the letter, include your email address and a request for confirmation. Then fax the letter to the hotel. Done!

Summary:

1. Find hotels with a Family Room that Sleeps 5
2. Ask about availability and price and included items, such as a private toilet, breakfast or parking
• Be sure to provide the ages of your kids
3. Use a fax to send credit card information to guarantee the room
• Names of travelers, and ages of kids
• Arrival and departure dates, plus number of nights
• Type of room offered, plus any extra beds and included items
• Price per night
• Credit Card number, with expiration date
• Home street address and email address
4. Expect an email reply confirming your booking.

For each of the cities currently included on sleeps5.com, we started with lengthy, hopeful lists of possible hotels. Through the process described above, we eliminated most hotels form our list, and posted the few that have large enough family rooms. We want to be thorough, as our main mission is to be of help to families that want to travel.

If you have other suggestions, or if you know of a hotel with a room for 5 that we should list, or if you have a suggestion for a city we should research for hotels next, email us! We'd love to hear from you.

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