Nov 24 2008
Hotel Rooms for Big Families
Finding a room that will accommodate a family of six is no small task. Here are some places where we’ve had good stays. Once in a while I can book a room for six over the Internet, but at other times I’ve been allowed to reserve a room by calling the hotel directly even if the website set a maximum of four or five people per room.
Country Inn and Suites: We’ve stayed at a few, most recently in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where we had a huge room with two beds and a sofabed. Excellent free breakfast; a nice place to stay. 
Hampton Inn: One of the chains where we’ve had good luck finding an affordable two-room suite.
Comfort, Quality, Sleep Inns and Suites: I haven’t stayed in any of these yet, but I have rooms booked at several for an upcoming trip. They’re surprisingly affordable, and although most are a partial-divider “suite” with two double beds and a sofa sleeper, a few have three double beds in the room.
Americinn: I can usually book an online room for the six of us at Americinn. Rooms are not huge, but spacious enough. Breakfasts are good.
Homewood Suites: Although billed as extended-stay lodging, we had a beautiful room for two nights in Sioux Falls, SD. (Two bedrooms and two baths, with free breakfast and an evening offering that was ample for our supper.) We have one booked at a very reasonable rate on an upcoming vacation.
Best Western: I had to call directly, but was told that six people were fine in a room at the Ramkota in Sioux Falls, SD.
Holiday Inn: In Rhinelander, WI, we got a nice two-room suite at a fair price.
We have the same problem, and I’m ashamed to say sometimes just sneak some preschoolers in. Calling ahead seems like a more reasonable solution.
One thing that worked well on our last trip was to bring our own small air mattresses from Walmart. Mom and Dad took the bed and the kids had fun camping on the floor. They were easy to tuck away during the day if ncessary.
Thanks for the chain recommendations. We’ll look into them. Anyone know a good large family solution for Vegas? We will be there this summer on a shoestring as always.
-Bridget
Bridget Smith’s last blog post..Over the River and Through the Woods
[...] will we stay? This is sometimes the hardest for us; not every hotel has rooms that will accommodate the six of us. Sometimes our overnight stops get changed because I can’t find appropriate [...]
I often have trouble finding appropriate accommodations for us and we only have 2 kids. A lot of online booking systems will say that 4 people (even 2 adults, 2 kids) is more than they will accept in a room. Usually that is not entirely true and we can get a room by calling them and asking, but it often doesn’t allow us to take advantage of comparing room prices online or taking advantage of deals only offered online.
I wrote a post called “what is a family hotel” where I pointed out some of the shortcomings of the mainstream hotel industry and made some suggestions for things I would like to see done differently. http://phdinparenting.com/2008/06/07/what-is-a-family-hotel/
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I grew up in a family of 6 and we often had this problem. Imagine our delight when we pulled up to some noname motel in OK and they had a hotel room with THREE double beds. I was probably 10 and still remember it today. Other than that lucky incident, we generally just stayed at Embassy Suites whenever possible. They always have 2 bedded rooms plus the sofa bed in the living room. We always got our money’s worth at breakfast alone.
Summerfield Suites (Hyatt owned) and Towne Place Suites (Marriott) have 2 bedroom suites at reasonable rates, especially on weekends when the business travelers vanish. I live 15 miles outside of DC now and the one down the street from us has 2 bedrooms for $79/night (2 kings, 1 sofa bed, full kitchen, 2 bathrooms!)
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As a mother of four, I know how this goes. Where does everyone sleep? So I’ve started http://www.sixsuitcasetravel.com for families of five and six. All listed hotel rooms sleep six and we cover all 50 states!
[...] post: Hotel Rooms for Big Families addthis_url = [...]
[...] mentioned Country Inns and Suites before as one of a handful of hotel chains that has rooms big enough for the six of us. When the kids [...]
We have 4 children ages 6,5,3 and 1. We usually never have a problem since most hotels have 2 beds per room. We just had a horrible experience this weekend though at the Quality Inn in Ashland KY. The person who checked me in said it was fine that we had 4 children in the room since they are so small that I obviously wasn’t going to let them stay in another room. The next day on check out, the mgr/owner saw us at breakfast and changed our bill before we checked out. I refused to pay extra saying we agreed on a price the night before and I would not pay something different. She was really nasty and tried to intimidate me by threatening to fire the girl who checked us in or take it from her pay (a sweet little pregnant college girl). I told her that would be between them and refused to pay the different amount. The whole time my husband is in the van waiting with 4 babies, the one year old screaming the whole time. I would not recommend this place. And I really appreciate your webpage with family friendly places to stay. We’ll definitely look into them the next time. Thanks so much for all the effort. I’ll tell all the other families I know. I’m sure they will love it too.
This is definately a problem and has frustrated us as a family of 5 for many years. For this reason I have created a website called http://www.roomfor5.co.uk specifically for families of 5 or more in the hope that we have the same freedom of choice as smaller families.