Originally Posted by
fppmongo
Yes, he's stating you can probably get away with it even though it is not allowed.
Note that in Germany, there's a tradition of charging for hotel rooms based on the number of guests and their age (with discounts given for minors). That is in contrast to standard practice in the US which is to charge a flat rate for a room regardless of the number of people staying in it (the primary restriction being the maximum occupancy).
So yeah, you'd certainly be in breach of contract if you counterfactually claim your child is underage. In the unlikely event the hotel finds out, they might charge a higher rate and/or a penalty of some sort.
I'm not really sure the policy is all that different. All the USA chains seem to have a "kids stay free" policy (usually to 18, but sometimes a little different), but would charge for a third adult in a room.
Obviously, any age-cut off is going to be pretty random. I've noticed that Airbnb does not seem to have any age discounts or penalties. It just asks how many people will be staying, with no difference between them being adults or children. It seems the better system to me. I don't think there's going to be a rush of adults bunking together in hotels to save a few bucks if there wasn't an additional person charge.