groenroos

I'm trying to price a BAH flight+hotel package for 2 adults + 1 infant age 0, but I'm running into the same issue I've been constantly running into ever since the little bundle arrived to spread their joy: when you put an infant on any hotel booking form, lots of computers start saying no.

As the child is still a baby, we'll be travelling with our own travel cot and bedding, and bringing our own food, and thus need nowt but a modest amount of floorspace from the hotel - but most reservation systems (incl. the ones that ask for the child's age for apparently no reason) just see "3 pax", bluntly compare that to the room's listed max occupancy of 2, and say no. Thus, many hotels bow out completely, while others only offer us their presidential suites and penthouse apartments with butler service.

Same deal here; I add the infant onto the BAH booking form, and our choice of hotels goes from 23 down to only 6. Now, if I was booking only a hotel, I would shamelessly put 2 adults only and just turn up with our infant - it's never been a problem. But I can't do that here, because of course she'll still need a flight ticket.

One of the hotels that BAH's website offers for 2 pax only, is available to book for 2+1 through the hotel's website directly - regular room, regular price.

If I call BAH, can they create a booking for us three at our desired hotel (who are clearly happy to accommodate us) - even when BAH's website won't allow it? Or would it be simpler to book online for two, and call to add the infant on later?

1Aturnleft

Instead of saying infant age 0 how about trying infant age 1? You've not mentioned whether youre trying to complete a general holiday search or for a specific hotel. It could be the hotel doesn't allow for children/infants if the latter in which case the system will return a negative search response.

Edit: if you try searching as a flight + hotel package on ba.com as opposed to a flight search with a hotel addon later in the booking process, it doesn't require you to state the age of an infant, just that there will be one present. Infants are classified as all those under 2yrs of age.

Dave Noble

Wouldn't the simplest solution be to just book flights and hotel separately ? Then you can book the hotel that allows the infant without an issue - is it much cheaper through BA holidays?
Regardless of age, the infant is still a person and if the maximum occupancy is 2 people, it seems unsurprising that a booking for 3 people is rejected is rejected by BA Holiday's system

groenroos

BAH doesn't ask for the specific age unfortunately. I'm doing a general holiday search, but the addition of the infant reduces the hotel selection considerably. There's one hotel available when searching for just 2 pax that ticks all the boxes for us, but it disappears when you add the infant.

I've checked on the hotel's website directly, and they allow booking a standard room for 2 adults + 1 infant age 0. If I try a dummy booking with e.g. a ten-year old child, the room selection and pricing is different. Clearly, the hotel has some more nuanced max occupancy rules, and it's just BA's system that removes this hotel from the results on BAH. I'm wondering if a phone agent can manually circumvent this.

It's more or less the same price, but keen to take advantage of the double tier point offer for BAH packages. Could always consider flight+car and get the hotel separately, but I don't think we'll need a car on this trip.

As noted above, this hotel in particular does have some leeway for infants (vs children) when booking direct - and in our experience, every hotel we've booked with in the past has told us to just book for 2 and bring the infant "off the books". In general, as we bring our own travel cot and linen, they don't really care. Different story of course if we were talking about an older child who'd need their own bed, linen, towels, toiletries, breakfasts, etc.

Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

Where are you looking to go to? I’ve just done a dummy booking for TFS in September. 2 adults plus infant on flight selection page then add a hotel. It goes all the way through with several options and the infant is still there on the final page. Are you looking for something very specific?

groenroos

I'm not looking anything that specific, but in my case (DUS), 2+1 reduces the available options very considerably vs. just 2 adults. It's frustrating not being able to select from all of the reasonable choices, especially when I know the hotel (as per their website) are okay with it.

This is frequently a problem even outside of BAH, but this time for this destination, the effect seems to be particularly pronounced.

Or are you saying that only adding a hotel from the flight summary page unlocks additional options that are not available on the holiday search page?

Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

I didn’t go that far into it and certainly didn’t try DUS. The options may be reduced but I felt there was plenty there still. The only way I’ve ever booked a holiday through BA is select flight first then add hotel before completing the booking. I’m not sure it makes any difference.

EfficientTraveller

Have had the same frustrations but BAH can usually sort over the phone if you ring them.

groenroos

Yeah, we did end up booking for just 2 adults online first, selecting a hotel that BAH wouldn't allow with an infant (but that we knew was actually fine with it). Then rang to add the infant.

The phone agent was only able to add the infant to the flights, but seemed very skeptical whether the hotel would work out (even after explaining the situation) - but had to forward it to the BAH team. She promised to ring back a week later, but didn't. According to MMB, the infant's been added to the flights, and we've kept our original hotel. Fingers crossed!

:D!

Since my son was born 3 years ago, I have booked tens of hotels around the world (though from mid-2020 to mid-2022, mostly in Europe because of covid) always for 2 adults and there has never been an issue.

In fact adding a child to the booking (where the price did not change) usually resulted in hotels doing unwanted things like providing unsafe child cots or opening up the sofa bed, which just takes up space he could use to crawl / run around, so booking for 2 adults is better.

Other children may be different but we prefer to have just one King bed where we sleep on the edges and put him in the middle, because he rolls around a lot whilst sleeping meaning that he might fall off a smaller bed, and if he has a cot he will not sleep because he will just hit the walls and wake up.

Thus, sometimes when only a double / twin beds are available for the price we want to pay, we contact the hotel to explain the situation. This has occasionally resulted in a free upgrade to a room with a larger bed, even when those hotels had no loyalty programme or I had no status.

My preferred chain is Hilton and many properties have a policy that children don't get charged extra if no extra bed is required - even up to 18 years old although the age limit is lower at some hotels.

At some point my son will need / want his own bed and we'll have to pay more, but I hope to continue with the present situation as long as possible.