jochen_vdk

I am travelling throughout Europe with 2 kids and wanted to stay mostly in Holiday Inn hotels on points. They all have the kids stay/eat free policy and don't offer family rooms.

My question: do kids stay for free on bookings booked with points as well? How does this work, do I book a room on points for 2 adults, and call the hotel to add the 2 kids to the reservation, so they can provide rollaway beds?

JonathanD

I can only comment on this for the UK.

Not all hotels offer rooms for 4 people on points so don't assume.

Easiest is to do a search for 2 adults and 2 kids and then see which ones show up. No further contact is needed for those hotels.

Sometimes 4 person rooms only show up when you do a search for 2 adults plus 1 Child.

Failing that, you will have to contact the hotel as you suggest.

tom tulpe

At many European properties there would be a problem with max occupancy (fire regulations). Unless the room specifies a max occupancy of 4 or more, you won't get 4 people in.
If the hotel does not have rooms that accomodate 4, the only solution is 2 rooms with 1 adult 1 child each, where the child "stays for free" - cold comfort, as you still have to pay for two rooms. You can check by removing the children from the search (i.e. a search for 2 adults 2 rooms), the price should remain the same (excl. tax, which is usually per guest).

jochen_vdk

Thanks for the feedback!
Indeed, I was already wondering how this would work out.

None of the 4 hotels I was planning to stay at have rooms for 4 people, still they show the "Kids Stay Free" benefit on their website with the following conditions:

Kids Stay Free – Up to two (2) children stay free when sharing a room with up to two (2) adults at any of the Participating Hotels, subject to maximum room occupancy restrictions and subject to availability. Baby crib/cot is complimentary while rollaway beds may be chargeable (extra beds are always complimentary for children 12 and under in the AMEA region).

So in practice this means they do not offer "Kids Stay Free" at all? Then why is it on their website?

JonathanD

Some hotels can have rooms for 2 adults + 2 children that are bookable with cash but not with points even though their basic 2 adult rooms can be booked with points. For those cases, it's definately worth contacting them to see if they would upgrade a basic room booked with points.

From the text you have pasted, 'subject to maximum room occupancy restrictions` seems like the important caveat. Still worth contacting them direct to see if they can accommodate you as the website may not have all their room types loaded.

jochen_vdk

The hotels I wanted to stay at do not offer rooms for 2 adults + 2 children with cash either.
"subject to maximum room occupancy" indeed is the caveat, but if they don't have rooms for 4 people it does not make sense to mention "kids stay free"

I will contact the hotels directly! Was just wondering if I was doing something wrong before to contact the 4 hotels separately.

dbuckho

You should be able to see maximum occupancy under the room details on the website -- either IHG or a 3rd party site.

Definitely contact the hotels. Age of your kids will matter as well. I have had several places in Europe and Asia let me exceed a 3 person limit when my kids were both really young (under 6). Another time in Ireland one let me exceed it if I was willing to take a blow-up mattress vs. a rollaway. And then of course if room occupancy is 4 you should have no problem -- but even then it should say in the room details whether a rollaway is allowed - you will find some room types where occupancy of 4 is ok but they do not allow cribs/rollaway due to room size.

Most times I have reached out, the property reservation folks have been very helpful. One of my last pre-pandemic trips in Europe was trying to stay at a place with a 3 person limit - was offered a second adjoining room at 50% off which was not a published offer, but ended up being a great value overall for that city.