Are there any worthwhile hotel points programs for family travel in Europe?
 

I collected miles the hard way for years, relatively new to the game. Between my wife and I, we have 320K AA miles, 112K SW miles and a companion pass, a few other small balances, 40K Chase UR points, 50K AMEX points.
We are planning a trip to Europe next March, with our 10 and 12 year old sons. Preliminary schedule: one night in Paris, two nights in Basel (or one in Basel and another elsewhere in Switzerland), one night in Venise, Mestre or Verona, three nights in Catania. We travel coach and have no interest in luxury sleeping arrangements but wouldn't mind them if they are free or close to it.
The problem I am having is that except for Best Western Mestre, I can't find any 4-person rooms except at Novotel and similar budget European chains. I'd be happy to hear from anyone who travels as a family and knows of hotels that work with points (for 4) in Europe!

I don't know specifically about 4 person rooms, but I have stayed at a number of Radisson Blu's in continental Europe and they were in most larger cities and very nice. With the Club Carlson card they are also a great deal.

I've been running into the same thing in planning a trip for Italy. Pretty much all hotels in the bigger cities only accommodate 2 per room. They sometimes have 4 person family rooms, but they cost a lot more points or are not available for points redemptions. In my experience, 4 person rooms are considered an upgrade, not a standard room.

I can't speak for all the cities you mention, but I know at least in Paris and Venice that Priority Club works for two parents and two children in theory. By that I mean it comes up with results, but whether it will let you click through to actually book them I can't say for sure as I don't currently have enough PC points to try. In general I think that Priority Club seems to have a more family friendly take on max # of occupants.

I have done a few posts on a few different chains on this topic. Here is one to the PC post.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/mommyp...priority-club/

Another potential program to consider is Club Carlson as their "non-standard" rooms are sometimes a very reasonable additional points price.

+1 Similar experience for UK. I'm looking into vacation rentals for this reason.
However some priority club & hyatt hotels allow 3 people. We are spoiled in America with large rooms and 4 person max.

Thanks for the reply, Mommy Points. I had checked out several other major chains with no luck at all, but Priority Club shows availability for several of our cities. Will be part of my next set of apps.
From what I've been able to find, vacation rentals are the way to go for families in Europe if you stay put for at least 3 days.

We traveled to London, Paris, Venice & Rome last summer and couldn't find that many hotels that could accommodate 2 adults + 2 children. We ended up renting timeshare condos and booked 2 rooms in Paris.

For Paris, check out Renn La Defense, book on points and call the local hotel to see if you can pay a cash supplement to upgrade to a 1 king bed + sofabed pull out couch.

We went to Italy with a family and could not find hotels to accommodate 4 people (teens, a boy and a girl, so needed 3 beds total). Had to go on VRBO and rent an apt. It was the most expensive part of our trip, even after the BA fuel surcharges.

I've been wondering about this too... does the size of the children matter? If I book a room with 2 twin beds or 1 king bed, my family (kids would be 3 & 6) could sleep reasonably comfortably, but I'm not sure if the hotel would actually allow it. Does anyone have experience in this kind of situation?

How about if I book a slightly upgraded room, which might be ~30-35 sq meters instead of the standard rooms which are around ~18-20 sq meters?

+1 ^
Nice sign up bonus for the co-branded credit card right now.

London Crown Plaza The City had big room for 4 of us.

Crown Plaza - St. Peters (Rome) has rooms with 2 queen beds accomodating 4. We booked this last year using points.

We only have one child but have found the non-chain hotels sometimes have better, though by no means perfect, options for more than double occupancy in Europe and other countries. Hotels.com and Hotwire can be handy for this, as Priceline doesn't allow for more than double occupancy on name-your-own-price bookings.

Check the Marriotts in Paris. We have a baby ( in a crib) and a 4 year old and we were told that the larger rooms accommodate 4 at the couple of hotels we checked. The larger rooms come with a cash supplement of 90 euro -120 euro. Write to the Marriott concierge desk and they will contact the individual hotels directly for occupancy rules. For what it's worth, Marriott website doesn't list these hotels having 4 people occupancy. Obviously if the kids are bigger that may not apply. We stayed in Italy in 3-4 hotels 3 years back with a one year old and didn't have any problem