Finding a hotel when you’re under 21
 

My niece is looking to do some travel but she is having a very hard time finding a hotel that will let her check in alone. She is 19 (20 in June). Any hints on how to find hotels that will accept younger travelers or should she call hotels directly and offer a deposit?

Backpacker hostels are a great alternative. Genuine travellers and cheap depending on the location.

Some years ago, we had a niece in a similar situation. We were allowed to send a fax to the hotel with a copy of our credit card, saying we were financially responsible for her stay.

Can you simply not prebook and prepay the hotels on an OTA?
Noone is gonna care about her age when its prepaid.

Also agree with poster above. When I was travelling around Europe and Asia in my teens/early 20s - last place I wanted to stay was a chain hotel.

This is risky. I am routinely asked for my drivers license or passport when checking into a hotel. Thus, the staff know my age. I wouldn't risk my niece heading out on a trip with the possibility of being turned away by the hotel. Maybe it would work, maybe not, but there is risk I would not impose on her.

Admittedly it has been a long time, but I can’t recall ever coming across this issue - indeed pretty sure I stayed at various times in the U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Australia all under the age of 21. Where is she finding this problem?

AFAICT - the problem is not the age, but financial responsibility. So if the traveler has plastic (debit/credit/prepaid), the hotel should have no issue checking them in.

Of course - call ahead to confirm as well.

Which hotels turn away 19 year old guests is what I'd like to know too..... This must be a US thing?

In the US, most chain hotels do check ID, which means they can check age. The hotels can refuse to check-in booked persons who aren't legally-required to be checked-in even on prepaid reservations.

Hotels in the US don't generally turn away guests who are 18-21 years of age when the guests show up with a bank card in their own name + passport or out-of-state driving license unless something else is going on.

In the EU/Schengen area, 18-21 years olds with their own bank card and passport shouldn't face the kind of problems with checking-in that happen in various places across the US.

Obviously noone is suggesting making the reservation in a different name.
Bottom line, unless there is some weird 18-21 age restrictions by the hotel - it doesnt matter who paid for the reservation.
Not any different than me paying with my credit card for my mom's/wife's/etc hotel bookings.

Here's something about Canada having some restrictions on checking-in for young adults around ten years ago:

You're welcome to see what those properties have as their age restrictions nowadays. At least one of those has Expedia indicating that 18-year-olds are not welcome. I already found Expedia saying the following for one Canadian property:

Here in the US, hotels check the ID not just for name but also for age of the person at times. Also at times some hotels check to make sure the person isn't a "local". Combine being an 18-21 year old adult + local address indication on ID at hotels in the US and there are places where there are de facto restrictions in place depending on the hotel/hotel personnel doing the checking-in and who the person is that is trying to check-in as a hotel guest. Hotels may be more willing to take cash for payment from those who are older adults than they are from those who are younger adults. And who makes the payment and how the payment is made does matter at times.

Who paid for the reservation can matter -- even outside of the US -- as they may want to see the bank card used to pay for and/or make the reservation. Having the means to cover incidental charges above just the room rate can also matter -- and this often means having a bank card in the guest's name with enough available funds on it to satisfy the hotel check-in personnel. And that's even if ignoring the issue of some hotels having gone to no-cash policies to pay at the hotel -- this is less of an issue in the US than it is in some parts of Europe.

A window into how this U21 thing is an issue in the US:

https://www.unionleader.com/news/bus...04f5bcaa5.html

That's at a Hilton property.

Hotels here can play up the "alcohol" angle. We have a general legal drinking age limit set at 21 years of age. When a person is under that age, hotels may not want to take the risk when alcohol sales/delivery are available on site.

In the U.S. most hotels won't allow guests under 25 without an "adult". The young people under 21 are the biggest problems in hotels with noise and destruction! Europe is a different story

That is most certainly not true IME and that of those on the business and guest side with whom I've dealt.

It is very common (at least pre-pandemic) for large companies in the US to have 21-25 years olds traveling around and staying in their own hotel rooms for work. It's also been common for university students in that age range and younger stay at hotels in rooms under their own name around the country for vacation and other personal trips.

I still remember when a 19-year-old friend and my 20-year-old self were on a Chicago-to-L.A.-and-back road trip for spring break in 1995, and a chain motel in Missouri -- which we'd looked up in the AAA book and called via pay phone for a reservation earlier in the day -- refused to let us check in because we were under 21, despite our major credit cards, and our out-of-state driver's licenses and university student IDs.

Fortunately, a nearby Motel 6 had a room and was willing to let us stay (after the desk clerk looked at our out-of-state driver's licenses and university student IDs to satisfy himself that we weren't locals who were going to trash the place or something).

All the other motels we stayed at on that road trip (some were chains and some weren't) either had no problem with our ages, or didn't ask.

Back in the mid to late eighties, I had an issue trying to check into hotels when I was 18-21, especially if I was on a road trip. There was one time that I was sent to a hotel by my Franchisee in Boca Raton for training purposes. They were refusing to let me stay because I was 19. I had to get the Corporate Area Manager involved before they finally let me stay. I found this to be a pain because later that year I was promoted to Store Manager at 19 yrs. old. I was mature beyond my age and wasn't the type to trash things, but all they saw was my age.

I had not finished all my training and was sent to Oakbrook, IL for my 2 weeks of final training. Ironically, I met a future boss who was going through her training to be a Franchisee, even though she didn't remember when I interviewed 6 years later. This training had the hotel on site and was used by trainees and corporate people who had to visit HQ. So no problems there.