Accommodations with 5 kids

If you have had no problem with 7 people in one room then you have just been lucky,, there are fire codes in many places that would not allow that occupancy in a studio room. In Hawaii even when my dd was only 9 months old we were not allowed to go in any hotel room, but had to get a one bedroom suite, as she was our third child.Here in B.C we have fire codes too.

Europes rooms are SMALL, not like our North American sized rooms,, beleive me you will be shocked at the space difference..

Why not camp? There are campgrounds that have cabins or tents already set up. Kids would likely enjoy it too, and you are more likely to be able to keep budget.

Also, why not rent apartments, you would save lots of money on food, and be able to stretch accmadation budget.

Hmmm...I have four kids and only can generally legally/officially get one room if it's a suite, like at Embassy Suites.

I was 100% up-front and honest with every place I made reservations in Europe- including the age and sex of all of us and who can sleep with whom (i.e. sisters can sleep together or with me; son needs his own bed) and asked for their best accomodation for our needs. Apartment might be the way to go for you, although some of the apartments I found would have a great base price and then charge per person above 2, which made it sky high. Shop around, be honest, and consider options like staying in small towns, which are cheaper. We stayed at an apartment that was 47 euros a night for the six of us, but it was a small town. We also had a private room in a hostel for just under 100 euros, but those were the only two places in that range.

I would try places recommended in Rick's books as having "family rooms". Also, a convent might work; three of us stayed in one in Venice that had six single beds in it; we wondered if we'd wake up to company.....but we didn't!

I also suggest to look for appartments. Those can give you a very good deal, especially in small towns. In Italy it might be a bit more difficult to find appartments to rent for less than a full week (though in Rome that's very easy to do) since your travel time would be considered high season in many regions there. But in Germany it's quite easy to rent appartments for less than a week.

Europen Hotel rooms are not like NA ones. I have never seen 2 double beds in Europe, which is comomon here. You could try som B&Bs. Some have lovely family rooms with multiple beds. The self catering suggestion is also a good one, as, not only will you have multiple rooms, you can have breakfast there and make up sandwiches in comfort for lunch, even if you want to eat dinner out. Meals are expensive in Europe and "kids menus" are not a universal feature in restaurants.

Thank you all for the suggestions. We're on the right path now.

I'd go the apartment route if possible. B&B's tend to charge per person, so with 7 of you, it'd get really expensive really fast.

Apartments give you a little more room to spread out and give you the option of cooking in since you'll have a kitchen. And I would DEFINITELY do reservations. As others have said, it's very hard to find rooms that fit more than 2 people, and you don't want to spend your day wandering around a small town with your kids trying to find a room (or having to go on to another town since there's not any that can fit you guys).

All that being said, it may be difficult to find apartments in France and Italy that charge by the night. Many of them want you to book by the week, usually Saturday-Saturday. You may have to find a "home base" in those countries and day trip from there. But in Germany, it's typically not a problem to find apartments with daily rates, usually around 50-70 euro/night.

In Germany, you can stay in apartments in working farmhouses. Check out www.landtourismus.de and you can get listings by region. They're extremely kid-friendly. We stayed at a farmhouse in Austria when our son was 3 and it was the best vacation we ever had. They had cows, horses, and chickens, plus a big sandbox and pedalcars for the kids to ride around.

I have traveled often with three kids and two adults.

Here is an example of the way I approach it. I called Hotel d'Art in Venice (one of Rick's budget recommendations) and told them what I was looking for. They offered an apartment that was owned by the hotel but not part of the hotel. It was perfect and the price was right. We stayed for three nights (contrary to many online requirements that apartment stays have to be for 7 days).

Instead of deciding what you can fit into from looking at online listings. Ask a hotel, pension, B&B or hostel directly what they have to offer your family. Then decide if that will work and if the price is acceptable.

With a family of 7, I think renting a house or apartment might be your best bet. Hostels with "Family rooms" are also an option.In either case, you will most likely have somewhere to cook (keeping costs down) and possibly a common room for just hanging out.It may not be possible to stick to the 100 Euro budget, but you never know.

100 euros a night for 7 people? Is that even possible?

Sorry but I think your "What's up with Europe" comment is a bit rude.

And I hope you are being sarcastic saying you aren't going to tell the establishments about your extra FOUR kids (and just tell them you have one!). I travel a lot with our ONE son and am always on the up and up about the fact that we are three in a double or find a triple room and I pay whatever extra fee they charge - which sometimes does stink. Lying and cramming too many kids into a hotel room makes other parents look bad (and also probably teaches your kids to be dishonest as most room pricess are not based on an occupancy of SEVEN).

I didn't take the "What's up with Europe" comment as rude. It's a lot different traveling with kids than it is without, at least as far as accomodations go. Our last trip overseas was before we had our second child. Our son was 3, we booked doubles (but told them we had a small child) and either got a cot for him or piled some blankets up to make a bed for him.

But with more than one kid, we're having to travel a lot differently. That's why I suggested apartments. Most hotels or B&B's that I've found either only have doubles or are very expensive for anything bigger than that. It's not as easy to find affordable ($100 or less) rooms for more than 2 people than it is with traditional hotels in the US. We were used to easily finding $30 doubles before kids.

I can't imagine how anyone could smuggle 4 kids into a hotel in Europe! There is usually one door in and you have to go by the desk to get to your rooms. I doubt that you'd be able to find anything that is like our motels with an exterior door for each room.
I think I would have started putting in requests 6 months in advance but I am hoping you'll have better luck with finding apartments.
I wish I had a suggestion especially at 100E per night. 100E per night can be difficult to find for only 2 people--depending on where you travel of course.

You can do this with apts!

Use VRBO.com and Homelidays.com, find a place to your liking, and then ask / tell them that the kids are accomplished travelers.

You will be able to find a place in most cities if you look at all of the options, and talk to people about your needs.