Hotel chains: Accor? Ibis? F-1?

From what I've heard hotels do not like people bringing in their own bedding (eg: sleeping bags) for bedbug reasons. Some hotels offer triple rooms with one double bed and 2 twins. There aren't many and I'd imagine you'd want to book them early. You don't necissarily have to stick to the suburbs. Ibis hotels are very reliable. I've never had a problem nor heard of a problem.

Even when I was a kid I wouldn't have wanted to sleep on the floor for a month or better! Would you? Many hotels do have family rooms, which, as the previous poster said, have a double bed and two twins. I doubt that you will find B&Bs that would allow kids sleeping on the floor, but B&Bs also sometimes have a wider variety of room styles. My sister's family of five often stayed in a single room when her kids were little and everyone had a bed.

How about apartment rental? We have been very fortunate and had rented numerous apartments in Europe and they were great and very, very reasonable and you can save a lot of money by having meals or at least breakfast in apartment, pack lunch, etc. I wish I could remember the website we used for apartments, something like latestays.com. Anyway, we had two bedroom apartment four years ago in Edinburgh, $100 a night for five nights and one in Barcelona for same amount and they were fabulous. Or check hostels, many have rooms for four people and that should fit into budget. Most of hotel rooms and even some b&b's we stayed in have small rooms and I think would be far too crowded. We did stay in a couple of Ibis hotels and they are really on par with motel six and would not do it again. Check on the graffiti section here and see the section about room finding ideas.

Gail,, they are staying in 14 different places in 42 days,, thats an average of what 3 nights in each place( onlyl 2 full days max) so I don't think an apartmental rental will work well ,, they will be constantly paying extra to try and find short term rentals, not worth it. Tom,, are you sure you really want visit so many places,, your trip freaks me out! And then to make kids sleep on filthy floors ,, night after night, yikes. PS In Paris if you book a quad room you get four sleeping places ( be it divided up in different ways, twins, doubles etc) , if you book anything less then a quad and they discover you are putting 4 people in a room they can kick you out. Fire codes limits occupancy and they are strict about it , so at least always be upfront .

Ibis is a part of the Accor group.

Hello Tom. Ibis hotel rooms are not wonderful, but I think I would be willing to sleep in it. An Ibis hotel can have a relatively low price for a room if the room is reserved and totally paid for, in advance, using a credit card at the hotel's internet website. To get the lowest price (rates), the hotel may require a minimum stay of three nights, including a Saturday night. At some B & Bs they can put extra beds in a room. A room at a B & B tends to cost less than a room in a hotel. I recommend reserving two rooms in a B & B, if you can afford that. In some towns in Italy, there are a cluster of 3 or 4 rooms in a big building. The rooms are owned by one person, those rooms were remodeled in an apartment. That kind of room can be expensive. Read about the various options for "sleeping", in each city that you will be at, in the Rick Steves travel guide book for that city or country. Hotel rooms are expensive in Rome and Venice and Vienna. I do not recommend driving a car in a big city in Europe : Paris, or Rome, or in the small city Florence. Cars are not wanted in Florence. Not all of the hotels in cities in Italy, mentioned in the book "Rick Steves' ITALY", are pleasant hotels.

Pat had said apartment rental won't work but disagree. We did that numerous times and you don't have to stay a whole week at a time, we stayed at one in Paris for only two nights. That said, I had my teenage son with us on trip to Disney World and he slept in sleeping bag on floor for four days and would never do that again. I think you can find better options than kids on floor.

Gail, in Toms case he would have to arrange 14 different apartments,, that is one reason it would be way more work then it warranted.. deposits for that many places would tie up alot of money.. plus you do pay more for most places if reserving short term . At least chain type hotels and drive up motels will usually have a room available so one could just drive along without reservations.. you can't walk up to an apartment, you are completely locked in, and being locked into 14 places is not a small thing

It should be noted that in most lodgings in Europe, the number of people staying in the room determines the cost. So having the kids sleep on the floor won't save you any money and will make them miserable for no gain.

I've always been pleased with Ibis hotels. I usually stay in them when I just have a day or so in a city and want something very close to transportation; they are my first choice in that situation. I've found them very near the train station in a number of cities, so I can quickly my luggage and start exploring. They are sterile, but I've always found them clean, predictable, affordable, and often with reasonable cafes attached.

Do remember that you cannot sneak in the kids so they can sleep on the floor. As mentioned above, you must disclose all occupants to the management. They need to know for fire regulations and if they discover more people they can turn you in and / or terf you out. If you have a room for 2 you can't have 4 in there. You can save a ton of money using F1 rooms.

I like Ibis hotels. We had a great one in Paris, with A/C too, and that was a treat as it was sweltering there. Motel One is a fine too. You might ask about neighboring rooms with an interconnecting door. Just ask for a family room as many smaller hotels will have accomodations that offer 2 extra twin beds. We rented an apt. in Berlin for only 2 nights. Have seen similar places in Frankfurt. You can rent places in pretty much every city for shorter periods than a week.

By most European hotel standards, your kids are adults. For cheap accomodations, check out www.hostelworld.com. They often include some of the lower cost hotel chains as well. Etap is another cheap chain, similar to F-1. B&B is another budget hotel chain to check out. The quality can vary vastly between different hotels within the same chain. Although, looking at your itinerary, and knowing you're planning to drive to all those places, it seems like you might as well sleep in your car a few nights! ;-0

You've gotten enough comments regarding the itinerary and options for hotels. My input is DON'T drive into any of the cities. Simply insane due to parking restrictions and traffic congestion. Best to stay in the burbs. Try researching b & b's with family rooms AND parking, then use public transport.

Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. We've found several nice, reasonably priced places to rent at Wimdu.com, a really well-designed site, including a $50-a-night home very near Paris that we just booked. It has parking and convenient public transit. Fear not, we're being upfront about how many people are coming, and our boys will not be sleeping on the floor. We'll probably also stay in a few Accor hotels; the chains Formule 1 and Etap (aka Ibis Budget) do seem to be the cheapest. And we may utilize a few hostels. I should explain that we're going to be staying three nights each with our friends in Holland, Switzerland, Poland, and Ukraine, and we're meeting friends in Paris, Naples, Vienna, and Prague, so this trip is about them as much as it is about sightseeing. And we're spending three nights in each of the big cities except Berlin and Hamburg, where we're just going to do a couple of very specific things. BTW, if an itinerary that takes us 5,500 miles in six weeks seems excessive, I might mention we comfortably covered 12,500 miles in seven weeks in the US.

I frequently travel solo and have never had a problem in any ACCOR hotel. I have stayed in many Accor hotels in France; also Frankfurt, Casablanca, Zurich and Guatemala
City. They are always predictably comfortable, safe, clean, etc. Most have restaurants or snack bars. I wouldn't hesitate to stay in an Accor hotel.