Room strategy for family of 4, kidos ages 7 & 8 - ideas?

In your experiences will hotels/pensions etc allow us to rent a double and have the kids just sleep on the floor?

Short answer: no.

Slightly longer answer: it's sometimes possible to pay for an extra bed in a double room. Not everywhere will do it so it's best to check in advance and, TBH, most places will have trouble fitting two extra beds in a double.

With kids those ages you might have more luck looking for 'family' rooms rather than quads, as they're more common. Instead of having full size beds to sleep 4 they'll have a bed for the adults and some combination of single beds/sofa beds/camp beds for the kids.

A lot of places in Germany charge a fixed amount per person, although that might be less for young kids. That's because a lot of their expenses are providing breakfast and linen, towels, hot water, etc.

Another reason hotels won't allow your kids to stay in their sleeping bags in a double: fire safety rules limit the number of people. It would be illegal for them to allow you doing so.

What does your itinerary look like? 3 countries in 2 weeks is ambitious even for an adult couple. But travelling with kids this can be much more stressful than anticipated. We frequently travel to Europe with our kids. Usually we combine one week of "heavy" touring and moving around with one week in a fixed location with only occasional daytrips in the area. That is more enjoyable and saves $$.

In Austria and Germany, it's not difficult to find apartments that have daily rates. You may have to pay an additional cleaning fee, depending on where you're going.

It's difficult to travel with 4 in Europe, as far as finding rooms goes. Before kids, we'd make reservations for the first night and for any big cities, but then just get rooms on the fly from there. As you've found, rooms for 4 are not as easy to come by. And it's not my idea of fun to spend my vacation driving around trying to find a room, especially not with kids in tow.

Hotels will not be happy if you've booked a double and show up with 4 people, especially a pension where breakfast may be involved, too.

I'd seriously recommend finding a couple of towns you can stay in and day trip to the places you want to see. There's lots of great farmhouses in Bavaria and Austria with apartments that will cost as much as a double in a pension. We're planning a trip where we get a farmhouse apartment for a week in Bavaria and from there see the castles, take day trips to Munich, do hiking, things like that. And having an apartment will give you access to a washer and dryer and a kitchen, which comes in handy when it's dinnertime and your kids are cranky and will be no fun to have around in a restaurant.

Having traveled all over Western Europe with wife two kids over the last several years - I've never had any problems finding a room for the four of us...and I don't mean sneaking the kids in the side door :-)

No, you cannot do that. It would be against the law in most places.

Most small hotels and pensions charge per person, with a reduction for children staying in the same room, ranging from 20% to 50% each. But then they may charge for an extra bed (or two) and then you'll pay more.

Your best option is to find places with actual family rooms. These are generally well-priced. For example, a family room at our favorite place in Munich, Hotel Uhland, is 135 euro for 2 parents and 2 children under 16. A family room (actually a small apartment) in a Gasthaus we like in Garmisch-Partenkirchen is 84 euro for four, including breakfast. Both of these places offer free parking and are well-located for car travelers.

On the other hand, I also checked a few popular places in Castelrotto, in the Dolomites, and they didn't even mention family rooms. Only one mentioned discounts for children, but they only have double rooms and suites, not family rooms. So if you were to arrive in Caltelrotto planning on just finding something at the last minute, you might have some searching to do.

I suggest that if you are determined not to book ahead, you at least do a lot of research and arrive armed with a list of possibilities for each place you want to visit.

You might want to give up on bookings.com and try venere.com.

You can pick four folks and it will toss up quads, family, etc.

Also, way back when I was traveling with three kids, we never had trouble finding a spot if we just wandered in to the TI; maybe they're not (or were not back then?) in high demand.

Even if you don't reserve, you'd at least have a back-up list of potenetial places.

We travel as a family of 5 with children now 13, 11 and 7 and we usually succeed in finding single rooms to accomodate all of us (though we prefer apartments). Just ask for "family" rooms and see what they have to offer. They will likely have a room with a double and a single with the ability to squeeze a cot in, or a double and two singles. Generally speaking they will frown on the idea of squeezing a child into their parents' bed or putting anyone on the floor. There are sometimes insurance and/or regulatory reasons for this. Sometimes it's just a matter of not wanting too many guests crowding their common areas or eating their free breakfast buffet.

Many hotels do not post information about their Family Rooms...many times you just have to ask.

In our experience with 2 adults and a teenager, many hotels offer triple rooms (unfortunately usually on the 3rd or even 4th floor!) with at least one larger bed. Can the kids double up in one bed? If so, and if only a double is available, perhaps the kids could take one bed, and one adult could sleep on an added cot? Just thinking out loud...

I vote for a little more arranging and planning. We have gone to Europe with only the first and last night planned and "winged it" for the rest of the time. This time (also with two kids) we are make the arrangements in advance for hotels and some museums. I found in the past that it was more tiring to find a room and it left us less enthusiastic about the actual sites and restaurants. We decided to go another way this time and see how we like it. We are also going to parts of Italy and Germany and have found several decent deals through RS guidebooks. Emailing has been a joy and family rooms are really easy to find.

BTW we got scolded at a hotel in Venice for not mentioning our daughter in the original reservation. She was there at check-in so no subterfuge but we did get an earful at check-out!

We have traveled throughout Europe and have had little trouble finding rooms for 4-5 family members. I would email the hotel and state that you have 2 adults and a 7 and 8 year old and they will let you know what is available. Many places have "family" rooms not listed on their websites. These are fairly large rooms with a double bed, then 1, 2, or 3 twin beds are added, depending on need. I've found that if you let them know ahead of time, hotels will try to accommidate you. I won't try the sleeping bags on the floor--it opens up a can of worms.

Thanks to everyone for their help!! Looks like asking for a "family room" is the ticket.