Hotel accommodations for large family

Most hotel rooms take 2 people, then perhaps three or four,, but i haven't ever seen one that takes six. They count heads,, regardless of age,, ( although the youngest may be ok,,since he is under two) . I think your best and perhaps only option may be renting an apartment, or consider an aparthotel( Citidines is one chain ) .. I don't find Europe large family friendly myself.. We had three kids and when looking at the costs for renting a vehicle big enough for 5, and two hotel rooms, we took a different avenue. All our kids enjoyed trip to Europe, but we did one on one trips with each. So I took first son when he was 14, then hubby took next son when he was 14, then i took daughter when she was 11( girls are more mature then boys so she got to go younger!)I know some families wouldn't do that , but thats what we did and it worked for us. We rved with kids for years, did cruises and hawaii as a family, but Europe was just different for us.

We traveled France & Italy 10 years ago with our 4 kids, 9 to 17, & all the small hotels we "dropped in on" (no reservations) were very nice & gave us rooms next to each other. if you're staying in one place for 4 days or more the website vrbo, could be helpful. have a fun time.

I have a sister-in-law with 11 kids who lived outside of London for 7 years. They took their kids all over Europe. I believe they mostly stayed in B&Bs. And I think a lot of the time they found accomodations on the fly by going to the TI. She would just tell the TI what her needs were and they would help find accomodations. I guess it might be easier if you knew the 12 and 9 y/o would be ok in an adjacent room. We took a trip to Europe with 2 adult children and a teen ager. I was able to find accomodations with just a little research. I found that a lot of small family run hotels have a family room or small apartment that they don't always advertise on their website. If you're looking at using Holiday Inn - you might email each hotel and find out if you could get two connecting rooms, but my guess is that most holiday inn rooms in Europe accomodate a max of 3 people per room (and usually 2). It's worth emailing them to find out what's available though!

I also think the answer to this is more research. In case you decide that Holiday Inn won't work for you, you might consider small hotels, B&Bs or maybe an apartment if you are staying anywhere long enough. In looking for places to stay for my husband and I and our son and his wife, I found many 2 BR, 2 bath apartment options. Most of the time the bedrooms had the typical European twin beds that a couple put together to make one bed but singles leave separate. Most also had cots available for youngsters, sofa beds and sometimes a baby bed can be provided. I was also surprised to see that some of the B&Bs and small hotels I looked at had accomodations especially for families. For apartments, another option is Homeaway. com. For small hotels try Logis (http://www.logishotels.com/en.html). Since you don't say where you are going and how you will be getting there, it's hard to be more specific.

Oh, I should address the "flexiblity" thing,, in Paris in particular you absolutely have to be truthful with the number of people in a room, don't try and get 5 into a room for 4 for example, they will kick you out as Paris has very strict fire codes and room occupancy is set based on several factors. No proper hotel will fudge their numbers.. An apartment or b@b has less stringent rules.. those are best bets .. it may cost a bit more to get an apartment, but think of savings having a kitchen to make breakfasts and keep drinks and snack at!

Thank you very much to all of you for your responses. It sounds like chain hotels will require 2 rooms at a minimum and will probably be too costly. I will look into VRBO and also look at hostels who sometimes have 6 bed dorms. We will be in Spain/France/Germany and Italy so any other general advice will be welcomed.

Hi Ian, try EcoItalia. Carlos is wonderful and helped us book hotels all over Italy for our family of 4. The hotels were quite lovely, and his services were much more reasonable than anything I could come up with (believe me I tried!!!). I would totally trust whatever he puts together1 We had the best time of our lives in Italy! Also, try HomeAway. I like their Website and like the fact that I can pull up a map as to where the property is located. Finding even a quad is extraordinarilly difficult and the rooms are so tiny there is hardly room to breathe. I think that it would be difficult to find a hotel that will accomodate that many people.

Sorry~ that would be www.ecoitalia.com . Good luck!