Hotels in Spain

Never heard of it. We have booked four to a room, family room, all over Spain including Barcelona. Who told you that? Hope, not a friend of your cousin's boss who has never traveled to Spain.

My wife and I stayed at the Tryp Apolo in Barcelona in May and didn't hear about any such rule.

Nonsense. Example for family and triple room - http://tiny.cc/6mmib

It may be true that many double rooms will only allow one extra cot (for an adult) in a room. I've also noticed booking online sometimes artificially restricts your choices. I've always had good luck calling the hotel directly, telling them what I need and letting them offer accomodations that work.

We booked in at the Eric Vokel Gran Via for our family of four. We are going in December so I can't tell you personally but the reviews have been excellent. There are chains like High Tech that have family rooms and depending upon their age you might be able to get a rollaway in a three room

Nope - lots of hotels show 4 on the booking.com website. We personally have stayed at Hotel Continental and had one room for our family of 4.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions for my son's family traveling there. Definitely need to contact hotels directly. Always good advice from the Helpline.

Yes, we have had this experience in Spain. When the kids were young we would get the extra bed, then have one of them sleep on cushions from the chairs. Now that they are older we get two rooms.

Rooms in Europe to accommodate (bigger) families are harder to find, particularly if you have 3 or more kids. Look at http://www.roomfor5.co.uk - it provides information on hotels, guesthouses, serviced apartments that can sleep 5 or more. There are not many listed in Spain but there are a few in Barcelona that sleep at least 5 so you won't have a problem with 4:)