I love traveling with my kids. During almost every school break, long or short, we pack a bag and hit the road. That means I’ve checked into more hotel rooms than I can count with my kids in tow.
My family has stayed everywhere from dingy budget inns to luxe rooms in five-star resorts. However, no matter where we stay, I always follow the same routine as soon as we get to our hotel to ensure my family has the best stay possible.
I ask for a corner room
Several years ago, I booked a standard room at the lowest rate for a trip to Orlando. I was pleasantly surprised to find a spacious room when I tapped my key and walked in.
The next year, my family returned to Orlando and booked the same room type at the same hotel. However, during our second visit, I was assigned a noticeably smaller room. After looking at a map posted in the hallway, I realized why the two rooms were different, even though they were the same room type on the same floor. The first room I stayed in was a corner room, while the second was sandwiched between other rooms in the middle of the hallway.
Now, I always request a corner room when I check in. Hotels don’t always have corner rooms available, but when I am lucky enough to get one, the extra space helps.
I request a room far away from the elevator
Some hotels are noisier than others. Dealing with the sounds of other guests and hotel staff is par for the course when traveling. Most of the time, there isn’t anything I can do about a discourteous neighbor who slams a door in the middle of the night or the clink of room service delivering meals on porcelain plates.
The one thing I can usually control is avoiding the ding of elevators and the chatter of guests as they wait to board or disembark. A simple fix is to request a room as far away from the elevators as possible. As with requesting a corner room, hotels can’t always accommodate this request. However, because most hotel rooms are farther away from the elevator, I usually snag a quieter room when I ask nicely.
Courtesy of Jamie Davis Smith.
I make sure the room’s alarm isn’t set to go off
When I travel, I rely heavily on an alarm app on my phone to ensure I wake up in time. However, I learned the hard way that some travelers still use the alarm clocks found in many hotel rooms to wake them from a deep slumber at all hours of the day and night.
Nothing is worse than getting an early wake-up call because the previous room occupant set an alarm for early morning, and housekeeping didn’t catch it before new guests arrived. After the third time my kids were woken by unexpected alarms in the wee hours of the morning, ruining the first day of our vacation, I learned my lesson.
I now check for an in-room alarm immediately upon arriving in a new room. If I can’t tell whether an alarm is set or not, I unplug the clock to avoid any unpleasant surprises. I’m certain this small step has made a huge difference in my family getting a good night’s sleep on some of our trips.
I ask for extra towels
Even though many hotel rooms are generously stocked with towels, my family always seems to go through them at an alarming rate. Between multiple people showering, two of whom have long hair that requires additional towels, random spills, and water inevitably splashing on the bathroom floor, towels disappear quickly.
To avoid scrambling for a clean towel, I always request extra upon arrival. I also ask housekeeping to place extra towels in our room every day during our stay. It’s a simple, easy request that helps us keep our room and my children clean during our stay.
More on traveling with kids
I always unpack
When I first started traveling with my kids, I thought it would be easier to live out of our suitcases. Inevitably, clothing got tossed on the floor, we descended into chaos, and special lovies got left behind.
Now, I religiously use packing cubes to keep everything organized. After checking in, my kids and I always take our packing cubes out of our suitcases and put them away in shelves, drawers, or closets. Taking packing cubes out of our luggage only takes a few minutes, but it makes a huge difference in creating a calm, organized environment.
