Holidays:Cheap child places warning

scotty

Most package holiday companies advertise free or cheap child places.  They are less keen to tell you about under-occupancy charges which they add if a room is not fully occupied by full paying adults.  On two occassions I have been offered deals with child reductions where the cost was greater than paying full adult prices!

In my opinion, this amounts to misleading advertising and is a subject that should be investigated by the advertising standards agancy.

On the last holiday I booked, it would have cost me about £80 more for 2 adults and 4 children in 2 bedrooms than for 6 adults in 3 bedrooms!

Always check the actual savings, don't assume that the travel company or travel agent is giving you the best price.

Have any other forum members had similar experiences?

soolin

I've virtually given up with travel agents and always book direct. I have three children which meant i never conformed to what the industry considered a normal family. From the time my youngest was 2 we always had to book two rooms and we never ever got any guarantee that the rooms would be together. On one occasion the children were put in a bedroom in a different hotel and just four years ago they were given a room three floors above us with a waist height balcony rail with a sheer drop onto a concrete walkway below.

Whenever we complained we were told that no one else ever complained and that 'everyone' else was happy with this type of arrangement.

Each year we try the travel agents, explain our problem and get told that most families split the adults up, so that one adult stays with one child in the double room and the second adult shares the triple room with the other two children. Hmm, all I can think of is that other parents don't actually like being together

We now book direct, that way we can actually talk to hotels and make private arrangements that form part of our contract.

This weekend for instance we are going to Cyprus, we have booked a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom villa with a private pool, car hire, scheduled flights and all incidentals for the same price we were quoted for two rooms allocated on arrival in a hotel complex.

It takes longer to book things yourself, but it is well worth it. We even the advantage of a proper scheduled flight and I have just spoken to the villa owner who has arranged for some shopping to be done for me Saturday before we arrive!

I know I have gone off on a tangent here so I will say that in all the years I have had children we never found it any advantage to take account of the free childrens place. The only time it ever worked for us was when number 3 child was a baby and we all got squashed into a double room, 1 double bed, one single, one put up and baby shared the bed with us as the only room left for the cot was on the balcony!

Soo

Backbiter

The 3 children family is definitely not the size of family to go for. In addition to the obvious costs of clothes, food, pocket money, the travel industry does next to nothing to accommodate you.
Here's a quote for next summer's holiday: family of 4 (2 + 2) £3600. Family of 5 (2 + 3) £5200 for the same holiday.
Family of four pays £800 pp, family of 5 pays £1050 pp. The 3rd child adds £1600 to the cost of the holiday, or MORE THAN ONE AND A HALF TIMES THE COST OF AN ADULT.

Here's a quote for a hotel deal I've just had: Family of 4 pays £80 for one night B&B (£20pp). Family of 5 pays £160 B&B IN THE SAME HOTEL (£32pp - over 50% more). The third child cost FOUR times as much as an adult.

I've been paying through the nose for my 3rd child for the past five years. The best solution is to holiday in the US where most hotels will add a rollaway for $10. This remains an alien concept this side of the Atlantic.You can look for hotels in Europe with rooms for 5 but you won't find many.

Hasn't the travel industry cottoned on to this absurd state of affairs yet?

MarkyMarkD

Aren't you just saying that you need 2 rooms for 5, compared to 1 for 4? But in a way which makes it sounds like you are getting ripped off even though you are not?

Of course hotel rooms aren't normally big enough for 5 - why should couples or singles pay extra so that rooms are all super-sized just for the unusual people who want to squeeze themselves and 3 kids into one room?

MarkyMarkD

In my opinion, this amounts to misleading advertising and is a subject that should be investigated by the advertising standards agancy.

It's Advertising Standards Authority. https://www.asa.org.uk. It's easy to complain - I've done so dozens of times, including re holiday company advertising. You can submit your complaint online, but if it relates to a print advertisement then it's better done by post. I agree with you that some of the "free child places" stuff is very misleading, but I think they would always claim that the child's place IS free compared to the same number of adults travelling to the same accommodation without the child - as the under-occupancy supplements would apply then as well.

SaraSeahorse

"Of course hotel rooms aren't normally big enough for 5 - why should couples or singles pay extra so that rooms are all super-sized just for the unusual people who want to squeeze themselves and 3 kids into one room? "


I understand what you are saying but I do not think that a three -child family is that unusual and if we go away we want to stay in one room as my children are 6years old and under

we ended up buying a tent after our third child was born


I also agree though that single parents should not be paying extra

Backbiter

Of course hotel rooms aren't normally big enough for 5 - why should couples or singles pay extra so that rooms are all super-sized just for the unusual people who want to squeeze themselves and 3 kids into one room?

Did I say ALL rooms should be super-sized? Did I say couples or singles should pay more?
Hotels and travel companies should cater for their customers' needs and provide at least a few rooms for families of 5 that are 'unusual' enough to wish share one room and thereby save 000s. Last summer we went on a cruise we could never normally have afforded because the Cruiseline - Carnival - provided a rollaway bed in a cabin. I believe they are the only company that do this. So guess which company we have booked with for next year. Their policy of catering for families with 3 kids pays off.
And no, they do not charge singles and couples extra so that families of five can afford their cruises.

MarkyMarkD

Hotels are basically designed for two people in a room - a couple. Anything else is non-standard. If they build a hotel with some larger rooms, they will have room for less standard rooms. The cost per room is higher.

Either they fill the larger rooms with larger families who want to all share - and charge them a proportionate amount, which I think is what you want - or they can't fill them and have to use them for couples/singles who will necessarily end up paying more (slightly) to cover the reduced number of rooms.

Similarly there are probably not adjoining rooms in a standard hotel because they simply aren't designed that way.

IF you want to go away as a family, and have family-type accommodation, why aren't you renting an apartment rather than staying in a hotel? Surely that's more appropriate.

scotty

MarkyMarkD,

Thanks for the link. Will consider making a complaint.
My experience did not relate to free child places but to child reductions. £50 off the full adult price being more than offset by £100 underoccupancy charge cannot be justified in any way. It works out cheaper to pay full adult price!

travelchick

HI
Having read this I feel i have to say something to stick up for us poor travel agents of the world, WHY OW WHY you all insist apon potraying travelagents as the Puppet of money ripping tour operators?
Firstly when you come to us and pick a holiday we simply ask the tour operators computer the price as an experianced travel agent I always check the price with children then cost them as adults.
Anyone who books direct is not really saving any money just doing extra work.
NO i am not touting for your money i am self employed and mearly offering free advice.
I am a family of 2 adults and 4 kids and find that i cant afford to fit into the normal holiday package. insead of sitting here moaning about everything ask your travel agent for help, a travel agent works for the customer not the tour operator, avoid the big chains as they are owned by tour operators and like to sell in house go to smaller local travel agentsask them if they are an independant (can sell anyone)
i spend my time getting my cusomers flight with one person and hotels with someone else that way they never pay under occ sups you will save hundeds on your holiday and you wont have to spend the hours trawling through the net looking for a bargin.
Doing it this way i saved people ££££££ off their holidays.
If you want advice on where to do it for yourself feel free to email me and i will point you in a good direction.
Trav

soolin

I feel I do need to say something about costs..

I *do* save an awful lot of money booking direct and even if I didn't it would still be worth it to me as I can talk direct to hotels and get exactly what I want.

I agree though that it takes some extra time. My holiday last week for example took several attempts to book. I first tried a travel agent again who after an hour and a bit tried to push me into something I really didn't think was quite what I wanted on the basis that was all he could get. The package at the travel agent for a small villa (one child sleeping on the put up bed in the lounge) flights and an upgrade to a 5 seater car was about £2800.

Doing it online meant I had to find my own flight which wasn't easy as I was looking for weekend flights. I eventually found great flights at Opodo and had real trouble with them as their site kept going down and wouldn't go through to the final page. After trying three or four times I phoned them and they were so unhelpful that I decided to contact Cyprus air themselves and ask where else I could buy the flights..only to find they would sell to me direct. Having found cyprus air it took me less than tem ninutes to book and pay.

The real time consuming bit was chosing the villa. I found hundreds and hundreds, small ones, big ones, beach front ones, ones in tourist resorts and remote ones. It literally took me hours to sit down with the children and choose the excact one we wanted.

Online I paid £1600 for the scheduled flights (much nicer than charter). £500 for a very large villa with a private pool and even a spare bed in a room, and £190 for a large car.

I'm sorry for travel agents that need to make a living, but I don't book direct to save money I book direct so that I get what I want.

Soo