Family Travel for six.

It's Summer Vacation Planning Time!!!

Most of my friends seem to either have 2 children or 4. Oddly enough it seems like there is a current trend in families now with 6 or more people instead of the old average of 4. Most of the hotel industry still has rooms that will "service" a family of 4 and I will try to find rooms for our vacations only to get "You exceed the room capacity by 1(or 2) persons". Sometimes it will even say I need two rooms. The challenge I've found is that I rarely see "ajoining rooms" anymore. I used to work in the hotel industry and at least one of them had many options for adjoining rooms.

Some of my friends and relatives say "Don't tell them how many kids you have and just get a standard room." I understand their point of view...especially since my oldest is 8 and in prior years the kids were all quite small and didn't require as much space as an adult. However, my conscience said that it went against integrity to omit the full truth of who is staying in the room to save a few dollars. I know that I can't force others to feel the same way as me so it has been hard to express my feelings and not sound like I am judging those who choose to do the suggested option. I would many times though call the hotel manager and find out what my options were and mention that my children were very small and see if it would be allowed. This would sometimes be ok at some places and not at others, but I felt better getting permission first...especially since many times the fine print says they reserve the right to kick you out of your room and keep payment if you break the rules etc.

So...in my searching online this year to find a hotel/vacation destination I stumbled upon a VERY helpful tool and realized that I am NOT alone in my feelings of hotels needing to help families that have more than two kids and not require them to buy a suite MUCH larger than needed or two rooms.

SixSuitcaseTravel.com has lists for every state and a handful of hotels that they have checked that will service a family of 6 at a reasonable rate (as well as many that will hold a family of 8). I felt that I had to pass this on because I used to search Hotel sites every summer for hours on end that said they had rooms for our size...but then got the standard that we exceeded the room capacity etc. and would either have to keep looking or start calling hotels individually.

One other thing I did was contact two people that worked for the Hilton companies (they seem to own or manage MANY different chains) and the lady that responded mentioned that she works for the Homewood Suites division and they have two bedroom suites for a reasonable price that would accomodate our family. I was impressed because they also have discounts if you stay for 5 nights or more and it was around $129.oo/night for a two bedroom king bed suite with two bathrooms, kitchen, and living room. I've paid more than that on a weekend for a standard king room with mini-fridge in La Crosse, WI.

Have a Great Summer Vacation and feel free to comment any of your travel finds, deals, or information!!

~Samantha~