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Hi all,
Interested in any experience / recommendations for hotels available on redemption for a family of 5.
Are there any specific properties people would recommend? Or any specific loyalty programmes that tend to be better for a family of 5? The hilton interconnecting rooms sounds interesting for example.
As a conversation starter – the missus and I recently went to the St Regis Maldives for 5 nights and left the kids with the grand parents. Would massively recommend this as a top value redemption at 400,000 Marriot Bonvoy point for 5 nights.
If we wanted to go back and take the 3 kids – it’s possible but for a mere 2.76 million Bonvoy Points :-0.
We’re a family of 5 and I’ve really struggled to find good redemption options as typically anything beyond the standard room is either not available for points or sold at an outrageous premium.
Even with Hilton it’s not impossible but on many occasions you will have a challenge in finding a second room on points that sleeps three. (I was able to see that configuration at the DoubleTree Angel/Kings Cross, two rooms for 120k a night, but that feels expensive).
Speaking from experience, I really don’t think focusing on a chain is helpful here. We’re now at the point where the kids don’t need an interconnecting room and can even be split up further, but sites like Booking.com and Trivago were a godsend as they will allow you to search for 5 people, with results prioritising the rooms/suites/connecting rooms.
We’re not a 5 but I do like Hilton guaranteed interconnecting a lot for family travel, as the kids are too old to sleep on rollaway sofas but too young to let loose at the other end of the hotel. It has worked flawlessly so far while about 50% of other chains and similar proportion of independents can treat interconnecting room bookings as a vague preference rather than a booked requirement.
With Hilton you can book for 1 person less than will actually be there, as that is a benefit for members.
So you can book a room that the system will only accept for 2 people, and have 3 people staying, provided that they are happy to share the bed(s). Also many hotels have an explicit policy for children to stay free if they share the parents’ bed – ages depend, some hotels even say it’s ok if the child is 17!
If there is physical space, most hotels will be happy to add a rollable bed for a charge. Only problem arises if you book a single room which only fits 1 person and you try to have 2 people there, but with status that problem can be solved with an upgrade, unless the hotel is actually full.
Obviously this massively depends on where you are staying, what you want to do. I find that Hilton can be useful if you type a country in, then choose 1 room for 5 people and it will pick up the hotels that sell connecting family rooms or villas etc. In Croatia, for example you would get the Costabella Rijeka and Canopy by Hilton Zagreb, both of which we stayed at this month (the former being a more classic family destination but no idea on points prices).
We also got connecting rooms at the Intercontinental Ljubljana which while not a redemption, was an absolute bargain through AMEX FHR (we effectively paid £100 cash for two rooms if you take into account the meal credit). Superb hotel and restaurant.
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