How many have kids who experienced challenges with checking in to a hotel room, but the minimum age was 21 (and every kid who would be in the room was underage)?
She has successfully rented one room where it wasn’t even addressed, and one where the desk agent said “You’re supposed to be 21, but you kids don’t look like you’ll be any trouble”.
She has some upcoming summer stock auditions where she will need to stay in hotels with other underage students and I’m concerned. (I’ve already looked at some of the decent hotels and they all say you have to be 21).
Goodness, I didn’t know about the age limit. My kid might be doing the same thing. I was going to book and add her to the room. I thought over 18 was good enough. SHEESH!
Hotels have different policies. My D was out in CA over break - and needed a hotel (she is 19, as is the person she was traveling with) We had to check around a bit- but found a place where 18 was ok.
Hilton hotels are minimum age 18. D and a friend had no issues when they checked-in to a Hampton Inn for OTA’s. Included are Hilton, Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites, Doubletree and others.
Be sure to know the policy ahead of time and have “flexibility” in means of payment. Non-MT S went to check into a hotel when he was 18. They took his debit/credit card, “held” the funds, then told him he could not check in there. When he went to a second hotel that allowed under-21, he had no money in his account as the entire “deposit” was being held by the first hotel. The funds were not released back to him for a week and he had no money for food during his visit. A “natural consequences” learning experience - rather than “listening to what old people say”.
I work for Hilton and our hotel and the others in our area all have 21 and over . Hilton leaves it up to the individual hotels. Most Hampton Inns do 18 though…
Wow, these hotels would rather leave teens with nowhere to stay and sleeping in their cars than accept prepaid bookings on behalf of 18 year olds. That is just so wrong. Call ahead, people - and give your money to hotels that give a damn about the safety of your teens.
Definitely call ahead. We have done it before when someone calls or sends us an authorization form. Usually it is the hotels that have alcohol sales available, honor bars in the rooms (where an 18 year old can help themselves), room service with alcohol , etc. On a personal note, we would never leave a teenager or young adult stranded. That first hotel should have bent over backward to get that student his money back immediately (it can be done with one call to the bank from the hotel) so that he could have money for somewhere else. Most of us in the industry are in it because we enjoyed serving the guest.
We’ve called hotels ahead so D could get a room with her friend while traveling. Never had any problems.
Most hotels won’t rent to underage because kids sometimes pile a ton of kids into one room and have parties. Some won’t rent a room to people who live within 50 miles of the property around graduation.
I had this issue when my son was around 19 at the Seattle Airport, needing to overnight between flights. It never occurred to me – until he called in the middle of the night “with a problem”… Wound up calling a whole bunch of airport hotels until finally one took him - pretty scary situation and lesson learned. More recently, my 17-year-old daughter wanted to overnight on her own the night before an audition before heading to her brother’s dorm room to hang out there overnight post audition Same issue until I tried a bed and breakfast near a college - they were used to the situation, had a permission form tailored to it and it all went smoothly. So maybe look out for a b&b which often has more flexibility.