Tips for Taking a Young Child to a Hotel for the First Time

Are you planning a holiday this summer? Holidays can be the highlight of the year for the whole family, and if you have a young child who has never been on one before, they can be an incredible time full of new experiences. Perhaps it will be their first time in another country where they will hear people speaking a different language all around them, their first time on a plane and at the airport, or even their first time swimming in the sea!

 

 

Of course, with all those firsts, you can expect there to be times when your child won’t really know what they are supposed to do or how they are supposed to behave, and they may feel overwhelmed, or act out a little. You can do quite a lot to minimise their feelings of unfamiliarity and make them feel more secure by talking to them in advance about what to expect and answering all of their questions. If you tackle one element of the holiday at a time and make it something you talk about a lot in the weeks leading up to it, they will become more comfortable with the concepts, and learn the important things you want them to know to get the most out of the holiday.

Hotels may well be one of the things that will be new to your child, whether you are just staying at one at your destination resort, or whether you are staying at one before you depart in the UK, like one of the Birmingham Airport hotels with parking available at birminghamparking.com. Sleeping in a hotel can be a fairly odd thing if you really think about it, and teaching your child about what it will be like and what they can and can’t do will make it easier for them to settle down and sleep in an unfamiliar place, and to get used to the place that will be their home for one or two weeks!

Research Your Hotel and Tell Them as Much as You Can About What it Will be Like

Thanks to the internet, it is easy to find out a lot about your hotel, and see lots of pictures, so unlike in the old days of just having a couple of images in a brochure to go on, you’ll be able to find out a lot of information, and show your child things like the swimming pool, and what the bedrooms and bathrooms are like. They may have questions you can’t answer, such as whether they will have specific foods and drinks, but in general you should be able to describe to them a lot of the things they can look forward to during your stay. Getting them excited about the right things is important. If they are looking forward to the hotel’s pool or kids’ club, this will get them in the right mood for the holiday, whereas if they are focusing on things that they might be anxious about, like eating unknown food or sleeping in a strange bed, they may not understand the point of the holiday!

Talk About What Good Behaviour Means at a Hotel

A hotel is a new environment for a child, and they may not understand the boundaries. You should talk to them about when it is and isn’t appropriate to talk to other guests – both for their safety and to prevent them from bothering people if they tend to be the outgoing types! You can tell them it is good to talk to other kids in the pool and make friends, but that when people are sunbathing or eating in the restaurant they are busy. The room is another thing to talk about, for instance not to damage things, because unlike at home all of the stuff is borrowed, rather than yours.

Talk About How They Will Deal with Any Problems

When you are at a hotel for a week or two, you should find your child soon becomes confident about being there and will be able to enjoy their time there without worries. However, it is a good idea to talk through how they will cope with different common problems, to let them come up with their own plans and make them aware that if something goes wrong it isn’t the end of the world. ‘What will you do if it is noisy when you want to go to sleep?’, ‘what will you do if they don’t have your favourite breakfast cereal?’ and so on. You can suggest options for them to show them that there are lots of ways to deal with minor problems. You should also talk to them about what they should do if they have a more serious issue, like they get lost at the hotel.

As you can see, it is all about preparing them for the trip, and making sure they understand as much as possible about what will be expected of them, and what they can expect, always keeping it positive rather than scary!

 

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