11 Lifesaving Tips For Staying In A Hotel With A Toddler

Staying In Hotel With Toddler: Survival Tips

1. Book a suite with space for your  family

Toddlers can be sensitive sleepers – and they always want to know what’s going on!  They also tend to go to bed earlier than mom and dad. You need somewhere to put them to sleep where they won’t be distracted.  

Having a separate sleeping space when staying in a hotel with a toddler will really make a difference to the overall quality of your trip. The same is true for babies, as you’ll see in our post about maximizing baby sleep when traveling.

In our opinion, the baby and toddler years are really the time to prioritize booking spacious hotel rooms. Ideally, that would mean a separate bedroom for your toddler.  (But don’t worry, more tips below if that’s not in the budget!)

A word of warning, though: It’s not just size that matters. A honeymoon suite won’t do if the bedroom is huge but there’s nowhere for the kids to sleep.  Find hotels with family suites, ideally with multiple bedrooms

2. Think creatively about sleeping spaces

If your desired hotel doesn’t have a family suite with a bedroom for your toddler – or if a suite isn’t in your budget – be creative when thinking about sleeping spaces.  

One-bedroom suites with a separate living room have always worked well for us when traveling with a toddler, and even with two kids. The living room doubles as the kids’ bedroom.  

Some nights, we put the kids to sleep in the living room, and retire to the bedroom immediately – exhausted after a day of fun.  Other nights, we put the kids to bed in the bedroom, hang out in the living room until we’re ready for bed ourselves, and then move them to the living room when we’re ready for sleep.  

If you do it right, kids almost never wake up during that transition.  Our tips?  Get the living room fully dark and prepared for bedtime. Do a quick move, with the lights mostly off.  Then shut the door before turning on the bedroom lights for yourself. If your toddler does wake up, they will go right back to sleep.   

We were delighted recently, for example, to find The Dunmore Hotel in the Bahamas, which has junior suites with little alcoves with daybeds for relaxing. Those daybed nooks could provide a great separate space for a travel crib or inflatable toddler mattress.

Same goes with S Hotel Jamaica. This property has amazing, luxury bathrooms – which frankly, are as big as my son’s nursery at home.  But at night, a blackout shade can be pulled down to divide the bathroom from the bedroom, and to darken it fully. It made a great bedroom for our toddler, with plenty of space for his travel crib.