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Where to stay with kids 3: Six Suitcase Travel
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Six Suitcase Travel helps families of five and six find hotel rooms that fit in every state.
I recently read an article in American Baby magazine which noted that only 10% of American women of my generation have more than 2 children, whereas in 1976 a full 20% of women had three children or more.
As a mom preparing to welcome my third child by the end of this month, this certainly caught my attention. Granted, a “family of five” still sounds big to me at this point, especially as I try to configure three car seats plus accessible seating for grandparents in the back of my minivan, but I had no idea we were going to be so statistically in the minority.
No wonder so few hotels across the U.S. accommodate more than four people per room or suite. Just having tried to search the web in the past to find accommodations for the 4 of us plus one grandma has proven challenging enough, and it has become clear to me that it’s easier to find lodgings on a road trip with your dog than with extra members of your human family.
Theresa Jorgensen, mother of four and founder of Six Suitcase Travel (www.sixsuitcasetravel.com), is all too familiar with the challenges of finding hotels to accommodate her own large family. As she points out, it’s much easier when children are small and can still share the bed, use portacribs and travel beds, or even “sleep three to a bed sideways.” Once the children are older, however, hotel and motel accommodations for families of five and six can be few and far between. Six Suitcase Travel, thankfully, will lead you straight to them.
So far, Six Suitcase Travel has mapped out more than 2,500 hotels in over 1,100 cities across the U.S. that can accommodate families of five and six in a single hotel room or suite, with a real bed for each family member, whether they’re going on sixteen or sixty-five.
As Linda (a.k.a. “minnemom”), traveling mom of four and blogger at Travels with Children explains, “If you’re a family with four children, and thus excluded from many standard rooms, you’ll want to take a look at this site. Based on the research I had done while looking for rooms, it’s very complete, and it includes some hotel chains that I wouldn’t have bothered checking after years of ‘sorry, but this room can only accommodate…’ messages.”
Perhaps just as helpful as their state-by-state listings of cities with big-family-friendly hotels are their quick lists below those that show you at a glance the “Great cities, no hotels for six.” Not only can these lists help you plot out your family’s next road trip itinerary at a glance and possibly a savings, but they can also serve as a helpful planning tool for any family choosing a good destination for a family reunion.
One final note on “Six Suitcase Savings”:
In using the site to test out lodgings in several possible locations, I was surprised to realize how much can be saved by using the “six suitcase approach,” rather than assuming up front that you’ll need a separate second room for extra adults (a.k.a. “Travels with Grandma”).
For example, when I checked accommodations in Klamath Falls, Oregon, a small city where we overnighted during a road trip last summer, I found that even on a peak June travel night we could book what they call an “Efficiency Suite” for 3 adults and 3 children, which is actually two combined hotel rooms offering a total of two bathrooms, for roughly 50% less than we would have paid to just book a second hotel room (which may not have been attached) to accommodate the third adult and/or a child.
I found a similar bargain at a resort in Waikoloa, Hawaii, and again at a resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Lesson learned: You can save money by going straight to these “six suitcase” hotels that will automatically categorize rooms for five or more people, versus using hotels and other booking sites that automatically break up your party into separate rooms at separate rates.
If you’ll be planning travel for your family of five, or six, or more, or might simply be looking for good places to vacation with grandparents, be sure to bookmark www.sixsuitcasetravel.com.
More articles in this series
For more info: To find more help for planning your family's best trip with babies, toddlers, and young children, check out the sections on "Anticipating Ages and Stages," "Deciding Where to Go," "Temperaments in Transit," and "Childproofing On the Go" in Travels with Baby. And for help planning family road trips, whether by car, minivan, rented motorhome, or campervan, don't miss Part 4 of the book, "Travels by Automobile."
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