Hotels Are Learning How To Cater To Kids - And Parents

Years after it happened, a friend of mine still vows she'll never return to a resort hotel that treated her child like a second-class citizen.

She and her husband had booked a pricey room at the resort and reserved a crib for their baby. The crib turned out to be a huge, rickety old playpen that filled much of the room's floor space. Only queen-size sheets and blankets were provided, so big that they practically buried the baby.

When they complained and asked for a real crib and smaller bedding, the hotel management shrugged - and said that's all they had.

What a dumb way to treat customers. Smarter hotel managers realize that the way to snare the baby-boomer generation's considerable business - and turn them into repeat visitors - is by treating them and their kids right.

Holiday Inn is one hotel chain that's in serious pursuit of the family travel market. So serious that it's rebuilt some of its hotel rooms and turned them into "Kidsuites." This mini-suite, being test-marketed at two Holiday Inns in Florida, may be the wave of the future in family-oriented hotels.

The Kidsuite contains a playhouse/bedroom for kids, a room with a queen bed for adults, a small kitchenette and bathroom.

It's a big improvement on the standard hotel/motel room, with its two double beds and no way for parents and kids to escape each other. In a Kidsuite, the kids can shut the door to their little room: they get privacy while their parents get some peace and quiet.

Everything in the Kidsuite is compact - the total space is about 400 square feet - since it's a conversion of what was once an oversize hotel room.

Still, the children's bedroom has a bunk bed and a single bed, meaning that children can sleep in separate beds instead of sharing a double bed (and giggling and tickling each other all night). The walls are cheerfully decorated in an Old West, Noah's Ark, circus or space-age theme. And the room is electronically loaded with its own TV, VCR, video game player and radio/cassette deck. Some of the Kidsuites are being designed for toddlers, with cribs available.

The kitchenette in the Kidsuite is very small - just a mini fridge, a couple of cupboards and a microwave - but it's big enough for a family to make snacks, breakfast and sandwiches. And it's a big improvement on the mini-bar and coffee-maker that are all that many hotels provide.

A Kidsuite costs about $35 more than a conventional room (about $115 to $135, depending on the time of year, verus about $80 to $100 for a standard room). Right now there's only a handful of suites available at the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort at Lake Buena Vista and Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in Kissimmee, both near Florida's Walt Disney World. But at Lake Buena Vista they're busily building more of the family-friendly suites: 30 should be available at the hotel by next month.

Holiday Inn says the Kidsuites are proving very popular; they're already booked solid during some periods this spring. And they'll show up at other Holiday Inns around the country.

"Eventually you will see Kidsuites in all of our family-destination hotels," said John Sweetwood, chief marketing officer for Holiday Inn.

Kidsuites will be built at Holiday Inns elsewhere in Florida later this year, and likely will be added to southern California hotels near Disneyland and Universal Studios. (So far there's no plan to build any at Holiday Inns in the Seattle area.)

Kids programs at hotels

Not many hotels have gone as far as Holiday Inn - rebuilding rooms - to attract families. But many major U.S. hotel chains now offer children's programs.

The activities range from little gift bags of crayons and small toys to supervised pool/beach play and day-long sports camps and outings for older children, usually up to age 12. The most elaborate programs are at destination resorts where families stay for several nights or more, especially in Hawaii, California and Florida.

For pre-teens who aren't old enough to spend the day on their own - but want to get away from their parents - the hotel program could be the answer.

Hilton, Hyatt, Westin, Four Seasons and Omni hotels are among those offering kids' programs, especially at their destination resorts.

Prices range from complimentary (for baseball caps, crayons and coloring books through the Westin Hotels' Kids Club, which also provides cribs, potty seats and high chairs as needed in rooms) to $45 a for a daylong program of nature walks, hula lessons, snorkeling and arts and crafts at Camp Hyatt at the Hyatt Regency hotel on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

The Stouffer Renaissance Wailea Beach Resort on Maui offers a similar program, Camp Wailea, which includes rain-forest walks and a whale-watching class for kids 5 to 12 (cost is $35 a day).

How do you find a good kids' activity program at a hotel? A word-of-mouth recommendation from someone whose kids have used it is best. Barring that, phone the hotel directly and ask some questions:

-- What's the age grouping? Ideally, you don't want 12-year-olds lumped in with 3- or 4-year-olds.

-- What activities are available and what's a typical daily schedule?

-- What's the staff-to-child ratio? Who are the counselors and what's their background?

-- Are advance reservations necessary? Or can your child be signed up day by day as she or he wants? Kristin Jackson's "Kidding Around" is published on the first Sunday of each month. Comments are welcome. Please write Kristin Jackson, Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. E-mail: kjac-new@seatimes.com.