How Many Baby Cribs Should A Hotel Have?

With two kids who will be turning 4 and 2 next month all of our hotel stays over the last four years have provided us with cribs (or cots as us Brits call them).
Sometimes when you book, the hotel asks for the children's ages so when you say under two, they assume you need a crib. Sometime on arrival they are there, sometimes you ask and they come later.

Luckily there has never been an instance where we have not been provided one. My question would be, where would the infant sleep if the hotel did not provide any?! If its two adults and one baby they have to sleep in the bed with you? Or if you have two kids and one is on the sofa bed, where does the younger one go?!

Love the Chuck-E-Cheese line!

I used to work at a Hilton Garden Inn that had 125 rooms. We had five cribs. It was sufficient given the business type atmosphere. We also had two play pens.

Once we ran out of cots (we had eight) based on what guests had entered into the system - we needed twelve - it was a sports team that was trying to cram four people in every room. But we knew in advance (well, that morning... so we had a few hours to get it figured out) and got a truck to bring some in from another hotel just for that weekend. That was really weird, but it showed that we knew what we were doing... and that was providing a superior guest satisfaction!

So the manager's logic is that it would violate state law to use the brand-standard crib so they don't have that crib. Fine, makes perfect sense.

But failing to offer cribs at all sounds like the kind of thing that would also be against brand standard. So surely if you're going to violate the standard one way or another, offering a legal crib is the obvious choice. Anyway every hotel probably has a few nitpicky brand standard violations without real consequence.

You seriously wanted him in to break state law over a crib? Have you never heard of a pack-n-play? Seriously people!

Paul -- Appreciate you sharing your experience of how other chains and properties do it. And providing some numbers of what the ratios might look like, even at a business - type property. Thank you.

I find it very difficult to believe that the brand standard crib is illegal in Iowa for one. Secondly the guy was obviously aware of the problem and clearly had nothing to address it. He could have pushed back on Hyatt telling them he needs a brand approved legal crib. He could at least have trained his staff on what to do when a customer requests a crib. Instead he clearly decided the right answer in a customer service business was to do nothing, stick his head in the sand, and put on his best surely face when called out on the carpet over the issue.

It is likely that the General Manager was either 1) lying to you or was 2) misinformed. It is extremely unlikely that Iowa has a different crib standard than any other state in the US - especially as there is a federal standard for cribs in the US. If there is a federal standard, a state standard is pre-empted by the federal standard. It's possible that the Hyatt brand standard hadn't been updated when the federal standard was updated and was not legal anywhere in the US, of course, but I doubt that. You might want to reach out to Hyatt to find out what was going on.

Travis, maybe it would be an interesting idea to call his bluff: if what the manager says is true, all other Hyatts in Iowa either don't have cribs or have cribs that are against Hyatt policy. Maybe do some calling around to see what the crib situation is.

I can imagine complaining to corporate if a hotel didn't have ANY cribs. I cannot imagine any customer complaining to corporate about the TYPE of cribs. Seriously, how difficult would it have been for them to buy whatever cribs pass muster under the laws of Iowa? (PS I have a difficult time believing that a national chain would mandate a crib that isn't legal in all states)

They don't give a * because a crib does not bring extra money, understandably so

What about charging for a crib? I was once (almost) charged $35 p/n for crib at The Delano in Vegas. I couldn't believe it. The operator agreed to waive the fee. Phew!

I call it bull to have an overly burdensome state regulation in Iowa instead of California, New York, or Washington.

As the father of twin toddlers..... who despite calling ahead and reservation notes, always arrived at the hotel closer to midnight than 4 pm....having two "working" /(I.e not broken) cribs waiting for us to just setup and turn in was often the most stressful part of the trip. Front desk staff often seemed clueless of what to do when there was only one in the room, or when one of the two pack and plays was missing a leg/support, as who to ask for another set after the "regular" housekeeping staff has departed. The Aramark hotels in get national parks were the worst of all 🙁 0 for 3

Tip for those with kids. Do Airbnb. It's cheaper than. Hotels, and I have had 100% success rate with cribs/ pack-n-play. That's for about 35 Airbnbs in the last couple years.

I always look for family friendly tagged places and email in advance every time.

So, the issue is that the type of crib mandated by Corporate violates state law. Provision of a different design of crib will be a violation of the agreement with Corporate. How in heck is this the hotels fault? Fault lies with Corporate.
When I open my hotel, I will proudly offer no cribs. If people wish to knock out progeny, the progeny can share their parents beds. "NO CRIBS FOR YOU!"

If any of you believe the bull that general manager said...then I have a road to nowhere to sell you or perhaps you'd like the brooklyn bridge.

They screwed up and didn't want to admit a mistake...not rocket science.