Any suggestions for saving money on vacation lodging with a family of six?

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PaulGH

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When my wife and I first got married, we would stay in cheap motels when we went on vacation, so that we usually would pay in the range of $40 to $70 per night. Now that we have four kids, we are finding that lodging is much more expensive, because we need either two rooms, or a suite with either three beds or two beds plus a sofa bed. This makes vacations quite a bit more expensive. Does anyone have any tips on saving money on motels or other lodging options when vacationing with four kids?

We did consider renting a camper trailer, but the prices I found were at least $80 to $100 per day. So when you include the camp site fee and extra gas for hauling it around, this is probably not much cheaper than getting a motel suite. We also considered a bit more hard-core camping option (i.e., sleeping in a tent), but I’m not sure that we really want to do that.

One tip that I would pass on to other families is the web site sixsuitcasetravel.com/, which is very useful for finding larger hotel rooms for larger families. However, these rooms are not cheap!
 
Well, the other options I can think of are condos, apartments, and home rentals in the vacation destination. It could work out cheaply, depending on the rental. It might work out to be less expensive on a per person basis, but I don’t know if it will be as cheap as you are looking for. Nothing much is $40-70 anymore even for one room.
 
I just want to throw out there, if you do a lot of research and preparation, tent camping CAN be just as luxurious as staying at a hotel. My mother has a ridiculous science of the whole thing. It takes about 2 hours to set up when we would get to the campsite, but then she has an entire kitchen in this plastic drawers thing, a double-layer aerobed in her tent, with sheets and blankets, and lots more stuff that made other campers look at us funny, but made us much more comfortable.

Do all this at a campground close to a town that happens to be equipped with restrooms, and you won’t even realize you are camping.
 
FrenzyJen said:
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Do all this at a campground close to a town that happens to be equipped with restrooms, and you won’t even realize you are camping.
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Oh yes you will. 'Specially if you have to walk to the restrooms at 0300 in the middle of a rainstorm.
 
FrenzyJen said:
I just want to throw out there, if you do a lot of research and preparation, tent camping CAN be just as luxurious as staying at a hotel. My mother has a ridiculous science of the whole thing. It takes about 2 hours to set up when we would get to the campsite, but then she has an entire kitchen in this plastic drawers thing, a double-layer aerobed in her tent, with sheets and blankets, and lots more stuff that made other campers look at us funny, but made us much more comfortable.

Do all this at a campground close to a town that happens to be equipped with restrooms, and you won’t even realize you are camping.
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And by the time you buy all that camping gear to make it seem like UNcamping, you could have gotten a room for the $.

🙂
 
When we were raising our children in northern Ontario, we camped with them several times a year. At least yearly we went to large parks which had “interior style” camping. We took our canoes, the kids in kayaks, and paddled lakes and rivers. We knew of an upcoming single use campsite as we could view the triangular sign from the water. These campsites would have a pathway, leading into the woods, where there was a wooden box. Lift the lid and it was a toilet. The pine scent was wonderful as the views from here. There was only us and the animals. As long as we maintained proper camp regulations (tie food in trees, no smell of food near the tents etc.) there was never a problem with unwanted visitors.
Most places would only allow you to stay one night, then move on to another site. This would be so that everyone didn’t take up all the camp sites close to civilization, leaving only the distant sites.
We packed and carried everything light, so all could be carried between lakes and rivers while portaging.
Water safety was a must. The kids LOVED this and looked forward to it. Yes, it was always troubling if someone let the toilet paper drop into the lake. :)).
To this day, my kids are now taking the grandchildren on these vacations.
Of course, I still like camping (in comfort) with an airbed, :D, but still in a tent. Love that feeling!!

And the cost for a night of camping interior in these parks? This years was: 6:00/night for the whole family!
 
1ke said:
Well, the other options I can think of are condos, apartments, and home rentals in the vacation destination. It could work out cheaply, depending on the rental. It might work out to be less expensive on a per person basis, but I don’t know if it will be as cheap as you are looking for. Nothing much is $40-70 anymore even for one room.
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I have to second this.

Renting a house is a smart idea for travelers with big families or a small budget. It’s cozy, you feel like you’re home and you can save money in other ways.

You can go shopping at a local grocery store and cook your own meals instead of going out to eat constantly or cooking hot dogs and hamburgers every night.

When my parents plan vacations…my mom almost always looks for houses to rent instead of hotels.
It’s usually much less expensive and the living arrangements are far more comfortable.
 
PaulGH said:
When my wife and I first got married, we would stay in cheap motels when we went on vacation, so that we usually would pay in the range of $40 to $70 per night. Now that we have four kids, we are finding that lodging is much more expensive, because we need either two rooms, or a suite with either three beds or two beds plus a sofa bed. This makes vacations quite a bit more expensive. Does anyone have any tips on saving money on motels or other lodging options when vacationing with four kids?

We did consider renting a camper trailer, but the prices I found were at least $80 to $100 per day. So when you include the camp site fee and extra gas for hauling it around, this is probably not much cheaper than getting a motel suite. We also considered a bit more hard-core camping option (i.e., sleeping in a tent), but I’m not sure that we really want to do that.

One tip that I would pass on to other families is the web site sixsuitcasetravel.com/, which is very useful for finding larger hotel rooms for larger families. However, these rooms are not cheap!
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You could try one of the discount travel websites, where you bid on the price of a room or get it 60% off. Also, you could try and book in the off season or during the week when the property has lots of empty rooms and management would be willing to deal on the price rather than let it go empty.
 
Cabins at State Parks used to be a good deal for us, should work great for your size family.

I can enthusiastically second vacation cabin rentals–especially if you are going into town midweek. The owners may cut you a break just to get it rented.
 
I make a habit of collecting credit card points by getting the co-branded credit cards for the hotels I like. I sign up for the bonus offers, spend the minimum, and then cancel before I have to pay any annual fee. I follow the same basic procedure for free flights too. If you have a credit score above 760 and aren’t the type to go into debt it is something you should consider.

To give you an example. I signed up for a Marriott card which came with a free night + 60k points. I used the free night + points + 5th night free promo and got a week in Fort Collins, Co for nothing.

Another one I do is, I put all of my business expenses on an SPG amex card and then use the points+cash option to get two hotel rooms. I’m saving points now to use towards a trip at either Disney Swan or Dolphin.

Beginner’s guide if you’re interested.

If there is no hotel nearby then I rent a house or a condo from someone.
 
You might also look into renting a yurt, which go for less because they are more rustic than a hotel but are also far more substantial than a tent.

My parents always thought the main thing on finding vacation accommodations was to find somewhere that they could cook meals for us. When you choose a place, factor in the chance to prepare most of your meals yourself, which saves tons of money.
 
Try the web site www.vrbo.com. It stands for Vacation Rental By Owner. We stayed at a fully furnished two bedroom high rise apartment across from Waikiki Beach for $1,000 for a week last year. Site includes pictures and reviews. We were very pleased with our accommodations.

DGB
 
At Holiday Inns, kids under 18 stay free if they’re in the same room (cots provided). Also, kids under 13 eat free.

I know that there are other hotels who offer discounts for families.

I suppose you’re paying for the rooms, not the kids, and if the rooms are horrifically expensive, then maybe it’s not such a great deal.

But kids eating free is a good deal!

Frankly, I wouldn’t consider it a vacation if I had to cook our meals. To me, a vacation means freedom from planning, shopping, cooking, serving, and cleaning up after meals.

Have you ever considered calling up old friends and asking straight out if you can stay with them as you drive through their city or town? (Facebook might help.) What’s the worst thing they can say? No, and if they say that, well, that’s the way it goes. Keep trying.

This is the way we all used to travel–we stayed with people. I can remember sleeping on the floor in living rooms while our parents chatted. We never stayed in hotels. And often, the people weren’t even relatives. They were just friends that my parents knew.

To this day, I absolutely LOVE having overnight guests! Our house doesn’t have fancy “guest suites” with private bathrooms, but we do have enough beds and sofas and cots to put up a fairly-large family. And I don’t mind providing several meals for my guests.

Just a thought.

I absolutely agree about investigating the pricelines and other online sites to find cheap hotel rates. My daughter did this to find our hotel room in New York City, and we found a wonderful price!
 
PaulGH said:
… Does anyone have any tips on saving money on motels or other lodging options when vacationing with four kids?..
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Some ideas:
Travel off-peak times,
Keep your eye out for last minute bargains–time share owners sometimes will sell their weeks cheap if they haven’t been able to rent them, (but be careful of financial transactions with strangers),
Stay with relatives,
Consider a “house swap” with a family who can use your home while you use theirs (again, be careful with strangers; I’d suggest that you know the other family),
Family camps through boy scouts or other organizations- they often have rustic structures with kitchens and such, and you bring linens or sleeping bags. Nicer and more water proof than a tent.
Tent camping. If it’s a long vacation and you’re traveling, try offsetting some of the camping with a night in a motel.
Take shorter trips–it reduces the number of nights.
Vacation within a short distance of your home–and save big money on hotels by sleeping at home.
 
I second the suggestion to check into cabins in state parks - you may still have to walk to the restroom, but otherwise you don’t have to worry about the weather. Just know what is/isn’t there - lots of different degrees of “rustic” out there.

Another thing we have done is rented a camper already AT the campground. It was the same price as one hotel room - but it slept all 7 of us, had wi-fi, microwave, fridge, a/c, etc. so we saved $ by not having to get the 2nd hotel room or eating out.

Not sure how many campgrounds do this but if it’s available it works out nice.
 
A time share might be the way to go. If you do your research, you can pick one up for next to nothing. It’s really not the where the timeshare is that matters. Owning one allows you access to timeshare exchanges and the ability to pick up some fairly cheap units. We go away at least once a year by picking up a “last-minute deal” in the off-season. The cost is approximately $320 for a full seven days ($45+ a day). That’s for a two-story condo unit, complete with a fully stocked kitchen so you can eat in. The last one we stayed at had two bedrooms, complete with two queen sizes beds in each room, plus a pull-out sofa in the living room (i.e., sleeps 10). Many of the units also have a recreation center, complete with indoor and outdoor pools, gym, etc.
 
KOA Kamping Kabins. Usually close to restrooms, many offer a free breakfast on weekends. You do have to bring your own linens and towels and cooking stuff, but no tent. My husband and I usually pick these if the trip will involve us being out and about most of the time and basically only sleeping in the kabin. Some can accommodate up to six people. KOA also offers free nights at certain times of the year (stay one night, get the next free… Father’s Day weekend, for instance.)
 
DoGodsBidding said:
Try the web site www.vrbo.com. It stands for Vacation Rental By Owner. We stayed at a fully furnished two bedroom high rise apartment across from Waikiki Beach for $1,000 for a week last year. Site includes pictures and reviews. We were very pleased with our accommodations.

DGB
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We happen to have a condo that we list on VRBO, and also generally rent homes or condos when we travel - have for decades. Our place was fully rented all summer to very nice, responsible families who were thrilled to find a spacious place where they could cook for themselves for about $99/night.

VRBO is just one of many sites: Homeaway (they own VRBO) and Flipkey (connected with Trip Advisor, I believe) are others. We plan to use one of the sites when we take a family trip next June. You cannot beat home/condo rentals when trying to accommodate a large family.
 
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