Son is driving south to his college this coming weekend and wants to visit a friend in the Monmouth University (NJ) area. I am having difficulty finding a hotel that will let him check in because he is two months shy of his 21st birthday. We encountered the same problem when he drove home in May. Any advice other than to call every hotel in the area? Are there any chains that allow younger guests? From our experience hotels owned by franchisees are more flexible that those owned by the hotel company itself. This makes me wish he had bought a fake ID.
Consider an Airbnb, bed and breakfast place or hostel.
Holiday Inn chain.
Holiday Inn said no. So did Red Roof Inn and Extended Stay America. No airbnbs available.
Have you offered the hotel a substantial security deposit? Their website says they will rent to 18 year olds if they provide such a deposit.
I recently booked a Hilton for W with my name as the primary (I paid partially in points) and W as an additional guest. Hilton said it was fine if I wasn’t there as long as W’s name was on the reservation. You might call up some of the hotels you’re considering and see if they have a similar policy and if it applies when the person actually checking in is <21.
We had good results by just calling the hotel directly. E-mail doesn’t cut it.
I have been calling directly. One hotel said they would check with the manager and see if he would make an exception but I don’t expect a call back. I wish there was a guide available to hotels that allow under 21s to check in, or that hotels would at least put their policy on their website.
Motel 6 is 18 and over per their policy, but… it is Motel 6.
Are you a priority member with any chain? I have been doing reservations on my account with my credit card for the kids. With Marrriott I do the early mobile checkin and they just pick up the keys. They never ask about anything else.
I booked at Hampton Inn for my son when he couldn’t have been over 20. It never even dawned on me that they wouldn’t allow him to stay. I called the hotel directly, told them I needed a room for my son and prepaid with my credit card. Maybe we were just lucky.
You could book the room in your name. With digital keys at some places, there would be no need even to check in or show id.
Spouse is a gold level member at one of the hotel chains that has repeatedly refused to allow son to check in. Current plan is to book room in spouse’s name and call hotel and say room is for son. Will do online checkin but son will still need to show ID to verify identity and get key. Hopefully they won’t look too closely at dates. Can’t wait until he is 21. Fortunately younger son will just have a six hour car ride to college so no hotels involved!
I can’t recall having this issue when our kids were under 21 or when I was under 21. Please let is know how it gets resolved.
For our children, we booked rooms via our frequent flyer hotel links or would directly call the hotel.
(We didn’t make reservations at the economical hotels, because we we’re always concerned about location and safety, so we paid a little more money to put them in larger hotels-Marriott in Seattle, Hilton in Denver, Embassy Suites-LA.) This was done within the past year.
Our children have their own AAA cards and we would input that info in the reservation and had them prepay with their own credit cards.
(I think our eldest used the priceline hotels to book her reservation.)
My son when on a roller coaster trip the summer after he graduated high school with a couple of friends. The mother of one of the other kids called the hotels they stayed at in advance and reserved rooms for them. She had to give them a credit card to pay for the rooms and serve as a deposit. They didn’t have any issues checking in or staying at the hotels.
Some of this may have to do with the time of the year and school schedules. We ran into one situation where they would not allow any reservations made within the surrounding area because kids would use the rooms for graduation parties.
I think gouf78 nailed it. Men over 18 check into hotels every day. Some are on military orders, some may be participating in or watching a sports event nearby and some may be working. My employer’s computer techs are often under 21 and travel nationwide without issues. There is likely a nearby high school event and the hotels believe you are part of that group, particularly if a parent is making the calls. If he arrives alone and is dressed like an adult it should ease a lot of concerns.
My D and I are Hilton Honors members. All of the hotels in the Hilton family (Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, etc.) have individual websites with a “hotel polices” section that specify the minimum age to register at each hotel. There are a considerable number from our experience that allow 18 year olds to register.
For those that require a 21 year old to register, I book them for our D using my Hilton Honors points with me as the primary guest and my D as an additional guest on the online reservation. She has never had a problem checking in by herself, even if I never actually show up for the stays.
I had a problem checking into a room booked with Mr. B’s Westin points. Nevermind that we are married, live at the same place, and have a joint credit card account, they would not let me get a key until Mr. showed up.