Don't accept anything less - persistence pays off (part 1)

This Blog post was initially going to be entitled 'Why I won't be booking with Thomas Cook again' (I know, snappy, right?). I'm glad to say I've had cause to amend it before I even started writing it, so perhaps instead this post can serve as a case study for similar situations. I should probably start by saying that, believe it or not, I'm not a complainer. If you pop across to Trip Advisor and look at my reviews (vix17 - very original!), you'll see that they're mostly very positive and, I believe, fair. I think to a large extent that life is what you make it, and a positive attitude goes a long way towards making that life a happy one. Is it really worth spoiling a holiday by concentrating on the small patch of damp in the corner of the bathroom? I think not. However, when you genuinely have something to complain about, particularly when that thing should have been avoidable, I think you are well within your rights to expect an apology, a refund or whatever else may fit that particular situation. I don't like it when I perceive things as being unfair - when you don't get what you have been promised, for example, or if people in the same situation are treated differently. These are the sorts of situations where I feel the urge to put pen to paper - and once I get started, I have trouble stopping. But it really is worth doing - I have found that a carefully-worded letter, a reasonable request and the refusal to accept anything less then what you are asking for usually gets the results you're after. Take Thomas Cook, for example...

Back in the olden days, before the internet and before I got travel-savvy, we always booked our holidays through tour operators. We continued to do this when the children were babies - the services of a rep felt reassuring somehow, and it was good to know we weren't on our own if something happened. Our favourite was always Thomas Cook, as they usually worked out cheaper; we were also very pleased with the way in which they handled the ash cloud crisis back in 2010. We were staying in Lanzarote at the time, and ended up stuck there for nearly a week longer. I say 'stuck', but it certainly didn't feel like that - we were able to stay on at our hotel on the same board (AI, thankfully) plus miss a week of work, so we actually enjoyed the whole experience. The rep worked tirelessly, keeping everyone at the hotel up-to-date and dealing professionally with the moaners - we really couldn't fault Thomas Cook at all. In fact, so pleased were we that I sent them a letter of thanks - after all, people are always quick to put pen to paper to complain, and I felt it was important to redress that balance. Over the years, however, as the children increased in age and we increased in confidence in our ability to look after ourselves, we realised just how much cheaper it is to book holidays independently. We booked flights and hotels separately and dispensed with the services of reps and tour operators. However, last year we found ourselves going back to Thomas Cook for a holiday to Tenerife.

I booked the holiday online some time ahead. After confirming the price and inputting my details, I was given two payment options: either pay a small deposit and the rest nearer the time, or pay the balance in full straightaway and receive a bonus £50 in local currency. Now, if you have enough money in your account, this is a no-brainer (as it would also be, to be fair, if you didn't have enough money in your account). Normally, I'd just pay the deposit and leave the rest in my account to gather a teeny bit of interest. However, it would have had to be a bloody amazing holiday to gather enough interest to beat the £50 offer, so I opted to pay in full. I added my card details, went through to the confirmation page and looked to see how to claim my £50. And then I looked a bit harder. No, nothing. No mention whatsoever of my £50. It did, however, say that my travel documents would be emailed to me, so I assumed (optimistically) that my £50 would arrive at the same time. Shortly afterwards, I got a receipt emailed to me with a promise of my e-tickets within 48 hours. But no £50. It'll come with the e-tickets, I thought. Eventually, after about a week, I got another email - another receipt. Er, where were my tickets? And, more importantly, where was my £50?! I went on to the website and found that getting hold of customer services was a lengthy process - I could fill in an essay-length email form or spend a fortune (in time as well as money) on the phone. But then I spotted the chat option. I found myself chatting online to a helpful lady who was able to send me the e-tickets I should have already received. However, she knew nothing about the £50 - she didn't know anything about the offer nor how I could claim it. It seems the chat people are limited in their powers to actually do anything - she suggested I phoned them. 'Is it a freephone number?' I asked. Er, no. Then wouldn't it slightly defeat the object to spend money on a phone call for the sake of claiming money? Her only other suggestion was to call into my nearest branch and see if they could sort it out. I finished the chat feeling somewhat dejected. It wasn't exactly convenient to go into the branch. And I hadn't actually got any proof of the offer - an offer that the chat lady had no idea about. I did still plan to go in and try to claim what was rightfully mine, but I didn't get a chance for a while. And then I forgot. And then, by the time I remembered, I felt that too much time had passed. Yup, Miss Complain-when-something-isn't-fair gave up. But that was just the first part of this story...

Beautiful Bruges - and the Novotel Brugge Centrum

As per my last blog, we had a weekend in Bruges just before Christmas, and I'd recommend it as a mini-break destination, especially at this time of year. It's much closer than you imagine it to be - just over an hour's drive from Calais. And it really is a beautiful destination - amazing architecture, lovely canals, museums and medieval buildings.

 

We managed to fit in a visit to the Historium, the Salvador Dali exhibition, the chocolate museum and the cathedral, as well as a boat trip on the canals and a large amount of exploring. There's lots more for families to do that we didn't have time to fit in - plus, of course, hundreds of different beers to drink (and don't get me started on the chocolate...).

And while the December weather limits you slightly, it also brings with it Christmas markets, an ice rink in the main square and beautiful Christmas lights and decorations everywhere.

If you fancy trying Bruges and are looking for somewhere to stay (particularly as a family), then I'd definitely recommend the Novotel Brugge Centrum, where we stayed. Here's my cut-and-paste review from Trip Advisor:

We stayed as a family of four in the Novotel for a weekend break in December, and I really can't fault it. Firstly, hotel prices in Bruges are not cheap - and while the prices at this hotel might not be cheap in themselves, they certainly represent good value for Bruges, particularly when booking far enough in advance. The children stayed free in a superior room and had breakfast free if the adults paid for it, which made the hotel particularly good value for families. The location is very good - in the centre of town and an easy walk to the bell tower and the other sights, and probably a ten-minute walk to the train station. If coming by car, it is easy to find and there is an underground public car park right next to the hotel, where parking costs 8 or 9 Euros a day. The room is a reasonable size, and we found the beds perfectly comfortable. The toilet is separate from the bathroom, and there are toiletries, a hairdryer, TV, mini-bar (which just contained water) and a free safe. There is also free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel, which was a bonus. There is a door between the bedroom and the hall area outside the bathroom, which means that parents have somewhere to sit other than the bathroom once the children are in bed! The breakfast offered plenty of choice (hot and continental) and was all very nice. We also ate dinner in the hotel restaurant one evening, and the food was delicious. The staff were really what made the hotel - everyone was very friendly, both at reception and in the restaurant - and made us feel welcome as a family. You can often be made to feel uncomfortable bringing children to a city hotel, but the children were given a gift at check-in and again at dinner, and there was an area for children to play in the reception (and also outdoors, but it was too cold!), with an impressive computer 'table' and an X-Box. We would certainly stay in this hotel again, and would wholeheartedly recommend it to other families looking for a hotel in Bruges.

Here's a video of our room in the Novotel Brugge Centrum. You can visit my YouTube channel (Holiday Obsessive) for more holiday-related videos (with more to be uploaded soon...).

Location, location, location

I like where I live. For those that don't know me personally, that's in a little village in Kent in the south-east of England. I don't just like the village itself - although I do like it, very much - I like the actual position of the village. I'm surrounded by beautiful countryside, much of it walkable from my front door, yet a main town - well, city, actually - is just a couple of miles away (also walkable if I had to!). If I go north, east or south, I'll reach a coastline - I have the choice of sand or pebbles, plus some beautiful white-chalk cliffs. And if I go west - north-west to be precise - just 60 miles away are all the sights and sounds of London. Okay, so we haven't got moors or mountains, but we have got the best of most worlds. A stroll through fields to a country pub? Check. Day at the beach, building sandcastles? Check. Quick visit to town for some shopping? Check. Bracing cliff-top walk? Check. Castles and cathedrals, museums and monuments, woods and wildlife parks, cinemas and soft-play - most things that you want can be found within a 20-mile radius of where I live. Living close to our capital city also brings a host of benefits - just a relatively short drive or less than an hour on the fast train means that it's easy to pop to London for the day or for the weekend. It's easy for us to see all the tourist sites and then some. It's also easy to see a West End show or a concert at one of the wide variety of venues London has to offer. And have I mentioned the weather? Generally speaking, the south-east is pretty lucky - we're in a little pocket that usually gets ignored when bad weather hits the rest of the UK. Obviously we don't always get off scot-free - we had some 'interesting' flooding last year. But we are usually warmer than a lot of the country - right now, it's a beautiful sunny day, while large amounts of the country are covered in snow.

So how does this relate to holidays? If I like where I live so much, why do I keep escaping it? Well, that's another reason I like it so much. I've already mentioned the ease of a short break in London. It's also simple to get to Sussex, one of my favourite UK counties - lots of beautiful coast and tons to do for children. Admittedly it's not best-located for most of the rest of the UK; to get out of Kent, hitting the M25 is almost unavoidable - and anyone who's been on the M25 knows it's akin to sitting in your driveway with the engine running for an hour. But outside the UK? Well, that's a different story. We have five airports within relatively easy reach. Sadly, none of them are that close (RIP the so-convenient-but-never-quite-took-off Manston Airport), but Gatwick and Stansted are both just over an hour away. We also have Heathrow or Luton not too much further (depending on the state of the M25, of course) or the as-yet-untested-but-may-be-useful-one-day London City. The joy of this is that we can go pretty much anywhere we want without having to worry about connecting flights, and we get far more choice over flight times and prices. Often, one airport works out cheaper than the others or has better flight times, and lots of airlines (budget ones in particular), only fly to/from certain airports or only to limited destinations from some of these airports. Having Heathrow, the country's main airport, nearby is particularly useful for long-haul destinations, as flying from many other UK airports would involve a domestic flight to Heathrow first.

But the real pull of our location is our proximity to France; we're less than half an hour away from Dover, and it's only 20 miles from there to Calais. Admittedly, that's still an hour and a half on the ferry, but that's not so much different to getting the (slow) train to London. It's a much easier way to go abroad than flying - no parking problems, quick check-in, no hanging around, and it's much quicker to get to Dover than Gatwick. The Eurotunnel is even quicker, and the Eurostar quicker still - although the prices increase accordingly. Still, it's pretty amazing to be able to get on a train in Ashford and be in Paris a couple of hours later! But back to the ferries - we're lucky enough to be fairly frequent winners of ferry tickets (and there's another blog story), which means the ferry is usually our transport of choice. And, once in France, the rest of Europe is easily reachable - less than an hour to Belgium, and the Netherlands aren't much further. The ability to pop across to the continent for the day or a weekend is a pretty good one to have. Recently, we realised we had a few ferry vouchers to use up before they expired, so we scheduled in a day-trip to Boulogne, managing a visit to Nausicaa, lunch, a play on the beach and a walk around town, and were still home for dinner. A couple of weeks later we went to Bruges for a lovely Christmassy weekend. I feel so lucky that such trips are relatively easy for us to do. We're also lucky enough to usually have the time over the summer to drive down to Spain, taking our time by stopping frequently throughout France - and Monaco, Andorra, Luxembourg... Of course, you could do it much more quickly if you had less time, and you'd save an absolute fortune on flights.

This summer, we're planning to capitalise on our location and head to France again, probably driving down to Spain and perhaps even visiting Italy. And in the meantime, just a stone's throw away, we have Canterbury - famous for its cathedral; Dover - famous for its castle and white cliffs; Margate - famous for its sandy beaches; Whitstable - famous for its oysters... Living here, I really do feel that the world is my oyster.

Persistence pays off

After our holiday to the lovely Bitacora in Tenerife, we decided we wanted to go back next October. As anyone with children will know - as will teachers - going away in the school holidays costs a fortune. Tour operators hike their prices up to more than double sometimes, and we have long since accepted that our holidays will always cost a bomb compared to those out of school holiday periods. However, airlines and a lot of hotels don't seem to be quite as bad as tour operators, and you can often save a lot of money booking your holiday independently, especially if you do it early. So that was my plan. I waited until the flights for British Airways were displayed for the correct outgoing date (355 days in advance), I winced at the fact that the price was higher than for the week before, and then I waited for the return flights to be displayed. And when I looked back in a week or so, ready to book, I was horrified that the flights were no longer one hundred and something - they were now £228. Each way. Yes, over £450 for a return flight to Tenerife. I hesitated, as you would. I double-checked easyJet but they only displayed flights up until next September, and October flights wouldn't be available until April. The chances are they'd be cheaper, but only if I booked them as soon as they became available - but dare I risk booking the hotel and then not being able to get flights? Or leaving it until April, only to find the hotel was full? Decisions, decisions. I checked Thomson and Thomas Cook - still more expensive than booking independently. I checked Monarch - almost the same ridiculous price as BA but horrible flight times. Reluctantly, I checked Ryanair - outbound flights were available (and very cheap) but returning flights wouldn't be available for months. I almost considered booking one way and crossing fingers I could get return flights later. In the end, I gritted my teeth and decided to book with BA... only to find that the flights had gone up to £323. Yes, each way. Yes, £656 for one return flight to Tenerife. Yes, I could fly to New York or Hong Kong for less. What was going on? I checked again later to make sure I hadn't imagined it. I checked Monarch, and their prices had also gone up - so had the package prices with Thomas Cook and Thomson. Clearly, everyone had decided that Tenerife is the place to be next October, and the airlines and tour operators were responding accordingly. Sadly, we had to decide Tenerife was not the place for us to be after all - no matter how nice the hotel was, we couldn't justify spending that sort of ridiculous money. Maybe we'd try easyJet next year and see what happened.

But the thing is, I don't give up easily. A couple of days later, I checked BA again, just in case - still £323. I checked again a few more days later - still £323. This went on and on - I'm not really sure why I kept trying, because it was clear the price wasn't going to change. But then it did! After over a month of trying, I checked again and the price had gone down to £169! I had to double-check to make sure I hadn't put in the wrong date, but it was real! I didn't know why. I didn't care why. I know for anyone who holidays at other times of year this is still expensive, but after £323, this was cheap!!!I booked the flights there and then.

And the moral? Keep trying. Shop around, keep checking the websites and don't give up. Holiday prices change all the time and sometimes the most unlikely tour operators end up being the cheapest. Cinderella, you WILL go on that holiday!

Spring Hotel Bitacora, Tenerife

Yup, here it is, another cut and paste job from Trip Advisor. This is the review of our most recent hotel, the Bitacora in Playa de las Americas, Tenerife. It's particularly worth a read for anyone with children, as I really would recommend this hotel for families. The kids' clubs and the animation team are brilliant, meaning the kids are happy and you get a few hours' peace. It's also a great place to go in October half-term, as the temperatures are still hot enough (30 degrees while we were there) to go in the pool and the sea - plus everything is still open (unlike the ghost towns we're used to in October)!

When I first read the reviews of the Bitacora, I was amused at the number of repeat visitors - images of 'Benidorm' (the sitcom) sprung to mind, with the same people coming at the same time, year in, year out. While I'm very happy to stay in hotels more than once if I like them and there's more still to see in the area, I wouldn't usually choose to come back the next year, and certainly not regularly. However, by the end of this holiday, I had to eat my words, as I understand the appeal of returning to this hotel, and we're now planning to come back again next October.

I'll start with the 'negatives' to get them out of the way - and this is only me being picky. The first is the sun bed situation - you see it at all hotels, but this is definitely the worst I've seen! People are literally up in the dark to put towels on sunbeds they have no intention of using until the afternoon. We generally found sunbeds without too many problems, but we did have to search sometimes, and we wouldn't have found four together. The rules of the hotel state that sunbeds shouldn't be reserved and that towels would be removed, but I didn't see this enforced at any point. There were so many sunbeds that were barely used and it would have been nice to see towels removed from sunbeds that are unoccupied for more than an hour - however, I do appreciate this is difficult and time-consuming to enforce. The light on our balcony didn't work for the duration of our holiday. We did speak to someone at reception at the beginning of the holiday, but nothing was done about this. However, we weren't too worried, as we took the desk light from inside and put it on the balcony - had we complained again, I'm sure it would have been fixed, so that is partly our fault! The only other thing I would say is that the air-con wasn't particularly effective. I'm not sure if that was just our room or across all rooms. Many areas of the hotel felt like they could do with better air-con - it may be that it is turned down for October, though, as it was unusually hot while we were staying.

The location of this hotel is great. It is at the Los Cristianos end of the resort and is a 5-10 minute walk to the beach. There are lots of shops, restaurants, bars and shopping centres in the area, and it is easy to walk into both Los Cristianos and the rest of Playa de las Americas. A lot of money has clearly been spent on the area (the nearby Gaudi-esque shopping centre and mini golf, for example), and everything is very clean. 

The rooms are larger than most, with plenty of space to accommodate our family of four. The main bed is large, as it's two single beds together, and our boys used a sofa bed and a camp bed (both made up for us). We were lucky enough to be upgraded to a pool-view room, which meant that we got some of the benefits that go with this, such as a mini-fridge and bath robes. Included in all rooms are hairdryer, toiletries, wide-screen TV and safe (for a charge in standard rooms). The bathroom is large with a shower in the bath, and a bidet. There's plenty of storage for your clothes and other things (with a handy light in the wardrobe), and extra blankets if you get cold. The balcony is quite large, with a table and two chairs and a washing rack for drying your wet swim stuff. Our view from the sixth floor was lovely - as well as the pools, you could also see the sea in two directions, as well as La Gomera in the distance. The rooms have recently been renovated, and ours was cleaned every day to a good standard.

 

We really couldn't fault the food at all. It was definitely some of the better hotel food we've had, and there was always plenty of choice. Cold salads, soup, pasta, carvery, lots of regional and international dishes and a wide array of desserts. There was a huge choice for breakfast too, including pancakes and omelettes cooked to order. I can't comment on lunch or the snack bar, as we only stayed half-board - although we usually ate enough at breakfast not to need lunch!

Outside were two pools, one with a water slide and a children's area. This one was surprisingly warm, but the larger pool was a bit of a shock! Despite my earlier moan, there were still plenty of sunbeds and you could find one eventually. Around the side of the hotel is the amazing Springly World - a new kids' playground area that made me wish I was young enough to use it. This is also home to the mini-club, where there is also an indoor area. Inside, there are two bars - a large one upstairs for the main evening entertainment, and a smaller one downstairs, where the mini-disco and children's entertainment took place. Next to this, there is also a games room, with pool tables, air hockey and arcade games. The reception area is very large with plenty of seating and free wi-fi.

Other than the mini-disco (which the children loved), the only entertainment we saw was the Queen tribute and the Halloween show. Judging by the claps and cheers we could hear from our balcony in the evenings, the rest of the entertainment was also of a good standard. The kids loved the mini and maxi clubs, and there was also plenty going on during the day for adults, although we didn't join in with any of it.

This brings me to the staff. On the whole, everybody was very friendly and polite, from the reception staff and cleaners to the restaurant staff and the majority of the bar staff - and we had no problems at all with being served when we were in the main bar. But a huge shout of appreciation has to go to the animation team, who play a large part, I'm sure, in the number of repeat visitors. They worked tirelessly throughout the day and evening and their enthusiasm never waned. They were brilliant with the children in the kids' clubs and always referred to them by name when they saw them around the hotel. The effort they put into the brilliant Halloween show was amazing - what a talented bunch of people! The children are desperate to go back and see them again next year.

Overall, you got the feeling that everybody works very hard and makes a real effort to make the hotel the best it can be, and this didn't go unnoticed by us. We will be back!

Here's a video of our room in the Bitacora. You can visit my YouTube channel (Holiday obsessive) for more holiday-related videos (with more to be uploaded soon...).

 

Too close for comfort

I have a few pet hates - in fact, the older I get, the more I realise how intolerant I am. Near the top of my list are rudeness and unfairness (injustice would probably be a more intelligent word, but that implies something deep, and my gripes are often quite petty), and these are often inextricably linked. One example of this is queue jumping, which is clearly both rude and unfair - why should anyone think they have the right to push in ahead of other people who have been waiting longer? We've already established I suffer from Queue Rage (see my earlier blog post about queuing in Hong Kong) - well, sadly, I also suffer from Plane Rage. Specifically, I have a problem with reclining.

I appreciate that planes will always cause personal space issues - sitting in close proximity to others in an enclosed environment is never going to end well. Unless you're lucky enough to have a row to yourselves, you'll always have those issues that are unavoidable when you're sitting next to someone else - should I leave the armrest up? Is it okay to put my reading light on? How do I take my cardigan off without smacking my neighbour in the face? What happens if I fall asleep and start leaning towards them or, worse, dribbling on them? And my personal favourite is the toilet issue - just when is it a good time to ask them to move so that you can go to the toilet? What happens if you really need to go when they're asleep or are still eating their dinner? On a recent long-haul flight, I found myself sitting next to a rather odd passenger. She refused all food from the cabin crew and she didn't leave her seat once. On the plus side, as I was in the aisle seat, I didn't have to get up for her. On the downside, she had no awareness of personal space whatsoever - she spread her blanket, cushions and goodness knows what else out across her lap - and some of my lap too. She also didn't think about me when removing her jacket, resulting in a sleeve in my mouth. And don't get me started about the incessant leg-tapping for the entire hour before landing. Still, I'll let her off - she was obviously nervous (is that what sitting next to me does to people?). And, on the whole, despite the general inconvenience, most awkward situations can be avoided with a little consideration for the people around you.

So why is it that some people seem incapable of consideration when it comes to reclining their seats? Maybe it's because it affects the people behind you and you can pretend you don't know about it. But it does affect them and, if you have a particularly inconsiderate person in front, it can ruin the whole journey. Anyone who's ever been on a plane knows just how little room there is between your knees and the seat in front - especially on a short-haul flight. The minute that seat in front reclines, you have even less. Your knees are pressed up against the back of the chair, it's hard to watch the television (assuming you have a seat-back TV), there's no room on your tray and don't get me started about attempting to eat. Now, I appreciate that on a night flight or a long-haul flight, people like to sleep. I'm a bit unusual in this respect, as I can't sleep on planes, but I wouldn't deny anyone else. When the cabin crew dim the lights and everyone around you is snoring - yes, this is the time to recline your seat. Yes, it's annoying for me, while I sit there wide awake - but, to use a phrase I learnt in Australia, I just have to suck it up. Plus, if the person behind me is also reclined, I'll recline myself and get comfy. But if all the lights are on and it's daytime - especially if it's a short-haul flight - no way!!! How can people not understand that reclining their seat affects the person behind them? Surely it's selfish to recline your seat just so you can have more room to get comfy and watch TV, while the person behind you suddenly has even less room than they had before, and has to put their head on its side to be able to watch the TV properly. Of course, they could always recline themselves to redress the balance - but then the person behind them would have to recline and so on. I don't help myself in this situation, because I refuse to recline my chair unless the person behind me is asleep or reclined (preferably both) - so I end up squashed, uncomfortable and seething with resentment.

On a recent daytime flight to Tenerife, we were sat behind a foreign family who didn't speak much English. No sooner had they sat down than the grandad had reclined his chair to the maximum level. Now, nothing about the family's demeanour suggested they hadn't flown before - but surely anyone who's been on a plane knows that 'seats should be in the upright position for take-off'? For once, I wasn't too worried, as I knew the cabin crew would soon tell him to put it back up. Then, just as I was putting something in the seat pocket, the grandma in the chair in front also reclined. I couldn't help it - it took me by surprise and squashed my hand - I cried out. The grandad immediately turned round. 'Is okay?' he asked. What I really wanted to say was 'No, it's bloody not okay. It's selfish and inconsiderate and you've left me with no room. Please put your seats back up.' However, being British, I just couldn't do that. I resorted to smiling politely and pointing out that the cabin crew would ask them to put the seats back up for take-off anyway. 'Ah,' he said and they put the chairs back up. I breathed a sigh of relief. But no sooner had the plane left the ground (and while the cabin crew were still seated) than both seats reclined again. So did the mum's. And the dad's across the aisle. They stayed that way for the whole journey. What made it worse was that the plane wasn't full, and the two seats next to the dad were empty, so the family did a lot of seat-swapping. Which meant that, for large amounts of the journey, there were empty reclined seats in front of us while we struggled to eat from what little of the tray was accessible.

Pure selfishness is what it is. Rude, thoughtless and clearly not fair on the people behind. Why can't they introduce a reclining rule so that it's only allowed at certain times on certain flights - and outright banned during mealtimes? Or, better still, get rid of the reclining feature altogether so everyone can sit there wide awake like me?! Grrrrrrrrrr! Anyway. Rant over. Time to go and watch TV from my reclining sofa - knowing there's no one behind to get squashed.

Sneaky

I thought we had all that airport hotel stuff sussed out. First we discovered the joys of the family rooms at the Gatwick Hilton, and then we found out there was a Premier Inn within walking distance of the airport. Problem solved. And then we had to go and book flights leaving from Stansted....

There's only one hotel within walking distance of the terminal at  Stansted, and that's the Radisson Blu. We stayed there once before, pre-children. Nice hotel but sadly not Premier Inn prices. Still, we gritted our teeth and went to book, only to find they didn't have any family rooms - or, at least, none available. This left us with a dilemma - book a room for three or book a hotel further away. Now I've said this before but, when you've got an early flight and have to get up at stupid o'clock, the last thing you want to have to do is hang around outside the hotel or in the long-stay car park for a shuttle bus. Every fifteen minutes, my backside. And the hassle of getting four people's luggage on board is only eclipsed by the hassle of finding somewhere to put it - it's like a warped version of Tetris. Given the choice, it's much nicer just to walk across to the airport. A room for three it was, then. Would the hotel actually mind us having four people? We were the ones that would suffer, trying to squeeze an extra person in, and we would have booked a bigger room if we could. But in some hotels, such as the Formule 1 chain in France, they have signs explicitly stating no more than three people in a room - fire regulations or something. Oh well, better safe than sorry - time for Operation Sneak...  

We've snuck a child in at the Gatwick Hilton a few times, but this was a new hotel for us in this regard. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was almost empty. The Hilton is always busy - you could sneak a giraffe in and no one would notice. But there were three empty reception desks at the Radisson and no one milling around. We briefly considered hiding Dylan in Lee's coat and pretending Lee was just really fat. Or maybe putting Dylan on Lee's shoulders with Lee's head hidden under his coat and Dylan's head sticking out, like in all the best slapstick films. Eventually we opted for me going in on my own. I checked us in ('A room for three people?' 'Oh yes!') and then went back outside to tell Lee our room number. Back in and through to our room I went with Dylan and our cases ('My husband's just sorting out the car...') and then Lee and Finn followed suit a few minutes later, walking nonchalantly and hoping no one asked them where they were going. Job done. Of course, every time we left the room and walked through reception, we did it separately and walked as quickly as possible. I'm sure we didn't look at all suspicious...

Unfortunately, as well as all the sneaking around, a room for three brings other problems - namely, the fact that it only sleeps three. After some bad experiences putting one of the boys in with us (how people co-sleep, I don't know - ouch!), we decided to top and tail them in the single bed. You can imagine how long it took them to get to sleep. And when one woke in the middle of the night, the other woke too, then they both spent an hour trying to get back to sleep, moaning that the other was kicking them. When they were asleep, they snored like 70-year-old men. As you can imagine, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Airport hotels may be a whole lot less stressful (and early) in the morning, but yet again I found myself wondering, when I was considering giving up and getting up at 2am, whether we should just save ourselves the bother and have the luxury of half a night's sleep at home in our own beds...!