During holidays, families with children become the primary travel force, and how to meet the accommodation needs of multi-child families has become a topic of industry attention. Many hotels have product gaps in serving this demographic, and supply urgently needs to catch up.

Room types need updating

Many multi-child families report that hotels have too few family rooms and suites, making them very difficult to book. Currently, the mainstream parent-child room configuration in hotels is a 1.8-meter king bed plus a 1.2-meter small bed, which just accommodates two adults and one child. If a family has two or even three children, this is completely insufficient. Faced with this situation, parents typically have only two choices: either book a suite or connecting rooms, but these room types are already scarce during peak season in popular scenic areas and resort cities, and prices are often two to three times that of standard rooms; or book two separate rooms, which directly doubles the accommodation cost. In reality, the problem goes beyond simply "not enough space to sleep." In some families, two children have a significant age gap — the younger one still needs supervision while the older one has entered adolescence and needs independent space. Having two children share one room completely out of parents' sight makes parents uneasy, but adding an extra bed to one room makes children feel cramped and uncomfortable. This is not a problem that can be solved by simply adding another bed — it is a matter of spatial structure.

To adapt to multi-child families, how can hotels renovate in a cost-effective way while meeting basic needs? Connecting rooms are the most worthwhile product format to promote. Connecting rooms refer to two independent guest rooms connected by an internal door that can be opened or closed — when opened, the two spaces are connected; when closed, each remains independent. For multi-child families, the core problem this room type solves is the balance between "independent space and parental supervision" — at night, once the connecting door is closed, each has their own privacy; during the day, opening the connecting door creates a complete activity space for the whole family.

Double queen bed room types are an underestimated incremental product. The traditional parent-child room configuration of 1.8 meters plus 1.2 meters can also be modified, replacing it with a dual 1.5-meter bed combination, which can basically sleep two adults plus two children. Moreover, two children sleeping on a 1.5-meter bed each is far more comfortable than squeezing onto a single 1.2-meter small bed. A hotel in Suzhou has already tried this approach with excellent results — the proportion of family guest orders increased from 20% to 55%, and the revenue per room for this room type carried a 25% premium over standard rooms.

For mid-to-high-end resort hotels, two-bedroom or even three-bedroom suites better meet the needs. The living room serves as a communal family activity area, while bedrooms ensure private space — this structure is attractive for both three-generation travelers and multi-child families. It should be noted that a "two-bedroom suite" cannot simply be two small rooms partitioned by dividers, as the poor soundproofing and lighting would make the experience worse than a single large room. Each bedroom should have independent windows and reasonable floor area, and the overall suite interior area should be no less than 90 square meters.

Service must keep up

Room types are the hardware, and service details are the software — neither can be missing. Many hotels are simply unaware that their service standards are designed around a "family of three." For example, most hotels currently offer complimentary breakfast for only one child, with additional children required to purchase breakfast separately. How can these situations be improved? First, hotel extra bed and breakfast configurations must be transparent. This is the most basic yet most easily overlooked item. On OTA platforms and hotel official website booking pages, extra bed fees, extra bed conditions, and the applicable age and maximum number for complimentary children's breakfast should be clearly stated. Parents should not have to discover at the front desk that they need to pay more — this kind of experience directly undermines consumer trust. For multi-child families, it is recommended that hotels establish a clear tiered children's breakfast pricing strategy, such as free for under 6, half price for 6 to 12, and full price for over 12, clearly written on the page so guests can see it at a glance.

Second, some family guests will still book two or more rooms. Hotels should arrange all rooms under the same booking on the same floor regardless of how many rooms are booked. This sounds like common sense, but in practice nearly 20% of multi-child families have encountered being assigned to different floors. For parents traveling with multiple children, having rooms on different floors means they cannot supervise all children simultaneously, which also involves safety concerns. It is recommended that hotels configure conditions in their PMS (Property Management System) so that family guest bookings automatically trigger same-floor allocation rules.

Finally, children's amenities cannot remain at the level of just "putting out a pair of children's slippers." Service details that truly impress multi-child families include: the front desk can provide complimentary toiletries for children of different age groups (infants and older children have completely different needs), children's bathrobes and slippers should be provided according to the number of children rather than just one set, and cribs and baby bathtubs can be borrowed free of charge. Restaurants should have children's tableware and high chairs. These amenities are not costly, but for parents of multi-child families, they make the service feel thoughtful and attentive.

How to calculate the return

Industry research has found that multi-child families travel far more frequently than ordinary individual travelers, which means that once a hotel is recognized as "multi-child friendly" by a family, both repurchase rates and recommendation rates will be higher. In the current environment where hotel occupancy rates are generally under pressure, this is a highly certain incremental source of guests. In the short term, complimentary extra beds and children's breakfast discounts do require hotels to give up some revenue. Taking the "Multi-Child Benefits" partner hotels on Ctrip and their services (complimentary breakfast, complimentary extra beds, children's souvenirs) as an example, these services are worth approximately 200 to 400 yuan, but this cost is exchanged for an entire night's accommodation spending by a multi-child family, plus the word-of-mouth effect from their positive reviews and recommendations on the platform — the return on investment is actually quite favorable.

From a competitive perspective, most parent-child hotels on the market are still at the stage of "putting up a slide and placing a few stuffed animals," and hotels that truly adapt to multi-child families in terms of room structure and service details are very few. Whoever acts first can seize the advantage in this niche market. Based on calculations combining the UNICEF "Children in China 2024" report and data from China's seventh national population census, there were approximately 12.86 million families with three or more children in China in 2020. With the relaxation of birth policies, the proportion of third-child and above among recent births has stabilized at about 12%. Extrapolating from this and adding existing families, it is estimated that by 2026, the number of families with three or more children in China will reach approximately 15 million households (with children aged 0 to 17) — this is a ten-million-scale and still growing group. For this certain incremental market, whoever gets the product right first can capture a wave of dividends.