this is one of the old nutshells that often appears, many people want free child places..but as any sensible person knows nothing is free, you or another holiday maker will be paying for it.. if you book DIY you will pay a price per room for so many occupants, it usually works out a lot cheaper than child places

wizard

ive booked my kids as adults a few times and never had any problems,and as i have 3 kids my oldest is always classed as an adult by the tour operators anyway.

It makes me angry here in England a child is classed as a child until the age of 16, yet accordingly to most tour operators it is 12.

They should wear masks the lot of them

I think it's more to do with Bed sizes and how much people eat. Most children over 12 eat like adults!

What I fail to understand is why people keep booking kids as kids or chasing "free" child places.

Because children do not count towards occupancy the surcharges cancel out any saving.

There was something about this on the BBC a few weeks back. They looked at booking various holiday destinations and in every case it was cheaper to book them as adults.

fwh

fwh,i think this might not apply in hotels when you have 2 adults as that isnt under ocupancey.... but is probably right if you are staying in an apartment

sometimes and only somethings there are genuine free child places, over the last years ive had 2 where there was no supplements added on for the free child only for 2 adults as the apt slept 4 and then they gave me more online discount anyway . ie we have booked a package to go to turkey in oct for a week. now flights only were approx 150-200 each, i searched throughly as didnt need the accommodation, so then decided to see how much packages were just to compare,after a good search i found a great deal on portland so cheap i thought there was an error, for 2 adults and 1 free child the price staying in icmeler inc trans and the apartments have glowing reports too was only £312 for 3 of us. it broke it down for me and here is my email from there

Pricing Information
===================
Basic Cost &nbsp2 X £155.00 £310.00
1St Child Price &nbsp1 X FREE FREE
Occupancy Supps &nbsp2 X £21.00 £42.00
Online Discount -£50.00
Govt Green Tax &nbsp2 X £5.00 £10.00

Credit Card Charge: 0.00% : £0.00
Total Cost: £312.00
You Have paid: £90.00
Your Outstanding Balance is: £222.00

this is going slightly out of school hols although 2 days do go into it, but for 104 each i thought this was a bargain and genuine free child. also the year before last i had a similar offer with h4u for 4 of us again definite free child and in apts again

I'd check all the options ask the T/O to do a price for 'all the sizes in all the colours"

We always get a free child place.
We go half/board and there is no under ocupancy with half board as long as there are two adults! (unless it's a s/c appartment and you add on the h/b afterwards!
However if we booked a s/c holiday it would be dearer than a h/b one because of the under occupancy charges!

It's always worth checking if it's just as cheap to book a kid in as an adult to avoid the under occupancy. The other good thing about this is that the accommodation provider can't fob you off with sub-standard, sub-size, bunkbeds, etc, if you have booked and paid for four adults, rather than two adults and two kids. By the way booking a kid as an adult doesn't have any effect on access to kids clubs

Hi sometimes it works out cheaper to book them as adults.
The only drawback i can see is when you got to the airport you may not get seated together.
As the airline would not know it was a family with kids,
And all seats may already be allocated if you see what i mean.

I agree with ndshelton. Be vary wary of free child place when booking an apartment as they are normally based on paying adults so 2 adults and 2 children would produce an under occupancy thus a charge . hotels are usually different as most are based on 2 adults sharing and you can get genuine free places . however watch the larger family rooms tho as these are often more expensive than 2 standard rooms. in our case a coupleof years ago it would of cost us £900 more to book a "family" room than 2 x standard rooms.

lyn

Also, if you are a family of 4(2adults, 1 teen, 1 child) check the price for a single room. If this is reasonable, it can work out cheaper to book 1 single room and 1 double room because you will get a child's price, rather than 2 double rooms.

As Glynis says, check all the options - it is very time consuming!!

As Glynis says, check all the options - it is very time consuming!!

Possibly is, but then many complaints I see and hear are due to the fact that someone could not be bothered to check everything. Then they blame everyone else.

fwh

It does vary and also between Tour Op to Tour Op. The holiday we have booked for later this year is a two bed apartment (but out of school holidays). It was a lot cheaper to book for 2 adults and 1 child (which included a free child place) than for 3 adults (and I did look up all options). I cant remember the exact price difference but I have just out of curiosity looked again and it is still a lot cheaper for 2 adults and 1 child than 3 adults. There is nearly £200 in price difference. I dont know why this is though.

May sound like a real silly question but ive been searching around and it seems I get cheaper quotes when entering 4 adults for a holiday in tunisia rather than 2 adults and 2 children.

Can i book 4 adult places when 2 of the passengers are actually children aged 15 and 8?

is this illegal, will it make a difference?

i couldnt deal with being refused travel when i get to check in?

Thanks in advance

I have booked my son as an adult in the past with no problems at all.Especially as some holidays worked out cheaper this way.

Hi - dont worry it's perfectly legal . We have done the exact same for next year, the price was much more expensive for the kids, so we booked them as adults, saving £600!. It's not the first time I have booked this way either, - it certainly does pay to check both options out!

Regards, BBB

HI...my friend books her children as adults for turkey as cheaper as well...no problems