Travelling with a baby: the hotel check-list

A first trip with a baby is not really about the destination. It is about whether you can keep a routine, warm a bottle, and get everyone some sleep. The hotel makes or breaks all three. Here is the check-list we run before booking anywhere with a little one.

Hotels love to say they are "baby friendly". Ask them to prove it. Before you book, confirm: a clean, full-size travel cot (not a fold-out you would not trust), free of charge; a high chair in the restaurant, ideally more than one; a bottle warmer, or at least a kettle in the room; a changing table or a safe surface, and a bin for nappies; and kit you can borrow, a bath support, a monitor, a stroller for the resort.

The single biggest difference between a restful trip and a fraught one is whether the baby naps. And the nap comes down to the room. A separate sleeping area or a connecting room, so bedtime does not black out the whole family at 7pm. Blackout curtains that actually block the light. A quiet-side room, away from the pool bar and the lift.

Ask for the cot to be set up before you arrive. Landing with an overtired baby and then waiting an hour for a cot is the classic first-night mistake.

With a baby, a slow, formal breakfast is a trap. Look for a buffet or a grab-and-go option, an early opening time, and a high chair that is genuinely free at 7am. It sounds small. It is the difference between a calm morning and a meltdown.

The hotels that really understand babies do the small stuff: a bottle of water in the room, a microwave on the floor, a laundry service for the inevitable accident, a lift to every floor so the stroller is never a problem. Here those details feed straight into the baby-gear and convenience parts of the KidProof Score, so a hotel that nails them rises to where you can see it.