What would you do if your motel stayed was being ruined by unruly children?

Canada
April 11, 2009 4:39pm CST
This happened to us last night. We had paid a fair bit of money to stay at at motel while we worked on our new house. The day was bright and sunny and just starting to warm up for this time of year so we decided to sit outside on a picnic table for a while. We watched some children playing for a while. Usually we are kid magnets. I have so many kids call me "mom" that really arent mine. ANyways, these kids get closer and closer to us in their game playing til they are running around right beside us and nearly into us. My hubby says lets go in now, so we do. We have a corner motel unit..THe kids all go rushing into the motel room beside us, making enough noise to wake the dead. I dont mind, its early evening and they are having fun. I set down at my computer to probably chat on mylot and I turn around hearing a noise to see kids looking in my window watching me on the computer. I smile at them and continue doing my work. The kids start running back and forth and standing by the window, using it as a base for their game while hollaring and shouting.Ok, I cant think and hubby cant hear the TV...I waited til a moment when they were gone and closed the curtains...THen lo and behold they start banging on my window...Where are the parents anyways???? I think they left and went for drinks or something, who knows! I really dont want to say anything, hoping they will go away. SOmetimes saying something only makes it worse. My hubby goes and stands outside for a minute after he nearly gone run over by one of them while stepping outside. He looks and sees all the adults, at a room further down, yup, into the booze. Theres nothing wrong with having a few and I love kids, but really parents, you should be watching them and not me!..To make a long story short, these kids ran in and out of the room, banging on the door as we had an adjoining room as it was the only one left. They ran all hours of the night, well after midnight when Iwas trying to sleep, past our window, yelling and hollaring and standing outside our window making a racket. Really, there was a huge field if they wanted to play, but after midnight? What would you have done? Seems most motel keepers dont care, as they make money from renting in the off season to sports teams and dont want to cause any waves. But dont we have a right to some privacy and restfull sleep as we probably paid more to stay there then they did!
2 people like this
10 responses
@krajibg (11922)
• Guwahati, India
12 Apr 09
Hello Sands! somehow finished the history. It took me a century to read your post. (please make para from now on ) come to the context. first and foremost that you lost your privacy and had to have helluva disturbing night is the children. Children to an extent acceptable and as you give them indulgence they would pluck every grey(?) hair of yours. They are worse than monkeys. second thing why not admonished the children or shoo them away when you had settled with your computer? Patience is one thing and letting down one's privacy and peace is another. why the parents of the nuisance creators were boozing and it was all on your head. Had I been there I would have thud the head of the ones who banged your window and they would-be gone. Do not say I am cruel. Ok once in a blue moon you can go with such children but they wouldn't let you off at another occasion. What would you do then? My stance is that play while you play sleep while you sleep and i am friendly with you does not mean you have no parents. Really a horrible film!!!!
1 person likes this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
13 Apr 09
(please make para from now on ) I didn't notice if she didn't make any paragraph!
@krajibg (11922)
• Guwahati, India
13 Apr 09
I am not answerable to you
1 person likes this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
12 Apr 09
Sanyorita, it was an interesting story! So, does this incident change your thinking about children, specially brats? I hope not. You won't belive but this was the only reason why I used to hate kids during my young age at home but when I entered the age of 20s, I started loving them. Now, for your point, the parents think that their kids must be playig somewhere and some of them deliberately send their kids outside so that they can get privacy! I know one of the couple who used to send their kids to their neighbour or to field so that can play! May those were your problem. What do you want the motel keepers to do? They are responsible for cleaning and the food or something. Kids are not their responsibility, are they?
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
13 Apr 09
Its not allowed on city streets here after midnight, why should it be allowed in a motel. Yea, after midnight it must be happening. May be you were too sweet to those kids and they did want to spend night with you rather than their parents. Well, I am happy that there are less kids in my relationships now and I can feel relax as those were brat and to tell you the truth one of them cut my hands using a blade. He asked me to close my eyes and after that he used a blade to cut my elbow part! Yes, Now I can only laugh but the parents were also laughing when i showed them my wound! useless parents.
• Canada
12 Apr 09
Hi sanadoodoo..nope it doesnt change my mind about kids at all. I have 4 of them myself, so I am very patient. I blame the parents more for not correcting them. THere just seems to be a huge general lack of respect among people. I always consider other people when Im doing things. There was a huge property for the kids to play. They didnt need to be right up under my windows and knocking on it and looking in or banging on the connecting door either. It was lack of supervision by adults who were all busy at one of the other rooms, having a few to drink. I never did complain to the motel keepers although most people would have.THey are most certainly responsible for the quality of each guests stay and allowing kids to be hollaring and screaming and running around, well after mid-night, is not respecting other guests at all. Its not allowed on city streets here after midnight, why should it be allowed in a motel.
1 person likes this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
2 May 09
Thank for the pencil, sanyorita!
• United States
11 Apr 09
i would have called the office and told them to take care of the problem or you want your money back and you will stay some where else and give them a bad review.
• Canada
11 Apr 09
The only problem was, it was the only place to stay in a small town. I wouldnt go back though.
• Canada
12 Apr 09
Hi it is to bad that you had such a bad time because of these kids. I must admit that my kids are probably the ones that would run rampid in a hotel! My kids are 3 and 19 months. They are really loud! But If we were in a hotel I would controll my kids to a point! If they were desturbing another person and that person when and told me my kids were running rampid I would have reddend their butts and put them in the room! Ha just kidding but I would make them be quiet. I think that if you went to the parents then there either would be one of two things they would get the kids to stop. Or there would be a fight! They would get mad! So It kind of sucks not knowing what to do!
• Canada
12 Apr 09
Yes, I have 4 kids but they are all grown now so I try to be patient and understanding..I had no problem with them running around all day although if they were my kids, I would have told them to stay away from under other peoples windows and go run out in the huge yard. And yes, the parents were all drinking so I wouldnt even attempt to say anything to them, its not worth the hassle.
• United States
11 Apr 09
I would have called the office strating at 9pm, every 30 minuites until they made those people take care of their kids. I to enjoy children but if I am going to pay for a room then I should be able to enjoy it. I would have also asked about their policy on drinking. It would seem to me that the person at the desk just didn't mess with it because no one complained. Often as an employee they are instructed not to say anything unless another guest is upset.
• Canada
11 Apr 09
I think anyone running a business should have rules and if they are not adhered to, the staff should do something if its obvious to keep everyone happy best as possible. Not everybody is the complaining type and Im not unless really provoked. They just wont get my business again as Im sure they could also see and hear the noise
@Jennlk84 (4206)
• United States
11 Apr 09
Wow, I would've been really upset! I definiately would've called the the front desk and complained. I actually had this happen to me before. My fiancee and I went on a trip for our first anniversary and spent a lot of money on the hotel. Woudn't ya know the hotel was FULL of kids for a baseball playoff weekend? Omg, it was horrible. They were running all over the place. We even went to the bar for a few drinks and the kids were running in and out of there because all of their parents were in there drinking. It was awful. I told the front desk, when we checked out, that we weren't pleased and would've appreciated a warning when we made our reservation that the hotel would be over 1/2 full with young kids! I think you deserve that warning, especially when you're paying a lot of money to spend a night in a hotel.
• Canada
11 Apr 09
Hi Jenn..I too ran into that problem once. The hotel we stayed at was overrun with kids on a hockey team. They ran all over and tied up the elevators sending them up and down the floors with nobody in them. They ran and sat in the halls making a racket all night long while many of the parents with them were drunk. That time, I did complain and got a certificate for another free night stay.
@Grandmaof2 (7579)
• Canada
11 Apr 09
I would have definately called the office and asked that the noise get settled. Who paid what should have no bearing on it. You paid what you were asked and so did they but everyone needs to respect one another. Just my opinion.
• Canada
11 Apr 09
I am very respectful of others in every way..I find a lot of people arent so much any more. I dont know what happened to change the world, and I hate to complain, its not me to do that but I came close.
@miamilady (4910)
• United States
12 Apr 09
I would have asked the kids to please take there game somewhere else. If you do it in a friendly "I don't mind you having fun, but I'm trying to work here" kind of tone, kids usually run off and go somewhere else a little further. At least that's been my experience. Out side, it depends what they were playing, but you could say the same thing in a friendly manner. Of course it depends on the kids, but most of the kids that I've seen respond well to a "hey could you do me a favor" kind of tone as long as it's friendly and not a grouchy "hey you kids, get outta here!" type attitude. Or, you could ask the hotel to do it for you. I prefer the direct approach. I've been around the summer teams a lot. My child is on one, so I know exactly what your talking about. Yes, parents should mind their kids, but they don't always do so and sometimes, if they are bugging you, you need to take matters into your own hands in a friendly way. As for the hotels part in this...If you happen to be in a hotel that guarantees 100% satisfaction, your in luck. You tell them of the problem, if they don't take care of it for you, they can offer you a room in a quieter part of the hotel. If they don't have a room in a quieter part of the hotel, they shouldn't charge you. I know this, because our first year of traveling, one of the teams with were traveling with...not the actually team that my daughter was on, but the team of older girls that were in the same organization...were making a lot of noise and our organization was charged for an extra room because the hotel had to refund some guests their money because of our girls. That particular team tried to get our teams parents to help out with the cost, but we declined to so do, because we had kept our girls under control. I don't know how many hotels have that 100% satisfaction guarantee, and I wish I could remember the name of that hotel so that I could recommend it to you, but that was several years ago and more than several tournaments ago.
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
12 Apr 09
I think what the others said about calling the office would have been good and you should have done so. Was it a chain motel or individually owned? If you had complained to the office and they hadn't done anything you could have reported it to the main office. I never stay in motel, only hotels. The service you get is generally much better.
@moneymommy (3418)
• United States
11 Apr 09
Sorry to hear you had such a bad stay. When something happens to me like that I will go to the management until the problem is fixed. If they didn't do anything about it I would ask for a refund. If that didn't work I would get the phone # for the corporate and complain and ask for a refund.