Book stays after signing up for membership (and preferably with breakfast)
Booking your hotel stays takes up a major part of your travel budget. Different hotels have varying age policies about children being counted as free. As far as possible, I like to keep all of us within a room (being a mother hen). I find booking two rooms at a lower tariff is almost the same as booking one room in an upgraded hotel chain that has a more relaxed policy about children’s ages (not to forget it is exhausting going from one room to the other and shouting across the hotel rooms is a no-no).
The Novotel from the Accor chain of hotels have been mostly convenient, as they allow two children upto 18 years of age to stay in the same room with added sleeping arrangements at no extra cost. Also consider safety of a place and type of likely travelers when booking hotels. Having a friend in the hospitality industry who can get you discounts at stays on their references also helps.
Most chains of hotels allow for free membership enrolment and offer discounts right from the first booking. There are many comfortable and family budget options available too. For instance, in U. K., I signed up for and booked all my stays at Travelodge directly on their website availing of membership discounts on all the bookings.
Be careful of cards details with online payments. I have been victim once with a very reputed online booking portal as one of their hotel partners had access to my card details and did an unauthorized swipe after making a mistake on booking conditions from their end. The bank informed me that once I enter my debit card details on their portal, I have given them permission to use it (and after this, I studied in depth about virtual cards). I pursued the matter with a chance email to a Member of Parliament in the U.K. ministry (optimism, perseverance and a lot of prayers) and managed to get my money back. I was just lucky as the booking portal did little to help and instead preferred to support their partner (I have never booked on that portal again).
A stay without a breakfast plan is obviously cheaper but not wiser. For one, it is difficult to drag your hungry-self first thing in the morning looking out for breakfast (not forgetting my clan of three hungry children). Most hotels offer breakfast spreads that give ample of choice for everyone to have a hearty first meal of the day which is important for day long exploring that follows. One may find that the breakfast at a café even at ‘a la carte’ finally may come to the same as the buffet breakfast spread at the hotel.
It’s a different matter if one does not like to have morning breakfast. I do know some prefer to have late breakfasts at noon time or skip it altogether. My one daughter will have just toast and tea because she does not feel like eating breakfast, and the hunger pangs show up as soon as we step out of the hotel. I always carry biscuits in my handbag, no matter what.