Are We There Yet?
Hotels make it easier to take kids on business trips.
Family vacation travel accounted for nearly half of all tourism
in 1996, the most recent year for which numbers are available,
according to the Travel Industry Association of America. About 24
million business trips included children that year, up from
9.1 million trips in 1990.
Taking the kids along often makes sense, says Stevanne Auerbach,
director of the Institute for Childhood Resources in San Francisco
and author of Dr. Toy's Smart Play (St. Martin's
Press). "It helps a child understand what you do for a living
and what it means to travel," she explains.
Some hotels are customizing their rooms to fit the needs of
business travelers with children. Parsippany, New Jersey-based
hotel chain Travelodge, for example, now offers more than 180
so-called "Sleepy Bear's Den" rooms at 90 properties
throughout the United States and Canada. The special rooms are
equipped with a VCR, a microfridge, a Sleepy Bear bedspread and
curtains, a kid-sized chair, drinking cups that fit small hands and
a plush toy. Children's videos are available at the front desk.
Many kid-friendly hotels also offer day-care services.
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Christopher Elliott is a writer in Los Angeles and a
columnist for "ABC News Online."
Contact Sources
Institute for Childhood Resources, http://www.drtoy.com
Travel Industry Association of America, 1100 New York
Ave., #450, Washington, DC 20005, http://www.tia.org
Travelodge Hotels Inc., (800) 578-7878, http://www.travelodge.com