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What are the best luxury hotels when it comes to guaranteeing connecting rooms? Families of four or more often need a suite or connecting rooms (see Family Travel: Suite or Two Rooms?), especially if they don't all want to sleep in a room with two queen beds, or if the kids are older and don't want to share a bed. And while some hotels are good about confirming connecting rooms at time of booking, others won't, and will only say that it's “on request” or will charge more to confirm the connection in advance. That's obviously not going to cut it for families with young children, who must be in a room that connects to their parents' room.
Of course, individual hotels and resorts vary tremendously in how many connecting room options they have (and some hotels have no connecting rooms at all) so it's important to reserve as early as possible if connecting rooms or a suite connecting to room is needed.
Best Luxury Hotel Brands for Connecting Rooms
1. Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts
Four Seasons is consistently among the best luxury hotels for clients, including families. If connecting rooms or a suite connecting to a room is available at time of booking, we've always been able to reserve it for our Four Seasons Preferred Partner clients.
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2. Mandarin Oriental
Mandarin Oriental is typically also good about guaranteeing connecting rooms, if they're available at time of booking. Some Mandarin Oriental hotels even have a “Families by MO” offer whereby families enjoy 50% off a connecting room with an equal or lower room rate, along with Mandarin Oriental Fan Club benefits.
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3. Peninsula Hotels
Peninsula Hotels are in a limited number of cities, but are often excellent choices, particularly the new Peninsula London and the Peninsula Paris in Europe, since with PenClub, our clients enjoy flexible check-in (from 6am day of arrival) and check-out (until 10pm day of departure). And for our family clients, Peninsula hotels have been able to guarantee connecting rooms at time of booking.
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Cheval Blanc Paris is an ideal luxury hotel base for families: 20 of its 72 rooms and suites connect to each other, a larger percentage than at most Paris luxury hotels. And while kids' clubs are typically only seen at resorts, Cheval Blanc Paris has an enchanting and imaginative kids' room for youngsters.
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5. Park Hyatt, Andaz, Thompson, Other Hyatt Luxury Brands, Reserved with Hyatt Privé
When we reserve a Park Hyatt, Andaz, Thompson, or other Hyatt luxury brand with Hyatt Privé benefits, the hotel will confirm connecting rooms within 24 hours of our request, at no extra cost. The only exception is during forecasted high occupancy periods.
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6. Ritz-Carlton, Bulgari, St. Regis, EDITION, Luxury Collection with STARS Benefits
Ritz-Carltons, such as the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, and other Marriott luxury brands that participate in STARS (Bulgari, St. Regis, EDITION, The Luxury Collection) typically guarantee connecting rooms at time of booking, although the STARS benefit officially only gives priority to STARS guests (ahead of non-STARS guests) when it comes to connecting rooms.
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Worst Luxury Hotel Brands for Connecting Rooms
1. Shangri-La Hotels
The Shangri-La Tokyo has a few connecting room options, but they don't guarantee the connection even for Shangri-La Luxury Circle guests, unlike other preferred partner programs that prioritize our preferred partner clients for connecting rooms. Rather insultingly, the hotel quoted a rate 25% higher, just to confirm the connection. We don't recommend the hotel to families who need connecting rooms, especially as competitors Four Seasons Tokyo Marunouchi and Four Seasons Otemachi are both happy to guarantee connecting rooms to our family clients with no additional fee. Also keep in mind that Four Seasons doesn't charge for an extra bed for a child, whereas Shangri-La Tokyo charges ~$130 per night for an extra bed.
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2. Langham Hotels
Similarly, Langham hotels such as the Langham Chicago don't guarantee suite to room connecting options, they're on request only.
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3. Jumeirah Hotels
Jumeirah is another brand that we've found to not be so family-friendly: a few of their properties have not been willing to guarantee connecting rooms at time of booking, and for that reason we've avoided them when connecting rooms are needed.
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What's been your experience with luxury hotel brands guaranteeing connecting rooms at the time of making the reservation?
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