Use Your Kids to Save on Room Service; A Guest Post by Average Traveller

I will admit we are big fans of Disney, but really only have knowledge of the North American parks. That is one of the reasons I have enjoyed following Ryan from the Average Traveller, because he has highlighted some great parts of the Disney Hong Kong Park. There are also several other key places that Ryan has discussed that are on my bucket list, so I enjoy living vicariously through them. Please welcome me in joining the Average Traveller!

Back in 2009 we were lucky enough to get a conference rate at the luxurious Grand Wailea on Maui. Whenever we check into a new hotel we first take pictures of the room while it’s still clean because the room will never look quite as nice once the kids unpack. The second thing that we do is look through the amenities in the hotel binder usually found on the desk or nightstand. Part of that review always includes a scan through the room service menu.

Everyone knows that room service menus are usually very expensive because those who order from it are either business travelers who have expensed meals, have more money than they know what to do with, are too tired to go out, or are just plain out of better options. At higher end places it’s not unusual to see $20 sandwiches and $10 juices from room service. On top those inflated prices you usually also have to pay all sorts of taxes and fees plus tip whoever brings your food. I could understand why many people write off room service altogether, however, from time to time there are some deals to be had. In the case of the Grand Wailea we noticed a keiki (kids) menu that included breakfast dishes for $5-$8.

Ordering off of the keiki menu was cheaper than driving out and finding a cooked breakfast even with the service and delivery charges included. As we’re usually pretty light morning eaters and the serving sizes were large, we found that 2 kids breakfasts were good enough for the 4 of us to eat for under $20. Best of all, on our second and third mornings they even brought us an extra table cloth so that the kids could eat breakfast picnic style on the lanai. Just try beating this view!

Since that trip we’ve always kept on the lookout for kids items on the room service menu and often find that it’s worth looking. You don’t have to be at a super fancy hotel for this to work. Of course it is always cheaper to bring in your own muffins and juice but this is a nice way to get a little extra splurge without a lot of extra cost.

If you want to order exclusively off the kids menu then you should probably actually have kids with you in the room. Sometimes when traveling without the kids we’ll check the menu to see if it says that the kids items are for children only. If it there are no restrictions and we’re feeling lazy we’ve been known to order one normal item plus a kids item to average down the cost of the meal.

To read some more excellent tips on traveling, please visit the Average Traveller.