Family Friendly Luxury Hotels

With business travel down significantly, hotels have had to find new ways to fill rooms that once went to the executive on the go.

Mark Orwoll, managing editor at Travel and Leisure magazine, tells The Early Show that some luxury hotels have noticed that more families are traveling. To promote the trend, the hotels are giving families with children extra benefits for staying at their establishment.

Some places give kids traveling with their parents get great deals that include special classes, camps at resorts and access to the club floor.

THE CONCIERGE FLOOR

Concierge floors, also called club levels, have so much to offer families that their use in this capacity has risen as much as 20 percent over the past two years, according to Ernst & Young.

Benefits include:

• Complimentary buffet, snacks, and soda served all day.
  
• Secure environment, thanks to restricted access and 24-hour staffing.
  
• Concierge service to help plan your family's activities.
  
• Usually larger amount of space and more amenities (high-end stereo, multiple phone lines)

Here are a few hotels offering "Concierge Floor" service:

The Mark Hopkins Inter-Continental, San Francisco

• This famous hotel is set high atop Nob Hill.
  
• Videotapes are available for children.
  
• Board games are also an option for kids on a trip.
  
• The hotel stocks coloring books and children books.

  Club floor rates start at around $400 a night. (Regular rates as low as $169.)

The Fairmont Southampton Princess in Bermuda

• The hotel has Internet access.
  
• There is a music library for song lovers.
  
• Free breakfast is provided for kids.
  
• The hotel also has a science center with microscope, a computer lab, and a reading lab with headsets, as well as a kid's club called Explorer's Camp, with different adventures planned each day

  Concierge floor in high season costs $489 per night (regular rooms available for as low as $289).

THE URBAN SOPHISTICATE EXPERIENCE

One of the ways hotels are attracting families is by offering classes designed to give children a bit of cosmopolitan polish while offering all the comforts of home.

The Ritz-Carlton in Boston

• A Day of Social Savvy: An all-day program for kids that includes etiquette classes, afternoon tea, social correspondence, telephone manners and a tour of the hotel.
  
• A "children's suite" open to kids: It resembles a whimsical playroom with entertainment center, tot-sized furniture, arts and crafts center and a mini-refrigerator filled with healthy snacks.

The Plaza Hotel in New York City
This fabled hotel on Fifth Avenue is long associated with accommodating children, ever since the first "Eloise" book was published some 50 years ago.

• Young Plaza Ambassadors is a VIP program for kids from 6 to 16; private shopping appointment at FAO Schwarz, priority admission to the Rockettes Master Classes at Radio City Music Hall and etiquette classes.
  
• Kids get welcome basket with a YPA stuffed animal, wallet with YPA money (good for purchases at Plaza's Gift Shop), a book called "Corneel at The Plaza," and coupons good for discounts at stores and restaurants around the city.

  If you stay two night, two children get free one-year memberships.

RESORT CAMPS

Kids Camps, as they are called, have been one of the most popular trends at resorts. They provide children with plenty of age-appropriate activities and, equally important, give parents some free time to take advantage of all that the resort has to offer adults.

Four Seasons Resorts Scottsdale at Troon North, Ariz.
Like other resorts in the Four Seasons chain, the Scottsdale property offers the "Kids for All Seasons" program.

• On arrival kids will find cookies and milk, complimentary videos, and even a stuffed animal.
  
• A "Kids' Concierge" is on staff to help plan golf or tennis lessons or to give advice on family-friendly restaurants and attractions.
  
• Children's Center sponsors activities that include panning for gold, leather works, American Indian crafts, swimming, treasure hunts, and desert hikes.

  The Kids for All Seasons program is free to guests of the resorts.

Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort, Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M.
This beautiful Pueblo-style property is located in the high country north of Albuquerque.

• Kids participate in the "Camp Hyatt" program, introduced in 1989, one of the industry's best-known and oldest children's programs.
  
• Offered at 15 Hyatt resorts in the U.S. and the Caribbean.
  
• Aimed at kids from 3 to 12, with a focus on regional flora, fauna, and culture.
  
• Activities at the New Mexico property includes learning to bake bread in the ancient Pueblo style using authentic ovens, visits to the ruins of the Santa Ana Pueblo, learning about Pueblo legends from tribal storytellers.

  Room prices are around $285, with many discounts available lower than that price (and some which include free Camp Hyatt sessions). Expect to pay $40 - $45 per child per day for Camp Hyatt, including meals.