Welcome Mat Isn’t Always Out for Young Travelers

If you’re headed over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house for a holiday celebration, you can be fairly sure your children will be welcome. You can be almost as confident if you’re headed through the woods to a major chain hotel. What you may not know is that in several states, innkeepers may bar the door to children.

In Nevada, Hawaii and Maryland, for instance, industry officials say state laws give hoteliers leeway to exclude children as long as they enforce their restrictions consistently. Similarly, in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, you’ll find resorts that ban children alongside those catering to families.

Though Caribbean destinations have advertised couples-only resorts for years, few travelers expect such restrictions in the U.S. The state-by-state variations are even less well known.

Not even the New York-based American Hotel & Lodging Assn., a trade group with nationwide membership, has state-by-state information on hotel laws about children, a spokeswoman told me. If you need this information, you may be able to find it by trolling the Internet or by checking with state government agencies or a statewide lodging trade group. That’s how I found information on the states in this article.

Most hotels, of course, welcome guests with children. But if you’re taking kids on an out-of-state trip to an unfamiliar destination--or if you’re looking for a respite from kids--the state-by-state differences are worth looking into.

For that matter, even though state law in California effectively requires that every hotel, inn and B&B; admit children, it’s prudent to recognize that many do so reluctantly. This might be because an upscale hotel is eager to foster a romantic or luxurious atmosphere, or because a bed-and-breakfast is in an old house with small rooms and delicate antiques. Either way, a little homework, whether an e-mail to a prospective hotel or a precautionary call to your travel agent, will ensure that your kids will be welcome (or that nobody else’s kids are likely to be in the next room).

Different hotels handle the issue in different ways. For instance, on Hawaii’s Big Island, the 125-room Kona Village Resort (brochure rates of $480 a night and up) welcomes kids 11 months of the year but designates September “romance month” and discourages kids then. For that month, the hotel suspends its children’s meal and activity programs and its special rates for children staying in a room with their parents, a Kona Village reservations operator said. But, she added, it isn’t an outright ban. If you really want to take your 4-year-old in September, you will be charged the rate for a third adult in the room (an added $190 per night) instead of the usual $35 per night for a child.

In the offices of Hawaii’s state Civil Rights Commission, executive director Bill Hoshijo noted that the state’s civil rights law governing public accommodations bans discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, ancestry or disability. The law doesn’t specifically address discrimination by age, he said.

Hoshijo noted that any law intending to provide equal access to guests of all ages would face close scrutiny because senior discounts might then be challenged as discriminatory.

California is among the states with laws that more broadly prevent lodgings from turning away families with children. At the state attorney general’s office, spokeswoman Sandra Michioku noted that since 1959, California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act has required “full and equal accommodations” for all customers in business establishments.

As a result, lodgings often develop code words to indicate just how welcome children are. One place to look for clues is in the directory of the California Assn. of Bed and Breakfast Inns, based in Soquel. The association’s 2001 directory, new this month, includes 357 member lodgings, of which 153 describe themselves as “family friendly.” The lodgings, which range from one-room enterprises to inns with more than 20 rooms, signal child-readiness with a small icon.

The Post Ranch Inn, a luxury hotel perched atop a scenic bluff in Big Sur with brochure rates beginning at $455 a night, takes a direct approach. The inn’s Web site notes on its reservations page that “children are not encouraged as guests for privacy and safety reasons.”

Here’s a quick look at three other states:

Maryland: At the Maryland Hotel & Motel Assn. in Annapolis, president Mary Jo McCulloch said she’s unaware of any state statutes that specifically block hotels from banning children. But, she said, she’s also unaware of any Maryland hotel that does ban children. Several bed-and-breakfasts set minimum ages for children, she said, and her association recommends that innkeepers remain consistent in those policies.

Pennsylvania: Anthony Foschi, general counsel to the state’s travel council, recently wrote a newsletter piece addressing this issue: The relevant state law, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, he wrote, “does not prohibit the proprietor of a place of public accommodation from denying accommodations to a minor because of his or her age.” But he also noted that there is no specific case law on the issue.

Among the Poconos lodgings that forbid children: The Caesars chain runs three couples-only resorts--the 164-room Paradise Stream Resort, the 175-room Caesars Pocono Palace Resort and the 282-room Caesars Cove Haven. (A fourth Caesars resort in the same area, Brookdale, is geared for families with children.)

Nevada: At the Nevada Hotel & Motel Assn., president and chief executive officer Van Heffner noted that state law gives innkeepers and hoteliers the leeway to exclude visitors under 21 as long as they apply the policy consistently. (Children generally are forbidden in gambling areas.) But Heffner said he couldn’t think of a single major hotel in Las Vegas or Reno that bans children from overnight stays.

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Christopher Reynolds welcomes comments and suggestions but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 or e-mail chris.reynolds@latimes.com.