So, I think that there’s a valid point here that the state has an interest in facilitating child-rearing, and that that’s an externality. The hotel can cause harm if people rely on hotels and child-free hotels price out child-permitting hotels.
Hmm.
I can think of a lot of problems.
If a hotel or other service wants to only provide adult access, I can imagine a whole lot of loopholes. That is, I don’t think that France is going to disallow keeping children away from random thing that social norms don’t want children to have, like alcohol (well, okay, this is France, so the bar might be somewhat lower). I mean, have hotel, have attached strip joint, whatever it takes; there are going to be some things that I imagine that France is going to permit as grounds for excluding children. It seems hard to make a blanket prohibition that would stop all this.
On the other hand, it also seems like in many situations, it’d be possible to let people who do want to be be away from children to have that as an option without creating issues for other users.
Maybe it’d be possible to have a best-effort attempt by hotels to simply place people and people without children together? I mean, that might get one most of the way there.
Also…is this presently causing actual problems? I mean, maybe the market will supply what the consumer wants. Hotels and apartments that don’t allow cats and/or dogs are a thing (well, in the US, and I assume France), and it doesn’t seem like that’s created fundamental issues.
Maybe first see if this is definitely an issue, and if so, do some kind of targeted mandate? Like, I totally appreciate that maybe a hotel might be the only place in a remote area, and if it’s adults-only, that creates problems, because it’s the only option…and if it soaks up all the adults-only customers, that might prevent an adults-and-kids service from entering the market. But…I can also imagine that it might just not come up, because hotels in that kind of situation don’t want to sacrifice customers with kids.
Maybe a rule that your hotel can be child-free, if after your hotel has been defined as such, 80 % of hotel capacity in the area is still accessible for families. It’s also not okay that a family cannot visit some area because all hotels there are child-free, but as a parent of two children, I can absolutely understand why someone might not want them around. I love them, so them waking up at 5:30 and causing moderate amounts of unavoidable noise is okay with me. But I can absolutely understand it’s not okay with everyone. There are people who want to sleep at least until 6 in the morning (and probably all the way to 12…), and I think they must have a right for that! When in a hotel or similar, I of course do my best to make sure in different ways that my children will not make other guests’ lives miserable, but sometimes they still behave as if they were kids. Because they are.
considers
So, I think that there’s a valid point here that the state has an interest in facilitating child-rearing, and that that’s an externality. The hotel can cause harm if people rely on hotels and child-free hotels price out child-permitting hotels.
Hmm.
I can think of a lot of problems.
If a hotel or other service wants to only provide adult access, I can imagine a whole lot of loopholes. That is, I don’t think that France is going to disallow keeping children away from random thing that social norms don’t want children to have, like alcohol (well, okay, this is France, so the bar might be somewhat lower). I mean, have hotel, have attached strip joint, whatever it takes; there are going to be some things that I imagine that France is going to permit as grounds for excluding children. It seems hard to make a blanket prohibition that would stop all this.
On the other hand, it also seems like in many situations, it’d be possible to let people who do want to be be away from children to have that as an option without creating issues for other users.
Maybe it’d be possible to have a best-effort attempt by hotels to simply place people and people without children together? I mean, that might get one most of the way there.
Also…is this presently causing actual problems? I mean, maybe the market will supply what the consumer wants. Hotels and apartments that don’t allow cats and/or dogs are a thing (well, in the US, and I assume France), and it doesn’t seem like that’s created fundamental issues.
kagis
It sounds like there are hotels here in California that prohibit kids and hotels that provide babysitting as a service to guests. It seems like the market has provided in that case.
Maybe first see if this is definitely an issue, and if so, do some kind of targeted mandate? Like, I totally appreciate that maybe a hotel might be the only place in a remote area, and if it’s adults-only, that creates problems, because it’s the only option…and if it soaks up all the adults-only customers, that might prevent an adults-and-kids service from entering the market. But…I can also imagine that it might just not come up, because hotels in that kind of situation don’t want to sacrifice customers with kids.
Maybe a rule that your hotel can be child-free, if after your hotel has been defined as such, 80 % of hotel capacity in the area is still accessible for families. It’s also not okay that a family cannot visit some area because all hotels there are child-free, but as a parent of two children, I can absolutely understand why someone might not want them around. I love them, so them waking up at 5:30 and causing moderate amounts of unavoidable noise is okay with me. But I can absolutely understand it’s not okay with everyone. There are people who want to sleep at least until 6 in the morning (and probably all the way to 12…), and I think they must have a right for that! When in a hotel or similar, I of course do my best to make sure in different ways that my children will not make other guests’ lives miserable, but sometimes they still behave as if they were kids. Because they are.