Making Your Vacation Rental Safe for Kids.

If you have small children, your own home is probably childproofed, but your hotel room or vacation rental probably isn’t.  Add that the natural  tendency to unconciously lower one’s guard on vacation combined with excited children in unfamiliar surroundings and the potential for accidents is higher than it should be.  You don’t have to panic though, just take a few steps to kid-proof your room and you can worry a lot less.  The good news is that most of the safety equipment you’ll need will fit into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and none of it is expensive. Most importantly, you can install it without tools or marring the surface when you take it off.

Here are a few trouble spots that you’ll want to consider childproofing.

The front door.   Make sure the upper latch is always locked as most hotel room doors are easy to open, even for a young toddler.  If your child can reach the latch and your worried that he’ll try to get out, try a lever handle lock.

Bathrooms:  It can be impractical to childproof a bathroom the way you would at home. If you’re worried about young toddlers getting hurt in the bathroom, keep them out  altogther by using a door lock.  Since most hotel rooms (including the ones on Disney property) have lever (or European style) handles, the lever lock mentioned above works well.  For rental house with a lot of regular doors, a couple of packs of this type doorknob cover will solve the problem of little ones getting into rooms where they’re not safe or welcome (big brother’s room).

Your Resort Room Balcony:  Most Disney resorts have two locks on the sliding-glass doors that go out to the balconies:  One lever type that flips easily and another that’s slightly more difficult to unlock.  Some, such as those at The Grand Floridian, are at the top of the door and difficult for little kids to reach, but newer resorts, such as Animal Kingdom Lodge, have them right next to the regular lock.  Fortunately, the doors are heavy enough that smaller children can’t open them, but if you have kids who are especially creative, you may want to invest in an adhesive patio door lock.

Electrical Outlets.  It’s super easy to pack a few outlet plugs. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find them left behind by the previous tenant.

The kitchen.  Move any items that can hurt a child to the upper cabinets.  This probably seems obvious, but I once stayed in a beach house rental where the previous guests had left a knife block full of sharp knives in the lower cabinets–which was promptly discovered by two toddlers!  This type of cabinet lock will keep little hands out, doesn’t require hardware, and won’t harm the finish:

Your Rental House Pool:  The big one.  A lot of rental homes have pools. Most of them are, to an extent, childproofed. The real issue is that the alarm on the door only works if all the grown ups in the house remember to keep it set.  Make sure you talk to the landlord before you visit to see what sort of steps he’s taken to make sure kids can’t get into the pool unsupervised.  Even seasoned pool owners forget to set the alarm to the door that goes out to the pool, resulting in tragedies every year. You’ll want to have everyone in your group on the same page about the alarm and any possible door locks you add for additional comfort and safety.

Chris writes here and at Everything Walt Disney World. She’s also a member of the Mouse Chat Podcast and a travel agent with Pixie Vacations. Email her at ChrisW@pixievacations.com for information on how you can get a free $50 Disney gift card in addition to current discounts when you book your next vacation.

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