The short answer
Ten of the 36 hotels we could measure charge a family of four little or nothing more than a couple. The Oberoi, the Grand Hyatt, Jumeirah, the Andaz and Raffles charge exactly the same. Nine charge three times as much or more, up to Soori, where the cheapest option for a family costs more than six times the price for two. The difference is almost always the same step: from a room or a one-bedroom villa to a two-bedroom villa. It has nothing to do with how good the hotel is.
Next year my wife and I want to take our daughters to Bali. They’re four and one. I’ve booked hotels on this island for other people for years, so I sat down to do it for us, the way any parent would: on the hotels’ own websites, two adults, two children.
The Oberoi, where I fell in love with Bali on my first trip, was happy to have all four of us in its entry room for $356 a night, the same as for two. A few kilometres south, The Laguna wanted $1,993. The cheapest thing it would sell us was a two-bedroom villa.
That seemed strange enough to check the rest. So we did.
The five best hotels for a family, for what you pay
- 1
Grand Hyatt Bali · $225 for four, the same as for two
The cheapest family stay on this list, and one of the most natural. Five pools, a beach you can actually swim from, a kids’ club, and staff who make a fuss of your children. Most of its guests are families who are already booking next year.
- 2
Samabe · $463 for four, 1.1 times the price for two
A family suite at almost no extra cost, and a kids’ club that runs every day from nine to five, with staff who are properly present with the children instead of watching the clock.
- 3
The Oberoi · $356 for four, the same as for two
Fifteen acres of garden by the sea, which is less a hotel than a private park, and exactly what a small child needs: space.
- 4
Andaz Bali · $302 for four, the same as for two
Sanur has the calmest water in the south, which matters more than anything else when your children are four and one.
- 5
Raffles Bali · $1,234 for four, the same as for two
The splurge that costs nothing extra with children. It’s a hillside resort without a kids’ club, so it isn’t built for them. But staff at this level give children an enormous amount of attention, and more than once I’ve seen one of them join in a game. A one-bedroom villa with its own pool, for exactly what the two of you would pay.
Also little or nothing extra for a family
- Jumeirah$638 · 1.0×
- Alila Villas Uluwatu$858 · 1.1×
- Anantara Ubud$377 · 1.2×
- Alila Seminyak$321 · 1.2×
- The Apurva$778 · 1.2×
Prices per night for a family of four. In Ubud, only Alila Ubud ($368) and Anantara ($377) stay under $400.
How did we measure?
We searched every hotel I’ve reviewed on this site on its own public website: two nights in mid-November 2026, first for two adults, then for two adults with children aged four and one. Each time we noted the cheapest rate that included breakfast, with all taxes and service charges. Anyone can repeat it.
These are the public rates on the hotels’ own websites. Booked through us, the rate is the same or better, and it often comes with offers you won’t find on the hotel’s site.
And children of four and one don’t take up much room. A cot, a shared bed, and you live compactly for a week. With a ten- and a twelve-year-old, the numbers below would look different, and usually worse.
What a family of four pays, hotel by hotel
| Hotel | For two | For four | Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Oberoi | $356 | $356 | 1.0× |
| Grand Hyatt | $225 | $225 | 1.0× |
| Jumeirah | $638 | $638 | 1.0× |
| Andaz | $302 | $302 | 1.0× |
| Raffles | $1,234 | $1,234 | 1.0× |
| Samabe | $410 | $463 | 1.1× |
| Alila Villas Uluwatu | $785 | $858 | 1.1× |
| Anantara Ubud | $323 | $377 | 1.2× |
| Alila Seminyak | $267 | $321 | 1.2× |
| The Apurva | $630 | $778 | 1.2× |
| Regent | $654 | $884 | 1.4× |
| Four Seasons Sayan | $1,170 | $1,615 | 1.4× |
| InterContinental Sanur | $285 | $416 | 1.5× |
| Komaneka at Keramas | $298 | $465 | 1.6× |
| Desa Potato Head | $208 | $335 | 1.6× |
| Mulia Resort | $370 | $637 | 1.7× |
| InterContinental Bali | $194 | $343 | 1.8× |
| Jimbaran Puri | $313 | $548 | 1.8× |
| The Legian | $524 | $1,016 | 1.9× |
| Alila Ubud | $192 | $368 | 1.9× |
| Hyatt Regency Sanur | $236 | $480 | 2.0× |
| Tanah Gajah | $376 | $760 | 2.0× |
| Capella Ubud | $1,663 | $3,693 | 2.2× |
| COMO Shambhala | $759 | $1,782 | 2.3× |
| The Samaya | $381 | $905 | 2.4× |
| Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay | $805 | $2,062 | 2.6× |
| Bvlgari | $1,891 | $5,133 | 2.7× |
| W Bali | $364 | $1,094 | 3.0× |
| COMO Uma Canggu | $229 | $692 | 3.0× |
| COMO Uma Ubud | $280 | $834 | 3.0× |
| The St. Regis | $870 | $2,798 | 3.2× |
| Amandari | $1,392 | $6,056 | 4.4× |
| Mandapa | $1,368 | $6,011 | 4.4× |
| The Ritz-Carlton | $365 | $2,100 | 5.8× |
| The Laguna | $333 | $1,993 | 6.0× |
| Soori | $1,091 | $6,775 | 6.2× |
Per night, cheapest rate including breakfast, taxes and service, on each hotel’s own website, two nights in mid-November 2026. Children aged four and one. No option for four online: Kayumanis Jimbaran, Viceroy, Bisma Eight and Shore Amora. Not measured: Buahan (adults only), Amankila (closed for renovation until 17 January 2027) and Conrad (booking site down). Samabe showed euros only, converted at 1.14.
What do the numbers say?
The one-bedroom villa is a family’s best friend. Jumeirah, Alila Villas Uluwatu, Samabe and Raffles charge little or nothing extra, because a villa that size already has room for a cot and a small child. The price stays where it is.
The expensive step is the second bedroom. Almost every high factor comes from the same move: the system decides a family doesn’t fit the room or suite, and sends it to a two-bedroom villa. At The Laguna and the Ritz-Carlton, that step turns a room of around $350 into a villa of around $2,000.
Two small children, three bedrooms. Amandari and Mandapa send a four-year-old and a baby to a three-bedroom villa at over $6,000 a night. I don’t think anyone there decided that. The system did.
Same brand, different answer. Four Seasons Sayan has a Family Suite at 1.4 times the price for two. Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay has a Family Pool Villa at 2.6. One brand, one island, and a very different idea of what a family should pay.
Ubud is hard with children. Only Alila Ubud and Anantara keep a family under $400. Everything else in the valley starts at $760 and climbs fast. If your children are small, spend a few nights in Ubud and the rest on the coast, where The Oberoi, the Grand Hyatt, the Andaz and Raffles charge a family nothing extra.
Why would a hotel price a family out?
I wondered about that, and there isn’t one reason. There are four, and they overlap.
The room was designed for two. Occupancy rules are set per room type, and a luxury room with one big bed is officially full with two adults and one child.
The systems don’t handle children well. Every hotel uses different age bands for babies and children, and booking software struggles with it. So many hotels set it cautiously. Often, “no” online means the system can’t say yes, not that the hotel doesn’t want you.
Revenue management does the rest. The discipline is to sell the right room to the right guest at the right price. A family that doesn’t fit the room is steered, automatically, towards a suite or a villa. When a hotel is busy, it has little reason to change that.
And some hotels protect a mood. A quiet hotel full of couples and honeymooners doesn’t necessarily want a pool full of children. Buahan says so openly and admits adults only. A hotel that prices a family at five times the rate is saying the same thing, only more politely.
Each of those makes sense on its own. Together, they optimise the price of one night. A family isn’t worth one night.
Is the website the final word?
Everything above is what a hotel’s website will show you. In my experience, the hotel itself is often more flexible than its website: an extra bed in the room the system said was full, a child who can share, a different room than the one on screen. That’s something an advisor can ask for you, and it’s one of the reasons to book through one.
Some hotels also run offers built for families. The St. Regis has Family Traditions, where children under twelve eat free at every meal, and the Ritz-Carlton has Ritz Kids Paradise and Third Guest On Us. The current family offers are here.
A family isn’t worth one night
Every winter we go back to the same hotel in Austria to ski. Our eldest has been going there for a few years now, and the staff know her. More than that: she knows them. She looks for the same faces when we arrive, and they come to find her. That goes both ways, and it’s the best thing about the place.
That hotel didn’t win one booking from us. It won every winter since, and probably every winter to come. At some point it decided that a family with small children was worth more than the price of a single night, and a four-year-old worked out that she was welcome.
In Bali, one hotel in four has made the same decision. It’s worth knowing which ones.
Travelling with children? Tell us their ages and your dates, and we’ll ask the hotels what the website won’t show you.
PLAN A FAMILY STAY →