A Luxembourg hotel where children are barred

A hotel in Mondorf-les-Bains is believed to be the only one in Luxembourg to refuse entry to children, amid a growing trend in France towards adult-only resorts and hotels.

Research on some digital hotel booking platforms by Contacto found that the Hotel Casino 2000 does not permit children. “To access the hotel, you have to go through the casino and as the casino is reserved for adults, the hotel automatically has to refuse entry to children, even babies,” explained Cindy Majchrzak, the hotel’s manager.

It comes as a rising number of hotels in France bar children, a practice which should be outlawed, according to French senator and former families minister Laurence Rossignol.

“We can’t organise society by separating children off from ourselves in the same way some establishments don’t take dogs,” he told The Guardian earlier this year. “Children aren’t troublesome pets.”

Cindy Majchrzak, manager of Hotel Casino 2000 © Photo credit: Dominika Montonen Koivisto

At Hotel Casino 2000, which has 28 rooms and five suites and employs about a dozen people, the rule is scrupulously adhered to, said Majchrzak. “It happens that guests arrive who haven’t realised that the hotel is ‘adults only’, even though it says so. So we’ve had customers arrive with children and we’ve had to turn them away,” she said.

As well as the hotel, the restaurants and bars in the casino complex are off-limits to minors. Even Chapito, the venue’s theatre, doesn’t allow children, with a few exceptions for events where entry is through the gallery.

Diverse clientele

Majchrzak said she is unaware of the existence of other adult-only hotels in Luxembourg, but added she does not believe Casino 2000 is sought out by customers specifically for that reason.

The hotel’s manager stressed that the establishment welcomes not only customers who come to gamble, but also tourists in general, especially those wishing to use the thermal baths in the town.

Without children, Majchrzak said, the atmosphere is different, not least because the casino is open until 04:00 at weekends, meaning there is more noise. Being able to accommodate children “brings in another clientele”, said the manager, who has worked at several different hotels.

Exact number of adult-only establishments unknown

The federation that represents hotels, cafés and restaurants, Horesca, said it does not have data on the number of establishments that prohibit minors from entering, nor does the tourism ministry.

“We can’t indicate either the number, the proportion or the extent of customer demand in this segment,” a spokesperson for the ministry said in a response to Contacto, adding that, in general, the national tourism policy is centred a diverse offering which aims to meet the expectations of different audiences: families, couples, tourists travelling alone, lovers of nature and outdoor activities (cycling and hiking) or culture.

(This article was originally published by Contacto. Machine translated, with editing and adaptation by John Monaghan.)