There are plenty of different age restrictions to keep track of when you’re an international traveler, and one of the most important ones are to be absolutely sure if you are able to book hotel rooms or not.
Imagine trying to check in to your hotel room only to find out that you are below the age requirement to stay in the room! I can’t imagine a much worse start to a Norway adventure..
So what’s the deal with the age requirements in Norway? Can you book a hotel at 18 in Norway, or do you need to be even older? We’re going to take a closer look at the age requirements to stay at hotel rooms in Norway in this article.
Pretty much all of Norway’s hotels have an age requirement of 18 years old. It is sufficient that one person using the room is 18 years or older. It’s illegal for the hotels to have an age requirement that is above 18, so anyone above the age of 18 can book any hotel room.
The biggest hotel chains like Thon Hotels, Strawberry (previously known as Nordic Choice Hotels), and Scandic Hotels all operate with an age requirement of 18 years to book a room.
It’s enough for 1 person to be over the age of 18, so it’s perfectly possible for an 18 year old to stay in a hotel room with a younger person. It does not matter if that younger person is a sibling, a relative or even just a friend or significant other, as long as one person is over 18.
Norwegian law has set 18 years to be the time when you’re considered an adult, and at that point you have access to pretty much all the things that adults do, including the option to book hotel rooms.
Can hotels allow people under 18 to book hotel rooms?
I have heard of some cases where teenagers are allowed to book a hotel room, but this is typically done under the pretense where the parents are put in charge of liability. However, none of the hotel chains publicly shares that they occasionally makes exceptions.
This means that anyone under the age of 18 should contact the hotel directly, or get their parents or guardians to contact the hotel. The hotel are by no means required to accept guests under 18 if they are traveling alone, so you might not be able to book the room.
It is somewhat common for hotels to make exceptions under certain circumstances, such as when children’s sport groups are on camps and things like that.
There’s nothing that prevents the hotels from accepting guests under 18, other than their own internal rules. It’s perfectly legal from a Norwegian law point of view to offer for teenagers to book hotel rooms, granted that they prepay.
Do some hotels have age requirements higher than 18 to book a room?
It’s not legal for hotels to operate with an age restriction that is higher than 18, for the most part. Norway has a pretty strict law against age discrimination, meaning that it’s illegal to refuse anyone service based on the age unless they have a valid reason to.
There’s not really any good reasons to deny service to certain age groups in the hotel industry, which means that you are able to book a hotel at 18 in Norway.
Keep in mind that it is legal to deny services to minors under the age of 18, which is why most hotels have the age limit at 18 years old.
You might be asked for ID to check in to your room
It’s common to have to show your ID when checking in to a hotel room in Norway. The reason is not mainly because to check the guest’s age, but rather as a safety measure for the hotel to make sure who the person checking in really is.
So be prepared to bring and show your passport to the hotel staff when you check in to your room. Generally speaking, passports, national ID cards, and banking cards with a photo on them are considered valid IDs. But this is also up to the hotel, so they might accept other types of IDs if they choose to.
You might get declined as a guest if you don’t have any ID, both due to age related concerns, as well as other concerns.