Everything You Need to Know About Kids’ Activity Books for Hotels

Thoughtfully designed activity books for kids can enhance the experience for the entire family. Here’s how they add value:

• Screen-Free Engagement: Provides children with creative and hands-on entertainment that sparks imagination and reduces screen time—giving parents a welcome break and peace of mind.
• Encourages Hotel Exploration: Introduces kids and parents to your hotel’s dining options, facilities and offers through interactive fund and creative activities.
• Builds Cultural Connection: Educates young guests about local history, traditions and landmarks, fostering a sense of place and enriching the family’s travel experience.
• A Cherished Keepsake: Extends the guest experience (and marketing mileage) beyond check-out with a high quality and shareable keepsake that reminds families of their stay.
• Boosts Hotel's Family-Friendly Reputation: Sends a clear message that your hotel prioritises the needs and enjoyment of families. This reassures parents that they made the right decision by choosing your hotel.

Yes, the right kids' activity books can help build guest loyalty and encourage families to come back. When families receive a fun and well-designed activity book, it creates lasting memories that go beyond their hotel stay. These books often become cherished keepsakes that remind both children and parents of the enjoyable times they had at your hotel.

By improving the family experience, a thoughtfully-designed activity book can set your hotel apart from others and encourage positive word-of-mouth. When parents see that you care about their children's enjoyment, they are more likely to return and recommend your hotel to other families.

Investing in bespoke kids’ activity books delivers strong returns—both tangible and intangible. Here’s how hotels benefit:

• Improved Guest Satisfaction & Reviews - Families feel acknowledged and valued when their children are thoughtfully included in the hotel experience. This leads to higher satisfaction scores and more favourable reviews, which directly influence future bookings.
• Higher On-Property Spend - Custom designed activities can encourage families to explore on-site restaurants, shops and services, helping to drive additional revenue for your hotel.
• Organic Marketing & Social Media Buzz - A well-designed activity book creates memorable moments for families. Families often share their experiences about thoughtful details, which helps enhance your brand visibility organically, without the need for advertising.
• Stronger Brand Positioning - Family-friendly offerings like activity books position your hotel as thoughtful, premium and experience-focused. This strengthens your brand equity and helps justify premium pricing.

For most hotels, the sweet spot is children aged 5 to 10 years old. This age group thrives on hands-on experiences and is still very receptive to the appeal of physical books, prior to screens becoming their main source of entertainment. Creating a book that engages this diverse age range necessitates careful planning and a flexible approach.

Not every activity will suit every child perfectly, but the key is to strike the right balance: ensure younger children can participate with minimal help, while offering older kids content that feels challenging and rewarding—not overly simplistic.

The activities in a kids’ activity book should always be intimately connected to the hotel property's unique sense of place and its local culture. Children should be encouraged to interact with, observe and draw inspiration from their surroundings during their stay.

Activities should be open-ended wherever possible, allowing for imagination and personal expression. Additionally, incorporating elements of local culture and educational content helps children learn about the destination in a fun and engaging way. Here are some types of activities that work well to achieve this balance:

• Drawing Prompts
• Coloring Pages
• Word Puzzles
• Scavenger Hunts
• Spot-the-Difference & Matching Games
• Stickers or Stamp Collection

Kids’ activity books designed for hotels should ideally keep children engaged for 2 to 3 days, the typical length of most hotel stays. This duration ensures ongoing entertainment without overwhelming them or causing a loss of interest too quickly.

Absolutely. A kids’ activity book should serve as an extension of your hotel’s unique story, reflecting both its personality and the local surroundings. By doing so, the book becomes a meaningful part of the overall guest experience and helps to reinforces what makes your property special.

Incorporating your hotel’s branding and narrative helps build a stronger emotional connection with families, while weaving in local culture and landmarks educates young guests and deepens their sense of place. This turns the book into a storytelling tool that showcases your hotel’s character and the charm of its destination.

Bespoke kids' activity books are custom-designed specifically for your hotel. These books include tailored content that reflect your hotel brand, property's unique story, on-site facilities and local surroundings. This personalised approach creates a one-of-a-kind experience that aligns seamlessly with your hotel’s identity. Beyond simple entertainment, a bespoke activity book becomes a cherished keepsake that families will want to take home.

In contrast, off-the-shelf books are generic, mass-produced activity books that often serve only as time fillers. While they may offer basic entertainment, they rarely foster any emotional connection to the guests' stay. This lack of personalisation means they do not reinforce the unique appeal of your hotel property.

Custom-made or bespoke kids’ activity books offer a variety of advantages, including:

• Reflects Your Hotel Property’s Unique Story and Brand: Unlike generic options, bespoke kids' activity books are specifically designed for your property, incorporating your hotel’s branding, story, and offerings.
• Showcases Local Culture and Surroundings: These books draw inspiration from your hotel property’s location, introducing children to local landmarks, traditions, and natural features.
• Tailored Activities for Target Age Group: Activities are thoughtfully designed to align with the developmental levels and interests of children aged 5 to 10.
• Acts as a Cherished Keepsake: Beyond their stay, these custom books become treasured mementos that families are eager to take home, increasing the likelihood of repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth referrals.
• Differentiates Your Hotel in a Competitive Market: A bespoke kids’ activity book sets your hotel apart from others that offer generic amenities.

Not only can they be. They should be.

Bespoke or custom kids’ activity books are most impactful when they’re fully aligned with your hotel’s brand identity, property's unique story and location. Each element, from colour palette and illustration style to tone of voice and storyline, should reflect your property’s personality and surroundings.

Whether your hotel is a beachfront resort, a heritage property or a sleek urban escape, a bespoke book can be tailored to include on-property features, dining outlets, architectural details and even your brand mascot. It should also showcase local culture, traditions and attractions in a way that’s educational, engaging and age-appropriate for young guests.

When thoughtfully done, these books become a seamless extension of your hotel property's unique guest experience.

Absolutely! The most effective activity books for kids combine education and fun, seamlessly blending learning with play. When children engage in creative age-appropriate activities that stimulate their curiosity, they absorb knowledge naturally—without it feeling like "schoolwork."

The key is to design activities that encourage kids to explore their surroundings, engage their senses and tap into their creativity. Consider prompts that encourage them to observe local details, such as the colours, textures, sounds or smells around them. You can incorporate challenges that ask them to draw, imagine or invent based on what they see and experience. These experiences foster memorable connections between the child and their environment (your hotel property).

By making education active and immersive, activity books not only entertain, they create more meaningful experiences for the whole family.

Kids’ activity books can be a fun and natural way to introduce children to the world around them. This includes the destination they’re visiting, the hotel they’re staying in and the values the property represents.

Through thoughtfully designed prompts and playful content, these books can highlight local culture, nature, sustainability efforts or the history of the hotel in ways that are easy to understand and enjoyable to explore.

The goal is not to teach in a formal manner but to inspire exploration, observation and creativity.

The quality of print and paper plays a big role in how your activity book is perceived. Durable, well-designed books with vibrant illustrations and thick pages feel thoughtful and premium—making them more likely to be kept as souvenirs. In contrast, flimsy, low-quality books are often discarded and reflect poorly on the guest experience.

For best results, use thick, tear-resistant pages (at least 100 gsm inside, 300 gsm cover) and consider eco-friendly, FSC-certified paper to align with sustainability values. A high-quality book signals care, reinforces your brand and leaves a lasting impression on families.

Each option offers different strengths, and your ideal partner depends on your goals, budget, and timeline:

• Freelancers can be a cost-effective solution, especially for smaller projects. However, you may need to manage multiple freelancers/providers (e.g. designer, illustrator, writer, printer) to complete the project—requiring more oversight and coordination on your part.
• Creative Agencies provide a full-service experience and excel at branding and visual storytelling. But unless they have prior experience in hospitality or children’s content, they may miss the mark when it comes to age-appropriate engagement or destination-specific storytelling.
• Specialist Publishers focused on kids’ activity books for hotels offer deep and relevant expertise. They are able to craft age-appropriate content that engages young guests while seamlessly reflecting your property’s story, brand values and local culture. Beyond content creation, they typically handle everything from design to production and logistics, delivering a polished, professional result with minimal effort on your part. It’s a smarter, more strategic way to create something truly memorable—without the guesswork.

If you're aiming for a product that delights children while reinforcing your hotel’s brand and values, a specialist publisher is often the most effective and low-stress partner.

Questions to Ask Potential Collaborators:

• Have they worked with hospitality or tourism brands before?
• Do they understand how to design for different age groups, especially 5–10 years?
• Can they create content that ties into your property’s physical spaces and local culture?
• Are they familiar with high-quality production standards?
• Can they deliver a balance between playfulness, brand alignment, and educational value?