In the UK a "cot" is a small bed with bars all the way round that you put a baby or toddler in.
Since I've just received a booking from people from the US for a "cot for our 10 year old son" I'm guessing it has a slightly different meaning across the pond ???
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If you wanted hotel facilities you should have booked a hotel and paid hotel prices!!!
I could only laugh and think of this discussion here. We have a college graduation, the long and short of it is we have a two night min and have parents scheming to get out of that.
One couple rented two rooms for the two nights. Then she called and changed it to one for one night. etc etc the games have been going on.
Yesterday, one who rented two rooms emailed to say their one son can sleep on a cot on the floor in their room, and they wouldn't need to second room. Well, you paid for it, so use it or not, it is yours, I didn't even reply, it was on the day. They arrived at 930pm last night btw.
So today, I meet the parents and the son who was supposed to be given a cot to sleep in their room, he is TWENTY TWO YEARS OLD. A MAN. NOT A KID.
I was thinking of HighlandsJohn who was guessing a cot was for a baby, and how funny that would have been to have one in their room for him!
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Gluten free is never free. - Joey Bloggs
Try this. On confirmations write "Please note: Reservations cannot be modified, they will simply be cancelled. You are then welcome to rebook, subject to the current price and conditions of minimum stay. Please govern yourself accordingly."
You would be surprised how many people think twice about pulling those tricks. When they email me, I tell them that the software does not allow me to modify reservations because the terms have not been electronically signed, but I will gladly cancel their stay. They will need to rebook the room themselves, subject to availability and minimum stay. Sorry about that.
The reality, once you modify a reservation for a guest, the electronic signature is no longer valid. If you want to protect yourself they need to make that reservation, again, electronically.
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By coincidence, on the subject of minimum stays.............
We have a two night minimum from may -Sept, but I'm pretty flexible about it, if a booking backs on to another and it's May or September I'll take it (if I'm in a good mood). I have a booking for two rooms late September for 1 night, it's towards the end of the month and it'll be quietening down by then, so I took it. Leaves 1 room available for that night.
Had an email this afternoon from someone wanting two rooms for 3 nights, the above booking is the middle night so can't do it (a pain I know, but I took the booking). But in the email she says "Given your note that "We reserve the right to decline one night bookings" I wonder if that booking could be restructured to accommodate our booking.
Restructure................is that a new code word for cancel their booking and take ours? Really? You want me to cancel their booking and take yours? And if another group of 4 come along and want say 4 nights are you happy for me to "restructure" your booking to accept theirs??
we have a neighbour who frequently does this "has a plumbing emergecy" and books people out. Dont think its the right way to do business - if they make a contract with me - then thats the deal - how do we expect people to honour their bookings if we don't?
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Don't mess with me today or I will kill you!!!!
We often get frantic parents calling right before graduation when they are finally told by the graduate that the residence halls close IMMEDIATELY after graduation is over. (So, around 4 PM.) They need a place for the grad to sleep. It's tough when the college kicks the fledgling out of the nest so 'abruptly'!
Some parents know this (from other kids) or they actually read the info and they book in advance. And then the graduate tells them they made other plans so we get cancels the week before. It all works out.
(Won't compromise on the two night min, tho. Someone snuck in with 2 rooms for a single night last year because I didn't have a chance to set the min when their rez came in. Will not do that again!)
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Everyday, for good or ill, we intersect with some else's story and become a part of it.
A roll-away bed of some sort. Torture to some of us.
Torture? My kid brother slept on a roll-away for 3 years until his student loans were paid off. He slept with his feet flat on the floor - he is 7'1".
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Then there are these little cots, called "finger cots" that doctors sometimes slip on to do exams without putting on a full-sized glove. I think I'd just go with the full glove!
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All saints can do miracles, but few of them can keep hotel. ~ Mark Twain
Of course you had to go in that direction... 
Good grief, I don't know of any health professional that doesn't use a full glove with universal precautions.
Finger cots are also used by people that handle a lot of documents or having to count papers.
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People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.
~ Anton Chekhov
Of course you had to go in that direction... Good grief, I don't know of any health professional that doesn't use a full glove with universal precautions.
Finger cots are also used by people that handle a lot of documents or having to count papers.
Or cut themselves on Chopped.
...I don't know of any health professional that doesn't use a full glove with universal precautions.
And how do they get the thing off their finger without touching it and contaminating the clean hand! Definitely a cot of a bygone era...I hope!
Here in my part of the world (mid west) cot = roll-a-way
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"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..."
Mark Twain
Cot is anything from a piece of canvas over pieces of wood supporting it (a la Army cot and uncomfortable as hell) to a piece of canvas held up by steel rods with supports on springs (the kind I have - still not "comfortable" but not bad as there are supports at 3 places that attach to the steel rods with heavy springs) that we used when camping. - to rollaways. It covers a lot of territory to be referred to as an extra bed. As said, something with railings to keep the little bugger where he belongs (until they learn to climb out of it) is a crib. Ours are used for toddlers to teens and i put an "egg-crate" foam covered with a mattress pad and then sheets on them. It is about 8 inches off the floor and when folded up and in its canvas case takes up as much space as a folding camp chair.
That was my suspicion, my concern was did they mean to put "10 month old" when they put "10 year old".
The other thing this brings to mind is do you even TAKE 3 in a room or did they just assume it was no big deal?
We do get that a fair amount here - 'Just put a roll away in the room for the kid (my sister, my aged aunt, my mother, whomever).'
'Just' is something we don't do!
In my vernacular that just means "We can toss the ten year old anywhere" I don't think they expect you to have a cot. People don't have cots here at lodging establishments. Roll-away bed or futon or something is probably what they mean, or the kid is with us, he can sleep anywhere.
A typical cot. Not very comfortable!
BTW, it was the height of cool when I was a kid to get to sleep in the camp bed. It was nothing more than canvas laced into an aluminum frame. It was probably less involved than a standard beach chair is now! Everyone wanted the cot instead of the regular bed!
Couple of ideas on local meaning...a camp bed. (Like you used to see in old safari or war movies.)
A fold-away bed. One that folds up in the middle to store in a closet.
Oddly, I just got one from your side of the pond asking for a cot and I think they wanted a crib. Which we don't have.
