A Nanny Who's Always on Vacation

By ANDREA PETERSEN

Families are increasingly using specialized "travel nannies" for family trips and vacations, as more parents want to travel with young children but also take advantage of more grownup activities in far-flung locales. Andrea Petersen explains on Lunch Break. Photo: Four Seasons.

When Lisa Molvar headed to the Cayman Islands last year with her husband and then 3-year-old daughter, Mia, she knew she wanted some grown-up-only time, too. But she didn't feel comfortable handing Mia off to one of the resort's baby sitters. And she didn't have a regular nanny who could come along on the trip. So Ms. Molvar hired a travel nanny.

In exchange for all travel expenses and a daily or hourly rate, a travel nanny can parachute into a family trip and turn it into an actual vacation for parents, too. Unlike with most hotel baby sitters, parents can personally vet—and try out—a travel nanny in advance, easing anxieties about leaving a child with an unfamiliar sitter. Some travel nannies offer vacation-specific skills: an ace skier or swimmer, perhaps. Flexibility is a major upside. When child-care is literally in the room next door, parents don't have to say no to that impromptu spa treatment or sunset cocktail.

"We were able to go golfing and spend time with friends who don't have kids," says Ms. Molvar, a 34-year-old real estate developer from Boston. "We just preferred to pay the added expense and to have the peace of mind that [our daughter] was with someone we really trusted." Indeed, Ms. Molvar's travel nanny, Tiffany Chapman, had occasionally baby-sat for Mia since she was a newborn.

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Christine Novota

Travel nanny Tiffany Chapman, left, regularly vacations with Peter Coppedge, right, and his parents. Here they are in Florida in 2009, with friend Chase Novota, center.

As more families choose to bring young children to luxury hotels and resorts, a growing number of services are being unrolled to make it easier to have adult-time. Elaborate daytime children's program are nearly de rigueur, but now, hotels are expanding evening programs for kids, responding to demand from parents who want to sneak out for a romantic dinner. About a year ago, after seeing a growing number of families traveling with nannies, the Four Seasons Resort Vail extended its "Angel" program for families to nannies. Upon check-in, the "angel" (one of the hotel's managers) contacts the nanny to arrange for any needed baby gear (bathtubs, toddler beds, etc.) and to plan activities.

Sensible Sitters Inc., a New York-based firm, specializes in referring college students and recent college graduates to families looking for travel nannies or temporary baby sitters. The company charges $250 per day for up to two children for the services of a travel nanny and $300 for three children. Families also pay all travel expenses, food and lodging. (Nannies usually end up sharing a room with the kids). Nannies are supposed to work no more than 12 hours in a day. Vanessa Wauchope, Sensible Sitters' founder and chief executive, recommends first having a potential travel nanny do a few short baby sitting stints before a big trip to make sure of a good fit.

Other established travel nannies find work primarily through word-of-mouth, says Donna Robinson, 62, an Austin, Texas-based travel nanny who has been doing the work since 1998. Ms. Chapman says she often gets new clients while she's working, "I'll be down at the pool working with one family and people will overhear the situation," she says.

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Rosewood Hotels

The Rosewood Mayakoba resort in Mexico launched a 'night camp' for kids last year, giving parents the chance for adults-only dinners.

Kitty Gabal

Kitty Gabal, 28, is in demand as a travel nanny, partly because of her skiing skills.

Four Seasons

The Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai in Thailand has sitters show up with costumes and games.

About 44% of leisure travelers said they traveled with children in 2012, up from 41% in 2010, according to a recent survey of 2,524 travelers by marketing and research firms MMGY Global and Harrison Group.

Most luxury hotels offer in-room baby-sitting for guests, usually for an hourly fee. Many city properties contract with established local baby sitting agencies. More remote resort properties tend to use their own staff, usually pulling them from the children's program, concierge desk and housekeeping. Most do criminal background checks and require CPR training.

Some hotels are upgrading that typical babysitter-in-the-room experience. A year ago, the Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai in Thailand launched "themed baby sitting." Parents and kids can choose among Fairy Tale, Super Hero and "Lanna Style." Babysitters come to the room equipped with the appropriate games and dress-up costumes—Snow White, Spider-Man and traditional northern Thai outfits, respectively. "Instead of the parents saying 'we've got a baby sitter, see ya later,' they can walk away saying 'they are going to have a good time,' " says Scott Taber, vice president of rooms, Americas at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. The price for a two-hour session is about $127 plus tax and service charge. Each extra hour is about $33.

As an alternative to one-on-one baby sitting, more hotels are launching or expanding evening programs for kids, particularly during peak family travel times. Last year, the 128-suite Rosewood Mayakoba in Mexico unveiled a "night camp" for kids from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The complimentary program includes pirate-themed parties, scavenger hunts and Mexican fiesta nights with piñatas. "We're getting more and more families traveling," says Graeme Davis, the hotel's managing director. "We knew that the guest was asking for this."

Also, relaxed, kid-free parents are more likely to order dessert or that pricey bottle of wine at a hotel's restaurant. "Having the kids program and keeping the parents on property is bolstering the spend on property," says Paul McCormick, vice president and general manager at La Costa Resort and Spa, a 610-room resort in Carlsbad, Calif., which has been running weekend evening programs for kids since 2006. The price, including dinner, is $60 for one child, $40 each for siblings. (As part of the agreement to participate in the 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. program, parents are required to remain on the resort's property.)

More parents are using national Internet-based services such as Sittercity.com to find baby sitters at a vacation destination. The Chicago-based site, which lets parents post jobs and view profiles and reviews of potential sitters, says 8% of its parents looked for a "vacation sitter" outside their home state so far in 2012, double the percentage from all of 2011. The most popular vacation spot where families look for sitters is Hilton Head, S.C., followed by New York City, Las Vegas and Palm Beach, Fla., says Melissa Marchwick, Sittercity.com's senior vice president.

Hiring a travel nanny who meets you at your home, however, means parents get help in that epicenter of kid meltdowns: the airplane. Kitty Gabal, a 28-year-old travel nanny and student from Westport, Conn., says that even the most hands-on parents usually let her handle the kids during the journey. "The parents kind of want to sit back and relax and watch a movie and the kids are yours," she says. "It's fine. That's why you're being paid." Ms. Chapman, the nanny who traveled with Ms. Molvar, writes out a tentative schedule of activities for each plane ride in advance, breaking the trip down into 30 minute increments.

Many families turn to travel nannies because their own baby sitter doesn't have the right documentation to travel internationally or because they have family or school responsibilities that limit their availability for trips, says Sensible Sitters' Mrs. Wauchope.

Susan Coppedge has hired Ms. Chapman to travel with her, her husband and her now 13-year-old son, Peter, about four times a year for the last 10 years for trips to North Carolina, Cape Cod, New York and a vacation home in Florida. "The driving force for me is knowing my child is safe and that they are having a good time," says Ms. Coppedge, a 52-year-old financial adviser at Morgan Stanley in Boston. Another perk, she says, is getting to outsource some of the less appealing vacation excursions. When in New York, for example, "they can go to the M&M store and Ruby Foo's and all those places I don't want to traipse around to," she says.

Write to Andrea Petersen at andrea.petersen@wsj.com