Multiline input form field using Bootstrap

I think the problem is that you are using type="text" instead of textarea. What you want is:

<textarea class="span6" rows="3" placeholder="What's up?" required></textarea>

To clarify, a type="text" will always be one row, where-as a textarea can be multiple.

The answer by Nick Mitchinson is for Bootstrap version 2.

If you are using Bootstrap version 3, then forms have changed a bit. For bootstrap 3, use the following instead:

<div class="form-horizontal">
    <div class="form-group">
        <div class="col-md-6">
            <textarea class="form-control" rows="3" placeholder="What's up?" required></textarea>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Where, col-md-6 will target medium sized devices. You can add col-xs-6 etc to target smaller devices.