Sometimes hotels don't open their schedules a year out and often times chain hotels such as the LeMeridien which is basically in sight of the Cologne station do.

If you are wanting a particular hotel which has not opened their calendar yet I would E-MAIL them, give your date and ask for a rate quote. I have done this MANY times, particularly to non-chain-affiliated hotels in Europe and the vast majority of times they have responded with a quote. Only a few have said they don't know the rates yet and those have told me when they WILL know the rates.

There is an international textile trade fair at the Messe from 8-11 May 2012. That may be affecting room availability.

Thank you both for this helpful information. Now I am aware of the trade fair and have good advice for getting a hotel with a better location. Now if someone could just do something about the high room rates I'm finding Deborah

Honestly Cologne is not worth paying the high convention rates. You can stay in Duesseldorf and train to Cologne in one hour or maybe even less. The trains and S bahn can get really crowded during rush commute hours. Once I had to stand during the entire ride since I didn't reserve a seat. You can enjoy Cologne in one day, see the tall cathedral then explore the maze of shopping alleys.

If Duesseldorf is too costly, you can also consider staying in Bonn.

Or you stay in Aachen which is a 50 min. train ride to Cologne. Aachen itself is a pretty small city. I like it better than Düsseldorf, although the latter is only between 20-30 mins. by train to Cologne.

Try also www.hotels.de who do a pretty comprehensive job in Germany, and also have very flexible booking terms. I use booking.com a lot, but for Germany always go first to hotels.de (for instance, that night they have a hotel 0.2 miles from the station for 63 Euro, and another one that gets very high customer ratings 0.3 miles from the station for 86 Euro).

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd prefer to stay in Cologne as we are only there as an overnight to see the Cathedral.

I did check out hotels.de and for the 9th I didn't see anything for 63 or 86 euros. I'll check again. What I did see was most of the hotels did not offer free cancellation. I would like to be able to cancel at least up to a month ahead of our date without a penalty, just in case more hotels become available for our date. Thanks again, Deborah

Try www.hrs.com

Hello Deborah,

Just to pass on my good fortune. I'll be in Cologne on 21-23 Dec (gotta see that Christmas Market). I booked my hotel on Priceline.com and will be staying at the Renaissance Cologne Hotel. I got the room for $65 bucks a night, a total of $153.92 for the two nights including taxes. I booked the room on 17 Sep. It's supposed to be a 5 star hotel, but I guess I'll find out when I get there. Not sure why it's 5 star when I'll also be staying at Marriotts in Ghent and Brussels rated 4 stars. Anyway, if you are interested in trying Priceline, check the websites Betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com. They can give you some instructions for bidding on Priceline, using Hotwire (another discount site without the bidding) and what successes others have had, the winning hotel names, and the price they paid. On my two week trip next month, I used Priceline for Brussels, Ghent, Amsterdam, and Cologne. Lowest was the $65 and the highest was $77 in Amsterdam.

The Renaissance is .6 Miles from the Railway station/Dom, but there is a U-ban (subway) stop about 200 yds from the hotel according to Google maps. I did a quick search on betterbidding, and the Renaissance and the Marriott (closer to the train station) were the two primary hotels people had won using Priceline. Bids were $55 to $65.

bterrbidding.com best deals from $60 or so big cities

bidding priceline hotwire.com wait till 4-4 mos B4 trip.

www.otel.com great discount cash no bid site works well also

Best deals/prices usually closer in to actual dates though.

Another tip join all the preferred guest clubs it is free

Do credit cards for free discount stays spg.com etc

U will get FREE suites club floor upgrades even with

priceline.com if you ask the manager nicely they are

required to upgrade preferred guests

to the VERY BEST available.. $80 for the biggest suite

at the marriott Zurich for me not long ago reg 2000 euro/nt

try hrs.com as quokka said
it's the market leader in germany and usually gets you a very permissive cancellation policy (usually no fee until date of 1st night) and no pre-payments.

Cologne is quite an ugly city, not worth staying there overnight in my opinion.

Thanks for the comments. Karen, we'll accept a less than attractive city so that we can visit Germany's largest cathedral, undamaged by bombings and an Unesco World Heritage Site.

Unfortunate for us the one day we can schedule time in Cologne is our arrival day from the US. I don't think our travel wits will be their sharpest so overnighting in Cologne will be easier on us but not our budget since we arrive during one of Cologne's many trade fairs. The Cathedral is one of my Germany "must sees" Thanks again, Deborah