I'm wondering if anyone would know why I have not gotten responses from two or three Bed and Breakfast places in Jasper as to availability of a room on a date in September. It's been probably a month or two since I sent inquiries; was it just too early in the year?

Some hosts don't like to take bookings many months in advance, but I think it's more likely something has gone awry. (Booking September from March or April is not that far ahead.)

For starters, the accommodation may not have received your email - perhaps it got snagged as spam by either their ISP's spam filters, or their own. I would suggest re-sending your queries.

The other thing to consider is that perhaps they DID respond, and *your* ISP - or the spam settings on your own computer - is not letting their responses through to you. Messages that have wording in them related to "rates", "bookings" etc. can get caught and deleted.

I know of a couple of B&Bs who will only respond to enquiries that are *directly* to them - if they get an enquiry that is addressed or cc'd to multiple accommodations, they delete it with no response. Although I don't agree with this, their rationale is that they only want guests who are interested in what they offer (which is a "higher end" experience). So if you have been sending out "blanket" enquiries, try sending individually (you can use copy & paste to send the same enquiry in multiple emails, to save re-typing.)

Are you looking to book for only one night? The other possibility is that the homes you are enquiring at have minimum stay policies (most are two nights, a very few are three) - even places that will take one night stays often wont book them very far in advance.

By the way, most of the homes in Jasper are not "Bed and Breakfast", but "private home accommodation" - that is, accommodation with no breakfast. There are 150+ licensed home accommodations in Jasper, and only 15 that offer brekkie.

I own and operate a B&B in Jasper, and reply to each and every enquiry I get, even if I am already booked, as do most of the B&B hosts I know. When I am already booked, I send a referral list of other hosts that I know.

I know that there are a few hosts who are not so diligent about email, however, if you have been enquiring with the places that offer breakfast, if you have not received a single responses, I would be checking your own spam settings/your "safe" list, or your ISP's spam settings. Usually the places that offer breakfast are operated by people that put a little more time and effort into their business and I would be very surprised if NONE of them responded.

This would be a good time to be making September enquiries... most of the B&B hosts in Jasper that I know are getting pretty booked up for June through August, and the September bookings are starting to come in now.

Also, there is an email vacancy & referral network, with about 35 members in it - if you happen to enquire with one of these hosts and they are already booked, they will forward your enquiry to the referral group and you may get a response from someone else who has a vacancy.

Email is usually a better way to enquire, rather than phoning - not only more convenient (and cheaper) for you, but also for the host. Most hosts I know won't return calls unless they have a vacancy for the dates asked for. In high season, it's not unusual to get 20 or 30 calls a day and unfortunately, it's just too time-consuming just to say "sorry, no vacancy", especially considering that many hosts also have a day job and often, a young family. (B&B and home accommodation in Jasper is very common because of high housing costs and high demand for visitor accommodation.)

The two sites I would recommend you use are the Jasper Home Accommodation Association site at www.stayinjasper.com - this one is useful because you can search among the listings to find the right place for you. Some of the choices are bed sizes, breakfast, private bath etc. Also, if you are a larger party (a family of 5, for instance), use the search for "number of guests = 5" to get a list of the homes that can accommodate 5 guests (8 is the maximum at any one home, and many are limited to 2 or 4 - another reason you may not be getting an answer is if you are enquiring at places that cannot accommodate you.)

The other site I recommend is www.bbcanada.com - go through the menus to Alberta, then Rockies, then Jasper. Some of the homes have an availability calendar on their listing page there, so you can check in advance to see if they have availability - this saves you time, in not making enquiries when they're already booked. Also, in general, the homes using the calendar are the ones that are run more professionally - these are the ones that are most interested in making it easy for you to book with them, and also the ones that are more computer-savvy, and therefore, more likely to respond to your enquiry.

Lastly, there is a "contact us" form at the stayinjasper.com site I mentioned earlier. If you are still having difficulty, try that and explain your predicament and someone will respond and try to assist.

Hope this helps!

I had a similar experience in inquiries for a different location and the previous poster is right - it was going to spam.

because i had my spam set to delete without looking at it, i never saw responses and well, felt like you do now!

one person finally did call and explained about the spam and that is how i learned about it. so when i start these types of inquiries now i reset my spam to be held in my bulk folder for 2 weeks so i get a chance to look at it, then if i get something, i move to my in box and then open it.

i found some messages sent from friend and family workplaces were also tagged as spam so i learned a lot!

Why not simply call the place?
Not all that expensive to call Canada and you get direct feedback on the spot.

Thats what I do and have done.

Thanks for your replies.

In answer to some of your points, I was sending individual queries, and only to ones whose ads did not specify needing to book more than one night.

Anyway, I finally did hear back from 2 of them and hope to have a booking confirmed soon.

I appreciate your taking time to give me information. Thank you.

Kwonder

Glad to hear you've had replies, I made some enquiries a few months back and a it took a while for some replies, ( these people had been away and said it was early in the season - January) but the vast majority replied very promptly.