klondike

I have seen people frequently state they have reserved a room through booking.com or venere.com at two different hotels and are asking advice on which hotel they should stay with. My guess is, lots of people do that.

So, my question is, how long do people wait before deciding, right up to the 24hr or 48 hr cut off?

My situtatioon: I found myself not able to stay at my preferred hotel in the 6th for a one night stay and have held a room at the gare du Nord (9:30 am TGV next morning) since last April. The problem is, I'm not crazy about the night-time ambiance of the Gare du Nord and this hotel has recently been getting lots of complaints about lack of cleanliness. Yuck! I must cancel the res. with +24 hrs notice for reund, if I'm not going to stay there.

I'm torn between changing the reservation to a pre-paid, reliable chain like Mercure or Ibis in the 10th, especially since it is only for one night, or waiting and keep checking in with my "preferred" hotel in the 6th to see if there have been any cancellations. I don't want to call every day. This is for Sept 9, and hotels seems really booked.

If a person is going to cancel a reservation, do you think they do it more frequently 1 wk, 2 wks, 48 hrs before their actual date? I don't want to bug the hotel I prefer to stay at, but I don't really think they would call me if a vacancy came up.

1) When do you think are the greatest chances for a cancellation?

2) If it were you, would you chance it to stay in the 6th or tough-it-out in the 10th?

bilboburgler

I book and turn up, disappointed that there are people who like to multi-book etc.

Padraig

I make my decision before I book, and then I stick with it.

I think OP should do one of:
(a) release the room without further delay - holding it is messing the hotel about, and might be frustrating somebody else who actually wants a room there;
(b) decide to honour the booking.

kerouac

I like to book through the Accor hotels site because they hold your room with no guarantee until 19:00 and if you have guaranteed with a card, you can still cancel up to 18:59 with no penalty on the day of arrival (one hour earlier for the F1 desperation motels).

It is also good to know this when you are in a city where everything is fully booked and you have no place to stay -- if you go hang out at an Ibis or Novotel, for example, starting around 18:45 (just to be safe), the computer will often release a half dozen rooms at 7 pm on the dot.

qwovadis

1.most almost all do not cancel there is almost always a 1 night
or more penalty that is why booking grabs your credit card in
the first place.If you can cancel right away and get all your
money back and do not want to stay in your hotel do it now.

2.If I could not cancel without penalty
I would suck it up for 1 nite.

No clue bout your budget

Utrillo is a cheap but nice hotel

hotel-collegedefrance.com cute my personal fav...

betterbidding.com have gotten a tonne of greaat deals
on priceline bidding also hotwire.com over the years
most recently Meridien Etoile and Marriott Rive Gauche
from $80-89 bidding priceline super values.

ratestogo.com lastminute.com great sites for last minute dcs

Happy Hunting,

annhig

nice tip kerouac re accor hotels.

I confess that i have been known to book a "banker" hotel and then hunt around for something better. sometimes I cancel, most times I don't.

hotels must know that this happens and it is presumably something that they take into a/c when contracting with the hotel-booking sites; the up-side for them is that they get more business through the sites than without them.