I am in Europe at present on a three month holiday and apart from Mykonos and Athens where my bookings on arrival were held every other one I made had not been registered. this included Paris, Zurich and Brussels. Also email enquiries I sent to France months ago have still never been acknowledged. My advice is not to book by email or on the internet and avoid all booking agencies altogether, I tried one for France and had nothing but trouble with them. Thy couldn't have cared less about my finding a suitable room but were only concerned about taking the money out of my credit card. I am not using them and will not use after this experience. Would like to hear comments on this.

<BR>Booked 4 different hotels in 4 different locations last fall in France via email and had absolutely no problems. However I did ask for confirmation and recv. same. Did you deal directly with the hotels?

I have never had a problem booking hotels via the Internet, and then reconfirming the reservations by email prior to departure. Some hotels besides sending me confirmations by email have also reconfirmed by either fax or snail mail.<BR><BR>My trip in 2001 to Prague was made through a booking service via email and I had no problem. I even arranged for pick up from the airport through the booking service and the driver was waiting in the airport lobby with a sign with my name on it. In 2002, I used a similar service for Budapest and again had no problems. Same for my trip to London a few weeks ago.<BR><BR>I'm staying at 4 different hotels in Spain in March, and all of the arrangements were made either by email or telephone. I have received written confirmations from all of the establishments.<BR><BR>Possibly, you should have reconfirmed your reservations prior to departure. By the way, did you receive written confirmations and bring them with you to the hotels? It doesn't sound like you did based on what you have written.

Last summer stayed in 28 European hotels. Two were booked with an agency by internet because I couldn't reach the hotels directly. One hotel didn't have email and I did that direct with fax. All the others were booked by internet directly, but two faxed me confirmations rather than email. Did not have a single problem with any of the reservations. I had copies of the emailed confirmations with me, but never needed one. Was on the defensive ready to argue if they charged me more than was quoted, but every place was right on the money.

Maybe you have a problem with your online provider. I have booked numerous hotels (England, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Ireland) over the Net and never had a problem. As someone else mentioned, bring a copy of the hotel confirmation with you and re-confirm a few days before.

I book on the internet directly with the hotels and never have had a problem-always have confirmation and have paid a deposit. My question is: what is the best and safest means of giving your credit card number for the deposit

I have tried over the last week to book 3 different hotels in the Burgundy area via e-mail, and have not had replies from any of them. Someone suggested to me that they might be closed for a period of time in the winter. Anyway, I know what this poster is talking about.

Let me clarify one part of my post above. Although I had no problem with the confirmations once I arrived, making the reservations took a little more effort. A number of the hotels seemed to keep ignoring my original emails, sometimes I emailed three or four times before I got a response. A couple of places were apparently closed for the winter and I thought I'd never hear from them. One hotel in Sardinia kept dead-ending whether I emailed, faxed, or even called to get a totally unintellegible recording. Finally a poster here from Europe offered to call and at last that reservation was made. But it still took three of four more emails later before finally getting a written confirmation from them.<BR><BR>Perhaps part of the problem was that I was booking so far ahead. But I have already done all my reservations (13 of them) for next summer and I have everything confirmed except a hotel in Garmisch. Incidentally all these were done by email -- no faxes at all.

To those who asked a question, yes to those but maybe better luck next time, however with my experience of dealing with hotels in France I still wouldn't rely on any of them. Email, fax or otherwise.

Good idea, Kathy. From your original post: &quot;I tried ONE in France. . .&quot;<BR><BR>It's always a good idea to never give an entire country a second chance after having a problem with a single business. Yep, very good policy. Smart girl.

I am glad that there is someone like Patrick who actually defines what it means by &quot;not having a single problem.&quot;<BR><BR>The reservation I had made by email and internet were kept at the price promised. While others may define these outcomes as having &quot;not a single problem,&quot; they were far from trouble free in making them for me. Like Lisa, Patrick, and Kathy, less than half the hotels were reserved by simple transactions ending in written confirmations. Perhaps, as Patrick said, I booked too far in advance for reservations during the peak season. I always end up having to call the hotel directly and rely on the verbal confirmations for the most part.

And of course, the location and the particular hotels do make a difference. I have had virtually no problem making next summmer's bookings by email -- but they're mainly in Germany and Switzerland, which tend to be a little more organized and email efficient. Last year's bookings in Corsica, Sardinia, Lipari, and remote parts of southern Italy were far more difficult.<BR><BR>And xxx makes a good point. Kathy tried one hotel in France and had a problem and now says she would never rely on any hotel in France?

I have never had a problem and never had a reservation not honored and I have never re-confirmed. That refers to my 25 years of traveling, I guess, but I've been using email for inquiries or making reservations for about five years now, I guess. <BR><BR>NOw, to clarify, as Patrick did -- yes, I had some hotels not respond. That is not a reservation to me as their was no response. If it were a place I really wanted to stay or somewhat unique, I might contact them again within a week, just in case something happened. That almost always got me a response (if it didn't, then clearly I wasn't going to spend any more time with them) and usually they would say they were full. I learned that certain hotels will not respond (mostly to FAXes, but sometimes emails) if they are full. IN a couple cases, it was low season and that was why they hadn't answered promptly, which I understood. <BR><BR>I have only used a booking agent once, in London, which was recommended a lot on this board so I felt comfortable with it (www.londontown.com). I did not reconfirm with them but there wasn't any need to as the hotel itself I had booked with sent me a couple followup emails to confirm or offer some service, so they clearly had my reservation. I would never use a booking agency that required you to pay them for the booking or that required prepayment. As I said, I rarely use one anyway, as there isn't usually much point to that rather than going to the hotel directly, but I did like Londontown a lot and the easy comparison of good hotels and good rates.<BR><BR>I have made reservations by email with French hotels (one I've been staying at ten years) quite a bit with no problem. Email is just a way of transmission of a letter which is a lot quicker and cheaper than regular mail or FAXes. Of course, I have always gotten confirmation of a reservation (by FAX or email)-- to me, you don't have one without a confirmation.

I have had no &quot;problems&quot; that weren't solved before we left. This includes a 3 week tour (on our own) of Italy and a week in Paris and one in London. Obviously it isn't hard if you are only dealing with one hotel for like, a full week. But with a trip where we stayed two or three nights at each destination, I left a couple of unreserved nights so we could have some flexibililty. (It worked well.) I also phoned one place, from which I had NOT heard from directly. It turned out he was closed, having done some construction, but had not yet received government approval to reopen! I did find alternate accomodations, and this was in a small Tuscan town and when he did return my call, he was ready to make alternate arrangements for me.

I read all the prior comments with great interest. Has anyone ever used hotelnet.uk.com for reservations? I found a terrific price for Prague but since I have to pay up front I am a little leery. <BR>Thanks