Concerned about my Amboise hotel....
 

I am trying to book the Le Clos d'Amboise hotel in Amboise. I posted on here about it before and no one had stayed there (also no tripadvisor feedback that I can find) but it looked nice enough from the website (www.leclosamboise.com). I emailed them to reserve a room and they responded saying they needed my cc info. I emailed it to them (I know I probably should have faxed it but it is a platinum card w/good protection so if somebody uses it I don't think I'll have a problem). They responded saying they needed my cc number (even though I already sent it). I emailed with the number again. That was a week ago, no response. Emailed them again yesterday, no response.

Now I am getting a bit nervous....should I forget this hotel and find another? I want to buy my discovering together train tickets while they are still available but won't book until I know I have a hotel for sure.

audreyleight, I don't know where your hotel is (in fact I do not know where Amboise is) but if I were you I would contact your creditcard co. to see if the charge has been put through. And to make it sure it was not put through twice. Hope all works out for you ((*))

Sorry, Amboise is in the Loire Valley, France. I'm lucky enough to have two trips going on right now, a short one to France and they my longer one to Italy :). Good idea, I will see if the cc was charged. But even if it was I'm not so confident with the hotel at this point....

It's a little early to write off no response from yesterday, maybe they will.

Some hotels in France don't actually respond when you make a reservation, I've found. They just sort of assume it is made -- you have to sometimes request a confirmation. Also, is it possible they didn't understand your email? Was it in French or English, or just filling in the reservation form on the page? It's possible there were some computer glitches and they didn't get the number on a computer form, I've had that happen. It's also possible they have some computer/email problems of their own, although maybe someone works at email reservations parttime and they just haven't got around to you yet (some of those places aren't really open that much in winter -- I've had waits of 1-2 weeks for email responses for reasons like that elsewhere).

I think calling your CC company to find out if the charge was made is a good idea -- then I'd FAX the info and ask what the deal was, instead of relying on email, if you don't want to call.

I wouldn't be worried. It's common for these hotels to be very slow at replying to reservation requests this time of year. I have been to Amboise twice in the last three years and make reservations in January for summer and it takes a month to get a final confirmation. These hotels are usually not open now and are not staffed everyday to answer e-mail.I know your hotel and it is reliable; they will respond. I use the Hotel Belle-Vue when in Amboise. Amboise is a great little town. I just finally got a confirmation a few days ago for a hotel in Collioure, France that I first contacted and gave my credit card information to in November. I know the manager and stay there often and know they will not respond quickly this time of year. Not at all uncommon but admittedly a little disconcerning.

Be sure to see Chateau Chenonceau and Villandry while in Amboise. Chinon and Tours make nice day trips also.

Larry J

For future reference what you might want to do is ask the hotel to e-mail you a confirmation of the reservation after they have received your credit card details. I have never had a problem with receiving a confirmation e-mail whether or not I have asked for one and this includes hotels in France.
There, I disagree that these hotels "don;t usually confirm"...in my experience they have always done so.

If you have a phone number for them I would call them and verify that they have received the CC details and that the reservation is confirmed before I gave up on it.

Many of us e-mail our CC #'s and have never had a problem. Faxing the #'s isn't any MORE secure than e-mailing because you have no idea, with either method, who is looking at the details on the other end.

It's funny that Larry mentions Hotel Belle Vue. We booked there about 10 months ahead after they could guarantee us the room with the big terrace facing the river. When we arrived they didn't have our reservation. I proudly pulled out my copy, and after studying it, the girl finally said, "OH I see. You did this a long time ago. We don't keep our records that long. But don't worry, we still have "some" rooms left." She couldn't understand why we refused to stay there and take a tiny back room at our originally quoted same price.
That's when we learned if booking way ahead to reconfirm within a month of arrival.

Thanks for all the responses. I feel a little better knowing that it isn't unusual for hotels in the area to be slow in responding, I thought this might be the case, or that there might be some sort of holiday going on or something.

My last email was in english, since the person who responded to my first email seemed proficient. It was just strange because their email telling me they needed my cc # was a "respond" to my email sending the cc#, when I scrolled down my cc# was clearly included in my first email (hope I'm making this clear!).

Intrepid1, that is a good idea but I actually did ask them to confirm the reservation in my email. I will make sure to re-confirm shortly b/f I leave for Amboise. Again, thanks everyone.

A little bit of an update on this - I checked with my cc and the hotel has not charged it yet. And still no response from the hotel yet. Ugh, this is frustrating!

Hello,

The manner in which Le Clos d' Amboise has responded to you is in stark contrast to the way that another Amboise hotel (Manior les Minimes) has responded to me. They have been very forthcoming with responses and have confirmed many details very promptly.

http://www.manoirlesminimes.com/

The Manior has also been reviewed on Trip Advisor:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._la_Loire.html

While we have not yet stayed there, the professional manner in which our reservation has been handled has been great!

Le Manoir les Minimes deserves the praise and business that it gets. We stayed there Oct '04 and were very pleased. Excellent location to be if driving, as it is just off D751 (I think that is the road). Rooms are nice, breakfast fine (can walk about 2-3 blocks into town if you want something less expensive), staff cordial, dog huge (but passive:) )

Okay, I finally called the hotel and found out what is going on! Apparently the hotel is closed right now and the family that runs it is on vacation. I called and after trying to explain what I wanted in french I was able to reach someone that spoke english (thank goodness, because my pathetic attempt at french would likely have resulted in me reserving a room for the wrong month or something). They were very nice and will be returning next week and assured me they will confirm via email as soon as they get back. So it looks like I don't need to worry :)

Travelnut and Steffen thanks for the info on Le Manoir les Minimes, it looks beautiful I actually did consider it when I was first looking for a hotel, but it is just a bit more than I want to spend.