Do I need a French phone number for reservations?
 

Hello fellow travelers,

I will be headed to Paris for a week and Provence for a week in June with family and friends (11 people in all--crazy, right?).

I've been doing a lot of research on Fodor's forums and TripAdvisor about whether or not to get a SIM card at a French telecom company for my unlocked HTC One phone. I came across a several years old thread on TA that indicated that in order to make reservations at restaurants I would need to provide a French phone number, not a US based phone number--even if the US number is working. In your experience, is this true?

On the same note, I downloaded the Taxis G7 app and noticed it won't allow me to register my account using my US phone number...so it would seem that particular app is out for our trip unless I do get a French SIM card.

Has anyone encounted issues with reservations using a cell number from another country?

Thank you in advance for your advice.

Jen

I don't remember exactly what I did but I got G7 app on my phone and did not have a French phone number.

Not my experience when it comes to restaurants. Any mobile number will do. You might also download WhatsApp for you HTC. Works with mobile numbers anywhere in the world.

The "TAXIS G7 Personal - Taxi Order" for iPhone (iOS 7.0 or later) works fine. It's available at iTunes. You can preorder your taxi.

I can imagine that restaurants and taxis might not want to make an international call to contact you. You should be able to give them alternative methods to contact you, such as What's App, mentioned by Robert.

You should be aware that anything you read about cell phones that's even a year old is almost certainly outdated by now.

I have a belgian cellphone number.
I call G7 weekly and make my reservations with my cellphone.

I don't forget to start telling them when I give my number '00 32' for Belgium then ... in your case '00 1'.

I think I remember years ago that somebody said 'we don't take foreign number' so I booked elsewhere.

You can also book via thefork.com and add the phonenr in the comment zone if it doesn't work elsewhere (it doesn't for me).

I think you'll have a problem without a French cell phone number. For one thing, they won't bother calling you if it' not a French number. Nobody now wants to call foreign phon number.Use WhatsAPP or get a French SIM

Buckeye vet, I had the same question. I'm going a month after you. (Also from Ohio). But I was just planning on giving the local phone number in the apartment I'm renting. Or you could use a local hotel phone number if you're staying in a hotel? Would that work?

Just asked the maitre d'hôtel (in American the maitre d') of the restaurant I am in and he says there is absolutely no prob to make a reservation with a U.S. Cellphone.

Now you can still take a sim card.

Ps : the place looks great - pozada close to Nation.
Am having a chinon as aperitif then will have a luberon with my osso bucco.

Presuming you are in a hotel, use that one. I've made reservations at French restaurants and used the hotel's phone number. If you aren't staying in a hotel, the place you are staying must have a phone number, doesn't it?

Then main reason why they want your phone number is that often competitors make fake reservations in oder to do harm. A secondary reason is that they may inform you that they cannot hold your reservation because of a case of sudden richness.

Whatever. An American cellphone number would do, or the number of a hotel.

We used our US cellphone number when we made restaurant reservations in Paris with no problem.

Thank you to everyone who's replied! I really appreciate it.

It would seem that the opinions are a bit split on this one. We are staying at a hotel, so I imagine I can use their number if a place would refuse the US number.

The Taxis G7 app is a different issue. No matter how I enter my US phone number (dashes a la USA, no dashes, different spacing, starting with 00 1), it will not let me create an account. Of course, as I am in Ohio and not in France I don't have any idea if the app works to order a taxi without an account. Anyone have suggestions/experience on this?

I naively am not expecting to make restaurants reservations for every evening. All 11 of us would, at most, only be together for 2 evenings due to some of the group going to Normandy and choosing other things to do.

Thank you everyone again!

When we were in Paris in September we just called the English line of G7. The were extremely helpful and reliable.

Good to know!

I don't have a smartphone or use any apps, even though I live in Paris and this makes me a dinosaur. I just have a "stupid phone" with a French number, and manage just fine.

I would use the hotel number for any reservations.
The problem is that many "foreigners" are "no-shows" - for one reason or another - and most restaurants and taxis have stopped accepting non-French phone numbers.

Many need to call you back to confirm your reservation - G7 does this to tell you what kind of car to look for - so, better to be safe than sorry.

Make sure to check your messages in the hotel!

Have you tried "+1" instead of "001"?

I was going to try the app, using an American phone number (my Skype number) but the app knew I was in Italy. I think it's possible your problem may be that they know you're in Ohio and they don't send taxis there. Anyway, I abandoned the attempt because they were asking for information I didn't want to give them, since I wouldn't be using the app.

In 40 years I have been contacted just once about a reservation. It was from a hotel that I had booked that was under construction and they were running late, so they wanted to know if I needed to be booked in a different hotel. (I had already found this out and had changed my reservation.)

I make reservations all of the time using my US phone # and have never had a problem.

Thank you for all your replies! I will use my US phone number if possible, and the hotel phone number if I find that a place is not happy with the US number.

As for at the G7 app...well I'll just wait until I'm in Paris to give it a try. I'm obsessively all about the apps if they work.

You mentioned 11 people traveling together, does that include most meals together? If so, you may want to book reservations well ahead particularly if you have specific restaurants in mind for group celebrations.