It sounds like a good idea, but really if you don't like anything you are shown and get the brush off "that is all that is available", you really can get your deposit back that easily? Maybe because I am a woman, traveling with women friends, but I always seem to have a harder time with hotel clerks. They get disgusted showing me different rooms, and I am sure would put up a fight if I said none were acceptable and I wanted my deposit back. What am I doing wrong?

About the reserved room on a credit card that is found lacking...this happened to me last March in London. Had reservations at the Parkwood Hotel near Regents Park, checked the room upon arrival, was pretty bad and the hallways and bathrooms were dirty plus the bathroom was down a level instead of on the same floor as the room as I had been told in my initial inquiry. Returned to desk and said it wasn't acceptable and that I wouldn't be staying there and please could I have my deposit refunded. She called the manager who okayed and the refund showed up on my credit card bill the next cycle. No problem, except I then had to go find another room which was easy enough that time of year. Bonnie

Experience tells me it wouldn't be that easy in France or Italy. Any experiences?

Once we tried a different hotel in Paris and I was very unhappy with the room they gave us, although it fit the criteria of what we had asked for, on the courtyard,with a bed for 2..I went back down to the desk and said that I could not stay in that room, could they do anything better for us ,and they gave us a lot bigger nicer room and charged us the original rate..Washington Hotel in London, got a great room, but the bed was already inhabited-with fleas! So once the desk was alerted to the unwanted visitors, we were moved to a suite...The only hotel that has consistently shown us a bad room first then given us a good one is in the US...

I almost always ask to see a hotel room first and don't feel it's rude to do so.

Guess I'm just lucky. We've always been pretty pleased with the rooms we've reserved/gotten. However, if there were anything I really didn't like, I'd feel fine about asking to see another. Nothing rude about it. We did survive luke-warm water for two nights in Florence, but the room itself was spacious and comfortable. If we'd been planning to stay longer, we'd have requested a move.

Yes, I ask to see the room first . <BR>Innkeepers do not consider it rude at all.<BR>However once coming out of the<BR>Mount Blanc Tunnel into Italy I had some food poison and felt very badly<BR>we stopped in a hotel, some place in ITaly, and I asked the owner to see the room, can you imagine that he said NO, so I am happy to remmember, I told him Bon Giorno. and left staying in a nearby hotel.<BR>This is the exception that makes the rule. ( may be I was looking the way I felt)

I have a feeling that someone else is using Capo's name...this doesn't sound like him.

I, too, am wondering how well this tactic would go over in France and Italy. I bet not very well. Any suggestions?

Do you also request to see a B&B room first?

Well, I guess I am not alone in wanting to check out the room first. But I have never rejected all the rooms shown, I would be curious to see if anyone has had their deposit refund request refused, while you are standing in the lobby. Anyone?

I have never thought of looking at a room first, don't the innkeepers get an attitude when you ask? I have trouble enough with crabby hotel managers in Europe.

Very interesting and informative thread. I'll make sure to do this on my next trip. I wonder what happens when you've made advance reservations (with CC "deposit") and the room is unacceptable and the hotel is truly fully-booked? Maybe checking in early gives you more options?

Good point Tom. Anyone?

I've never asked to see the room first, as I've thought it might be rude. I would feel better doing that in the off-season, though. I'm going to Paris in May, and so many of the hotels are already booked up - I couldn't get my first choice hotels. I would hate to object to the room and have to wander around Paris dragging my suitcase,looking for a better room!

In Europe it is not considered rude at all. In fact at a lot of B&Bs and pensions they ask you if you want to see the room before you check in.<BR><BR>One thing to consider though - if it is the only room available and not satisfactory (not if it is absolutely awful - just less than great) - If the hotel is full, it is more than likely that others nearby are also full. So go ahead and stay (covered by the one night CC deposit) and look for somewhere else the next day. Don't give up the room until you do find something else.

<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>I almost always check out rooms, much to my husband's chagrin. Once, in a very upscale resort in the Algarve, a bellhop was taking us from room to room, to choose. He opened one door, and in we walked to find a man naked in bed with only a sheet covering the necessary parts! Thank goodness he was alone!!! I never ran out so fast in my life. Hubby and I had a good laugh, but we felt sorry for the nice young bellhop who got blasted.<BR><BR>I still check out rooms, by the way(lol)<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Hi

In a hotel I'm not familiar with, I always ask to see the room first. I leave the kids and husband downstairs in the lobby and sprint up to take a look-see. If it's not satisfactory (and quite honestly, most of the time it is), I ask to see another. I do this most often in France and Italy (and Spain as a distant third) because that's where I am usually traveling. I've had many a hotellier offer to show me a room immediately, as if it were second nature, so I can only assume that it is standard practice. I've also had hotelliers give me the keys to a room , or several, and tell me to help myself, so I can only think that it isn't rude but rather normal. If I'm staying in a hotel I frequent and where they know me, I send them a fax and tell them specifically what I want (4th floor, courtyard-facing, preferably room 406 or something like it), and I've always gotten what I want. No, it's not rude at all to request to see rooms. European hotel owners expect it, and if they balk, they are playing games with you and assuming you are a tourist who doesn't know how things work - and you'll probably end up with an inferior room. Definitely check out those rooms!

Hey Bill,<BR><BR>Guess you don't have a hottie currently or you wouldn't be on Fodors.com

I think it would be interesting to hear from a hotel employee, do you really give people the worse rooms first? That way you will have better rooms available for clients who may be pickier?<BR><BR>I have learned to ask to see a room before I pay or put my luggage in it.<BR>In Yorkshire, I could not believe the awful room I was shown, so I asked to see a better one in the same catagory and was surprised at the difference, so I tend to think the worse rooms are tried out on customers first.