grandmere

Re being charged in advance for hotels, I recently tried to make reservations at Lion d'Or in Bayeux, and they want 30% in advance to hold the reservation, non-refundable. For 4 nights at 113 euro/per person (2 of us,half/board), that's about $270. And if we cancel between 1-5 days before arriving, we still owe %75 of TOTAL! i'm hunting another place.

Statia

When I booked at Hotel Monge, they asked me to fax credit card info to secure the reservation, but they have never charged anything. I also have plenty of time to cancel w/o a penalty.

I can't imagine a hotel charging you for a room you won't use as long as you give them 24 hours notice. Some things (such as delayed flights, etc.) are out of the guests control.

grandmere

Statia, there have been other posts on here about the practice of charging in advance; altho it certainly is not widespread, it does exist. I suppose the little places have to do it to protect themselves, esp. in small towns, but with this "iffy" world situation, I am trying to avoid paying a lg. non-refundable fee.

Statia

Grandmere,

I agree that the "little people" have to protect themselves at times, and I know the practice is used. However, I just find it hard to submit to it myself....at least not on a budget hotel room.

However, I have had to pay non-refundable deposits to secure apartments in Italy this summer. I seemed to take to that easier since it's a bigger property which rentals by the week (usually) and is therefore a bigger loss if the rental doesn't go thru.

I just wanted to give those on the thread another option for a particular hotel that could be used which doesn't charge a pentalty beforehand.

amyknyc

OK, so here's what ended up happening (just to keep you all up to date!): I called Bonaparte back and they do indeed charge one night in advance on my credit card (kismetchimera, go check your credit card bill!). If I cancel with 72 hours, all but 16 euros (for processing) is refunded. I figured, this is worth it -- but FYI everyone, their rates are going up after May and it's now 115 euros a night. Still, I've decided to "splurge."

Funny thing, too, right after I made this reservation, I e-mailed a bed and breakfast in the Loire Valley that Karen Brown's guide raves about (called Le Mouliin du Fief Gentile) where we will be headed for three days after Paris. They want a deposit of half our stay up front (since the room is 84 euros a night, that's about $125 before hand) and they want it in the form of a personal check! Again, all is refundable except 20 euros, which they use for processing, but still, I'm surprised and we're still mulling what to do. The fact that it comes so highly recommended and it's so affordable definitely makes me want to hold the room.

You know, I wonder how much of this has come out of the success of the Internet in planning vacations. It's made travel agents out of all of us and certainly made it much easier to hold several reservations until we figure out what we want (I made and cancelled three during this process). Maybe the downside is that hotels are getting much more cautious about letting people reserve at whim. Food for thought