mark

I'm going to Rome/Florence in April during Easter. I want to make hotel reservations now since rooms will be in high demand. What's the best way to coordinate reservations before I leave? Travel agent? Email hotels myself? Can anyone recommend some good websites with more info? <BR> <BR>thanks in advance for your help.

xxx

I like to e-mail hotels myself. Travel agents can never seem to make reservations at the smaller places. Except in Greece, I try to send the e-mail in the language of the country visited. In my experience I either get a response immediately (i.e. within a day) saying there's a vacancy (or not) or I never get a response. I have never received a late response.

Ed

Strong recommendation for direct contact. I prefer fax over e-mail if that's available to you. In any event get confirmation in writing. <BR> <BR>Let me assure you that you are not acting early for Easter, unless you mean Easter 2002. <BR> <BR>As xxx suggests, if a hotel is already booked they will often just not reply. <BR> <BR>Unless the hotels you have in mind are large you may have some difficulty finding space. For that reason I'd suggest phoning. Otherwise you're likely to find yourself waiting at least a day between attempts. Language (English) will be no problem most often as long as you call during Italy's working hours ... 5 hours ahead of EST. <BR> <BR>And if you do make a request in writing, whether fax or e-mail, I do suggest you use your own language rather than Italian, unless you're pretty fluent in Italian or have someone at hand who is. <BR> <BR>Ed

xxx

Re: faxes: If you are able to write clearly in the local language (and understand whatever response you get) you are definitely better off doing so! In some very small hotels (though maybe not in Rome and Florence), no one knows English, or maybe only one person does, and that person has a day off. In larger places, or places that cater to English-speaking tourists, most or all of the hotel desk staff will speak and understand English quite well, though sometimes they don't write as well as they speak. You may get a response in English when they see your USA fax number.

gluck

You're not a moment too soon to start your reservations. <BR> <BR>Our experience for Italy was that to confirm a booking, a signed fax (with credit card number) was required, even if we emailed our initial request. <BR> <BR>We wrote in English, but put Italian translations beside the English just to clarify. <BR> <BR>Sometimes you may need to give the hotel a few days to reply, they can get busy (or they may be closed until mid February, say)

xxx

Italy is 6 hours ahead of EST, not 5.