Lynn

I've had great luck finding exactly what I was looking for at charmingitaly.com. Booked my hotel in Rome, Florence and Venice, as well as a castle in Chianti. It's very informative. There is no fee. You deal directly with the hotel, only via this website. I think it's better than venere.com, but it's also good to compare some hotels on both.

Capo

Looks like a nice site, and might come in handy soon. Grazie, Lynn!

Harmon

Personally, I would NEVER book with a reservation system. I only book directly with hotels. <BR><BR>First, if there is any problem, then that's one more party to be involved and more headaches to sort things out if there is a problem. Second, why pay a middleman who really does nothing except extract a fee and drive up prices? They are basically parasites. I know that the web is full of sites that claim discounts. They are largely bogus. My experience pricing places is that the hotel rate is identical and is better more often than it's worse. Lastly, I can ask the hotel for room 14 or a view of the cathedral. Most reservation systems don't allow you to do this. Fourth, you can be that the rooms that the hotel books through the reservation are the wworst and hadest to rent.

Rex

I lookd at charmingitaly.com about a year ago - - and it was my impression that their offergings were less numerous than www.venere.com - - and I was thinking I remembered a booking fee.<BR><BR>And I really don't agree that a middleman in always intrinsically bad - - sales and marketing are real and valuable jobs in every industry - - and a site like www.venere.com can do the job of handling the job - - of presenting the "product" and closing the sale - - more efficiently, at lower cost - - andoffer better service than the hotels themselves. Let hoteliers do what they do best - - run the hotel.<BR><BR>My statement is over-generalizing just as Harmon's is. But www.venere.com is one site whose reputation merits defending - - in my experience.<BR><BR>It's been great for me - - a LOT of times.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Lynn

Hellooooooo. Harmen.....did you READ the posting before replying? You DO deal directly with the hotel. They DO NOT claim to offer discounts. There is NO fee. It's simply a nice site where you can browse various options. As a matter of fact, for my first couple of reservations, I checked directly with the hotels for rates, etc. The information I got from the hotels was exactly the same as through charmingitaly. AND the hotels both said that I should make my reservation through charmingitaly. All back-and-forth correspondeces / confirmation / special requests, etc. are made directly with the hotel. Just trying to be helpful. Chill out - - - sounds like you had a bad experience.

Angela

Not trying to rebutt anything which was posted -- just wanted to point out to Rex that I too go directly to the hotel for rates, etc. via email and the rates have consistently come back less than what is quoted on venere.com.

Rex

Angela's experience is not the first time I have heard this. And I'm not sure it's accurate to say that dealing with www.venere.com is dealing with the hotel directly, though it sure feels like it. Even if only in the form of a commission (fairly earned), it seems certain that "someone" at venere.com makes something from every booking there, and perhaps even, every visit.<BR><BR>I am impressed with what they do, but not star-struck, nor naive.<BR>

Lynn

Hey Rex - who do you use for rental car?