My husband & I are currently planning our first trip to France this fall (Paris, then on to Provence). I am trying to learn French, but am still in the basics stages, so I've targeted the places with multi-lingual websites. Because of major time differences, I rely on email communication for all preliminary lodging arrangements.
After a month of searches & inquiries, I'm baffled by the responses of many of the establishments. So far, communication with Provence small hotels & chambre d'hotes has been productive & educational, but I'm having a devil of a time with places in Burgundy (en route from Paris to Provence). Many of my inquiries were ignored completely (I assume they were fully booked so saw no reason to respond?). The one place that did respond and have availability, now does not respond (to 2 emails over a week ago) for confirmation of the booking. I'm probably saying something wrong in my emails (I really do try to be polite), and I don't expect you fellow post-ers to know what my faux pas is. My question is, do I try to follow up with a phone call at this point or assume they're hoping I just go away? It's to the point where I'm thinking of omitting the Burgundy part of this trip (save that for another time, when I know French a little better).
I also want to thank everyone for all past posts that helped make our visits to Greece & Italy dream trips.

This is probably not the answer as to why your emails are "ignored", but I did learn that it's proper etiquette, as well as polite, (and overall nice)-- to greet the person, prior to asking a question.
Example: Bonjour Monsieur or madamoseille-then ask your question.

Hi OP,

It's been my experience that you get better communication via fax or phone than email.

On our recent visit, one of our hotels had their email system down for three weeks. At another, they were to busy to answer email.

Where are you planning on stopping in Burgundy?

It can't hurt to make a phone call and find out if your booking went through.

I don't think following up will do any good. I suspect they don't have any availabilities, so don't want to spend the time to tell you that. I would call to the one you made a reservation, for the confirmation. I've never had that happen (not get a confirmation of a reservation), but I've had plenty of French hotels not respond to inquiries about booking. When I finally pestered one (as I really wanted to stay there, and it was in an area in Provence without a lot of options), they did finally respond to tell me they didn't have anything, that's why they had not replied.

This is an unusual idea to me, to not respond when someone inquires, but I am not suprised by it anymore with hotels. I've had it happen quite a bit with some hotels I'm trying to book in Switzerland, also, although some have been polite to respond and say they had no rooms.

IN both France and Switzerland, it has been the small, family-run hotels who do this; the bigger, more professional hotels have responded, even if to tell me they have no availabilities.

I can't imagine what you are saying wrong (and suspect nothing, but who knows), but I would make your inquiry clear and short and to-the-point. If you are writing in English, which I guess you are, do not use slang, idioms, or incorrect grammar which can be confusing to a non-native speaker.

I haven't tried Burgundy, so don't know about that, but I had some of your experience in Provence, so the fact that you've had good luck there is encouraging.

Thanks for the responses, I do try to use proper English & salutations. I was also beginning to think my "short & direct" body copy was being perceived as rude.
We were looking for a place northwest of Lyon in the Beaujolais region, as that's our favorite wine.

"It's to the point where I'm thinking of omitting the Burgundy part of this trip"

and THAT, IMO, would be a major mistake <b>until you know for certain</b> that there is no availability.

I would not assume anything. Get on the phone and call them. Faxes are JUSt as easy to ignore as are e-mails.

If they don't answer the phone, that's something else again.

Opie I'm sooo sorry for you and angry with the Burgundians who didn't answer.
Even if they don't speak a word of English (They shouldn't make a bilingual website then) they can read your dates and learn how to say &quot;sorry we are fully booked&quot;.
The answer can also come from your email address. Someone called to say he had sent me an email after his first call to book and I realized it was in the spam box (hotmail address). You should call them, for sure!
Good luck and I hope you will not miss Burgundy.

Hello, Coco, ( I enjoy your posts) and I'm not angry with Burgundians, mainly confused. I will try to call the one place that did respond to my earlier emails.
Hello, Dukey, I'm mainly considering omitting Burgundy because my husband would rather continue on to the riviera after provence &amp; saw our reservation problems as a 'sign'. Also, I want to devote more time to Burgundy than this trip allows, so it's definitely on the 'to see' list if this time doesn't work out.

One of the problems with small establishments in France (&quot;most visited country in the world&quot is that when they are fully booked, they do not see the need to worry about the disappointed potential customers. If one's restaurant or hotel is always full, who cares about those people still knocking at the door?

It is an unfortunate attitude.

Can't help on the etiquette, but I've had similar e-mail issues and it was because of my spam blocker at home. They were responding but I wasn't seeing the e-mail. When I sent an e-mail from my work account, I got a response. You might want to check your spam folder or resend using a different e-mail service and see if that helps.

As for my email address, it's not hotmail (or other type of freebie mail), and I didn't have any problems with any of the Paris sites I communicated with, so I don't think think it's my spam filters or e-address.
Having worked in the customer service/marketing arena for several years, I'm always baffled whenever I have encounter this attitude. I was just trying to determine if it was a regional thing, which it seems to be. I recently tried to book a place in Amsterdam when everything was full (from a convention I didn't know about). Not only did I receive &quot;sorry, we're full&quot; from dozens of inquiries, but even got (unsolicited) recommendations for other places.
I understand &amp; appreciate cultural differences, &amp; am thoroughly looking forward to experiencing France!

I had this happen, as I said, and it had nothing to do with spam blockers (which just put them in another folder, anyway, which you can check). I also don't use public email addresses for this (ie, hotmail), and it still happened. I'm not saying that isn't possible for you, but it's not the reason this happens and is easy to check.

I've had French and small Swiss hotels ignore FAXes. I think if they ignore an email, they will definitely ignore a FAX, as it will cost them to reply. YOu do kind of know they got it more (maybe), if you note if it went through, but you still never really know.

Most of the emails I get from French hotels are very short and to-the-point, so I don't think they are perceiving that as rude or not. In fact, they may respond in a sentence or two when I've written several lovely paragraphs about how much I want to stay there, like the area, their hotel appears charming and has a good reputation etc (and I am writing in French), with the proper French salutations and closings, etc. They don't care much about that, and never refer to it much (one Swiss hotelier did respond and thank me for my kind letter and nice comments, but most don't even reference them even when I had a question in them). I had a very nice letter from a guy in a 2* hotel in Provence that was more old-fashioned and flowery, but that's rare.

So don't worry about that part, I'm sure that's not it. In fact, some of the emails I've gotten from these folks strike me as a bit rude due to the abruptness (i.e., &quot;we have no rooms&quot; -- that's the sum total of the email). But I'm just glad to get one telling me what's going on and they are on business time whereas I'm on my own time, so I don't care really.

I would imagine that when they have 20 or 30 requests and no availability, it limits their desire of creativity in the reply.

I have had several instances where my emails went unanswered. Then I would fax them and hear right back. Sometimes it would just be a copy of my fax with &quot;Complete&quot; written across it(That means they're booked)or sometimes a letter.

Now I don't bother with email at all. I go straight to the fax.

I have 3 or 4 different templates, I just copy &amp; paste and change the names, date, etc. I know it's not perfect French, but they know I'm American and at least I'm trying. Here's one I used:


Alain Chapel
Reservations


Cher Mssr;

Je voudrais savoir si vous avez une grande chambre libre “au grande lit” pour deux personnes pour arriver le 10 Octobre, 2003, departer le 11 Octobre.

Si cela est possible, nous voudrions reserver une table pour le diner.

S’il vous plait repondez par FAX a xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Nous vous remercions de votre considerations et vous prions d’agreer l’assurance de nos salutations distinguees.

John and Mary Doe
123 Main St
New York, N.Y.

Tel: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Fax: xxx-xxx-xxxx

About that closing...I know it sounds syrupy and stupid but in France this is their version of &quot;Regards&quot;. Even the power company uses it (or words to that effect when they write to tell you they're cutting off your power if you don't pay the bill.

If it were a real simple road house, I probably wouldn't be that formal.

Linda, don't bother with the last sentence. You can simply use &quot;Meilleures salutations&quot; or even shorter &quot;Cordialement&quot;.

&gt;Je voudrais savoir si vous avez une grande chambre libre “au grande lit” pour deux personnes pour arriver le 10 Octobre, 2003, departer le 11 Octobre.&lt; You can shorten it with &quot;Avez vous une chambre avec un lit double (or un grand lit) pour 2 personnes pour la nuit du 10 au 11 Octobre (or pour les nuits du 10 au 12 octobre)?
departer is not French ;-) it is &quot;d&eacute;part&quot;.

Hope this helps!
coco former receptionist

I loved those flowery closings when I was doing translations at a per-word rate.

Hi Jean , With my closings it wouldn't be so profitable for you now!

Coco...do you mind if I borrow your phrasing? I will give you credit for it of course ;-)

Of course Linda, I did it on purpose and no need of credit for me.
I'm glad you're happy with it, some people could be offended when they are corrected, but this is just for help, not to make fun of them. I can't help it anyway!