When I had the e-mail problem of not receiving e-mails from hotels, it was not across the board. Some came through and some did not. I thought it was strange but it did happen to me (I was using AOL).

I think some hotels are better than others at checking their email. The last place we stayed, we had exchanged several emails and they were all answered promptly.

When we got there, I noticed that the desk person had a computer screen up & running every time we went through the lobby. I guess some hotels just don't have one as easily accessable and checking email is more of a pain.

And Coco, no offense was taken because I knew that none was intended. I learn something new every time I log on here and that's what keeps me coming back.

We encountered a similar thing in the last couple of months, trying to book this summer's trip to Paris, Provence and the Cote d'Azur. What we ended up doing was going to babble fish http://world.altavista.com/ and typing in what we wanted to say in English, then translating it into French. Then, we'd cut and paste both the English and the French into the body of the email and send it. This worked most of the time and we were - for the most part - understood. There was one instance where the hotel proprietor didn't get back to us and we didn't know if we had a confirmed booking or not. So we went to the hotel website, found a phone number and called it. We spoke to the owner and it turned out his English was about as poor as our French! However, in just a couple of minutes, we ironed everything out and soon got our a confirmation email.

So happy to finally be able to add something to the discussion instead of asking a question!

Annie

Thanks, Linda & Coco for the written French. I've used simple sentences from my learning books, but I like seeing the complete letter setup. I've used Babelfish to translate responses from the Provence people and would get the main thread of their reply. In the past when I used babelfish (I understand a little more Italian than French), I found it very choppy, so haven't trusted to use its French translations (to send).

bdm

I agree with Ira, with France small hotels, I always call first. Then confirm by fax sending the card number.
Usually the grab something in my fax, like confirmed and send it back to me.

what's 'bdm'?

I think she meant to type "bkm", her abbreviation for BooKMarking. It's the same as "topping".

Some people do this so that when they click on thier ID, it will bring up only threads that they have posted to.

I am sorry I wrote that French hotels use to" grab "something in my fax and send it back to me, ....I meant
that they usually scrabble something, meaning tshey are
Confirming the reservation and send it back.

Hi,
I've been to France many, many times and never had the problem you mentioned until this weekend... I am going to a wedding in a small town, 1 hr away from Lyon.
I have sent the recommended hotel many emails and faxes and asked to get a confirmation. They never did. I actually just phoned them and they have my reservation
Other than the fact that they could not be bothered to reply I think that alot has to do with them being a very small hotel.
In my experience with French hotels, those that are big (or more well known) do reply.
Now, be aware that many of the very small places have charm but they may not be very helpful when it comes to booking restaurants or providing advice and you may miss on what the region has to offer.
And BTW Burgundy is a lovely, lovely region.
I hope you are really into wine.
Wine and good food.
And it is full of English tourists.

I know what Graziella means, some hotels have done that to me and it makes a lot of sense -- they just write "confirmed" across the FAX which probably states the prices and that you are making a reservation, and they FAX that back to you.

I don't understand why small hotels won't reply, they should have a lot more time to do so -- but I did finally just get an email reply from a small Swiss hotel where I had inquired about a room several weeks ago (this is in Swiss Romande, or the French portion, so maybe they have some similar patterns). I had emailed them a room request based on the email address they give for that on their website (which is quite sophisticated, actuallty). Then, I emailed them to follow-up when I didn't hear from them for several days. Than I FAXed them to say I had emailed them a few days before, did they get that?

After 7-10 days, they responded to my FAX, but by email (which they had had all along, of course), that they didn't have any available rooms for those dates. This email reply which cost them nothing (and wouldn't have cost them anything if they'd responded so in the first place) probably took them about one minute to write and send, and yet they didn't do it unless really prodded.

Luckily, I had given up on them and got a nice room elsewhere, anyway.b this was not some rural pokey place, either, but a hotel in a major ski resort area (Verbier) which has a website to attract customers, has many international clients, and is somewhat expensive. It is small, though.

I would call more for reservations, I suppose, at least you know immediately, but with the time difference and language differences, I think it is so much easier and clearer (for both parties) to have things in writing. Besides, even if I made a reservation by phone, I'd want something in writing sent to me. This Swiss hotel has a fancy website with their email address all over it, asking you to email for information or reservations, so it's not like they aren't proposing that as a valid method of contacting them.

we are french and living on the french riviera. we have been walking to santiago de compostella twice (one time from home - more than one thousand miles following Camino frances- and the second time following Camino del Norte-)We actually met the same prblm in Spain you are facing in France. Small hotels rarely read their mails and of course do not respond.
My recommendation would be to make reservations, in France, in hotels members of a known or reknown network ((best western, relais et chateaux, chateaux et hotels, etc...)and use network reservation system instead of sending mails.
Otherwise, yes, others members are right.
Give them a call and when booking is made, send a mail to confirm asking for a written (mail) confirmation from their part.

Hi all,

Yesterday, I sent out 4 emails regarding reservations to France and Germany.

One French and one German site replied almost immediately.

I'm giving the other two a few days before I call them.

On our recent trip, I learned from one of our hotels that their eml had been down for 3 months and they didn't know it.

((I))

It's easy and not expensive to call them from U.S.....either an international program with your long distance carrier (just a few dollars a month and it can be stopped after your trip) OR a phone card purchased at WalMart, Sams, Costco etc !/
I think it is always a good idea to have a written confirmation in hand when you check in to a hotel....so I would certainly ask them to email you this information. (or mail, or fax)
One has to trust people,,,however they could easily "give" your reservation away and when you get there you would have no proof.
Yes, in some places their internet and email might be down~~~~and other places it might be the "custom" not to reply if they are full. Perhaps just a cultural thing, and that is OK. WE might do it differently.

In my experience, faxes are almost as easy to ignore as emails.

Unless we absolutely MUST stay in a place if they ignore e-mails I either call them on the phone (hopefully they don;t ignore that, too) or look elsewhere.

Well, I have emailed a place in southern France 3 times in the past 2 weeks and I have not heard. I read that this place is run and owned by an American now living in France. So the lack of response does not confine to the locals or their culture.

s

I always had good luck calling by phone, at a reasonaable time. For instances I do not call at noon when people are busy checking our guests. I try like mid morning or around 6 PM

My experience with email has been mixed. Several reservations went smoothly. One reservation I never received a confirmation for and had to call to get a faxed confirmation. One confirmation ended in my spam catcher by mistake. Bottm line, don't give up, give them a phone call. A fax can follow for the actual written confirmation. Most places working with the public has someone who speaks English, you'll both just have to speak slowly and clearly to eachother. Bonne chance!

"Ira"...I have to ask...are you by any chance the author of "A Month of Sundays"? You were so helpful to me when I planned our trip to Provence and Cote d'Azure last year. This past week I read the above referenced book to recall my wonderful memories and saw that the book's author and subject of the book was named "Ira"...so I immediately thought about you!