Granada hotels are all booked! Ideas?
 

Snafu w/travel agency: says hotel we had confirmed in Granada Oct 15-16-17 has now come back & said sorry, they're overbooked. Agent says NOTHING available in Granada. Is this possible? Find it hard to believe. Does anybody have suggestions?

Try www.venere.com. They'll show you what's available for your dates.

Contact Totally Spain ([email protected]) in Vitoria to see what they can do for you. They have access to a lot of information not available on the web.

Or www.hotelsearch.com for Spanish hotels.

Another place to look is www.innsofspain.com

Karen

Why people still use travel agencies is an enigma to me.... Try expedia, even travelocity, for choices. By the way, the week of 12 October Granada honors their Saint Patron, Virgen del Pilar, huge, popular festivities. There are also festivities around the Holy Sacrament day. Most likely the price they quoted you triples for that weekend. Granada is already a town where traffic jams are notorious; beware.

The Melia Granada shows availability on Expedia. I would call them directly before making any committments with Expedia.

Thank you all for the tips. I'm not sure why we used a travel agent either except we got tired of paying (even a lower price) for rooms we didn't want: brick-wall views, garbage can views, no views. Because you can't communicate any preferences w/Expedia, etc., thought t.a. would be better. Maybe not.

Travel agents are fine for most people since the majority of people are not the seasoned travelers some consider themselves to be. The problem with travel agents is that they seldom get the chance to travel, to check out the destination hotels, etc. for themselves and as such, most are not equipped to serve the traveling public well when it comes to accommodations in foreign destinations. They do work well with specialty cruises and tour operators.

On-line operations such as Expedia, Hotels.com and even innsofspain.com are also very limited in what services they can offer. Your best option is to work with an incoming travel agency, someone who happens to be at your destination, or at least has an operation in the country, knows the property, can handle all of the arrangements and will be there when you need someone to talk to about a problem.

RE: Required use of a TA if you are not a Seasoned Traveler

I am far from one, but would not even considered it a requirement for me to look up information on the internet and make travel decisions.

We always use a travel agent (one that we know and trust) to book any international flight that requires connections, especially multiple connections, but we haven't used an outbound agency to book hotel rooms or other accommodations in several years. Instead, we rely on the relationships we've built up with incoming agencies working in Spain and France (now close friends and associates) that we know we can rely on to find the best properties at the best prices regardless of the season. There is no substitute for having the right connections in either business, or travel, or when you combine the two.

Relying solely on what is available on the internet can prove to be disastrous at times, but it can also leave you feeling very good about yourself, your decisions and at times, extremely lucky. The internet is good for doing basic research, but unless you're familiar with the area or the property, it's seldom that reliable except in the case of the larger hotels. Smaller properties need more research and having someone there that you can work with has it benefits.

Some people are willing to take the chance, as I did when I was younger, but not any longer. We like to be reasonably comfortable when we travel and knowing that the people we're working with are knowledgeable about what they are doing (professionals), leaves me with a high level of comfort. We can then relax and enjoy ourselves without worrying about our accommodations.

I guess it all comes down to "to each his own" and what you are willing to put up with.