Has anyone used venere.com to make hotel reservations?
 

Is venere.com a good way to make your hotel reservations, or is it better to contact the hotels directly. If so, how do you get the hotels' e-mail addresses?

I think it's best to contact the hotel directly. Sometimes they can be more flexible. For example, venere.com showed no single rooms available for my query, but when I emailed the same hotel, they booked my reservation. What probably happened was that a human, instead of the computer, decided they could give me a double room instead. Find the emails in guidebooks, or by doing a search on google.com or yahoo. Having said that, I have made several reservations for my upcoming trip using venere.com, what I liked about it was a quick response, and it is the same rate you will get from the hotel. Email me if I can be of further help, Im going thru the same process as you right now. Buon viaggio!

I used it last year to reserve rooms for our trip in June 2001. It worked just fine. <BR>

Definitely better to contact the hotel directly than through a middleman, unless there's an obvious, and certain, benefit to going through an intermediary. <BR> <BR>twenj

I have used venere to check out hotels, it's a great site, but I found that I got a better rate by dealing directly with the hotels I booked in Italy. I had no problem finding the hotels by doing a seach on the web. Good luck :-)

I used Venere and had to cancel the reservation. Cancelling through he website didn't work and a charge ended up on my bill which I then had to fight with Visa over. Never had that trouble with Travelocity or Expedia

I used them with no problem.

Agree with Carol. Do some research with venere, but then contact the hotels directly via e-mail. I found the rates quoted on venere to be higher than hotels quoted through direct contact, or even other sites such as Italy in a flash, which I used to make 2 bookings with no problems. All other bookings were made with the hotel directly. Reconfirmation was done with the hotel directly even where I used the booking service for the original booking(because it quoted a special rate not available elsewhere).

Sam, check out charmingitaly.com also. I got this site from someone on this board, and it has a great selection of hotels, villas, apartments and bed and breakfasts. Then you can fax or e-mail your reservation directly to the hotel.

Cindy- THANKS for site! Charmingitaly.com is great with easy way to see hotel or B&B, clear information and a plus with color pictures.