Hotel Reservation question
 

I will be traveling to southern Germany in May for my honeymoon and my fiancee and I have a disagreement. We are planning on visiting the many towns along the Romantische Strasse. I would like to go to the town and then look for a hotel. She wants to have everything booked ahead of time so we're guaranteed a place to sleep. Everything I read says that hotel rooms are in great supply in the beginning of May and that you can easily find one on the day of arrival.

So I have two questions:
1. Are rooms available with no reservation?
2. Are the rates the same for walk-ins and reservations?

And a bonus question:
3. How much should I expect for a double? I took a quick look around and it seems that 30-50 EUR is the norm.

Maybe she looks upon the booking ahead as a commitment that you are going to follow through with the marriage... LOL
I think a lot depends on your tolerence for such things. Personally we like to have everything arranged, signed and sealed. It may have more to do with what each of you can accept.
As for advice... cave in and do it the way she wants. It's a lot easier in more ways than one.

Don't you want a guarantee that you won't be walking the streets looking for lodging on your HONEYMOON?

Come on, guy. Reserve some hotels and be a hero.

Your 30-50 Euro budget - is that EACH or total per room? If it's total, then may I suggest you think bigger - it is your HONEYMOON! Who wants to spend it in a dump.

For myself, I like to have our hotel reservations booked in advance. It eliminates a source of stress for me, which is that we will have to scramble to find a place to sleep, spend precious vacation time searching something out, and possibly end up with something that isn't so good or nothing at all and have to move on to find a place - and the possibility of dealing with all of this when I am TIRED! LOL. Easier to just make the reservations ahead of time and avoid the entire issue. Some people see travelling without reservations as freedom and flexibility. For myself, I feel much more free when I know where I am going to sleep and I find I have a better time. It's just a matter of different personality types.

Perhaps your fiance is of a similar mind as I am. Or perhaps she would be willing to freewheel it on another trip but since this is your honeymoon, she wants to make sure things go as smoothly as possible and not risk ending up with some crap room to spoil the fun.

Either way - if she is not comfortable turning up in a place without reservations, for whatever reason, then go ahead and make them ahead of time.

You haven't really given any reason why you want to do this. Given your second question about the rates, I assume it's because you think you are going to save money that way.

YOu expect to find a double room with bathroom for 30 euro total anywhere? I would say 75-100 euro is more likely for a nice hotel. 30 euro won't get you much, if anything.

Are you planning to follow a fairly set itinerary? A compromise might be to book the first few nights in advance, then as the trip progresses, book the next hotel(s) a day or two in advance via internet cafe/laptop/phone. This way, you KNOW you have a room upon arrival.
This plan won't work if you accidently hit on a town that is holding their annual wine fest or something.

I meant to include a suggestion that you prepare a list of hotel choices before you leave on the trip, so you don't waste time researching during the trip.

Don;t know where you got the 30-50 euro number - but I would think at that price you'll be staying in the spare room above someone's garage. This is not the price for a real hotel room with a private bath. (Considering it's your honeymoon I would assume you want at least a clean hotel with a bathroom of your own.

As for the idea of looking for a hotel in each town - you can easily end up spending 3/4 hours sreaching for someplace decent. (The best, most economical places will already have been reserved by people who plan in advance. You'll find what's left.)

If you werre really traveling off season (Jan/Feb) it would be one thing. But a lot of people travel in May - and I would never risk this.

At a minimum reserve the hotel for the first night (be sure to check reviews on tripadvisor.com) and that may give you some perspective on price. Also, at least have a list of possible places for the other towns you want to visit. go to the web sites now and see how many rooms they have available - that will help you decide if they'll have anything left in May.

Okay, since apparently you don't have a mother or sisters or a good female friend to do what must be done to ensure you have a happy life together, please allow me:

The whole fly-by-the-seat of your pants thing might be nice for some backpacking trip but NOT FOR A HONEYMOON.

Are you crazy??? Do you really want to waste precious travel time frantically searching for a good room when you both are tired and grumpy at the end of a long day and you're dragging around 70 pounds (or more) of luggage? What if you don't find one or the only thing with availibility is a flea-trap? I promise, you WILL PAY FOR IT EVERY DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AND HEAR ABOUT IT WHENEVER YOU WANT HER TO TRUST YOUR JUDGEMENT ON AN IFFY ISSUE.

Look, planning a wedding is very stressful. The honeymoon isn't just a celebration of starting your lives together, it's a recuperation and rest time from all the stress and the many things that WILL go wrong (that you will finally be able to laugh about years later).

So please do it right and don't risk a major screw-up at the dawn of your marriage. You don't have to go first class all the way if you can't afford that, but spend some time looking for special, at least mid-rate places (AND BOOKING THEM) so she feels her man has taken care of both her and her worries about feeling secure. Feeling cared for and secure is what a new wife needs most from her husband. Be her hero and provide it and you'll never regret either the extra euro or the time it took to arrange it all in advance. Plus, you can use the time you'd have spent looking for a place to spend the night actually ENJOYING the place you already arranged. (Um, and isn't that what a honeymoon is all about?)

You can still be spontaneous choosing your daily activities and where to eat. But leaving unplanned where to sleep on a HONEYMOON is a foolish, foolish, unnecessary risk.

I'm surprised at the responses to the low rates. To stay a little outside of a town such as Fussen I've seen rates of 30-50 for a double with a private bathroom and breakfast included mentioned on more than one website. It's not our budget, but why spend double that just to be 10 minutes closer to the center of town?

Yes it's our honeymoon, but we'd both prefer to save money for more important things like souvenirs and tours than a nicer hotel room. Sharing an intimate time in a nice hotel room is a nice idea, but given our budget we'd much rather get more in the travel department than the "romance" department.

With that out of the way, we'd definitely be booking at least one day ahead. I'm just wondering if every hotel in town will be filled at that point. From what I understand, the true "high" season is July/August, not the first few weeks of May.

Finally, to clear this up, I'm asking this because our itinerary is not set for the "R.R./Munich" part of the trip. We know we'll be in Wurzburg on a certain day, and we know that we'll be flying back to London on a certain day, but the stops in between are not set. I don't want to book a hotel in a town only to find that we've seen everything in the town by 15:00 and have to waste time that could be better spent traveling to the next stop.

Thank you all for your input. So far it's been helpful (even the incredulous responses :) ) I will check out tripadvisor.com but I think when I checked there before there were only 1 or 2 hotels listed for most of the towns we want to visit.

<<Sharing an intimate time in a nice hotel room is a nice idea, but given our budget we'd much rather get more in the travel department than the "romance" department.>>
I am afraid that anything more I would have to add would end up in getting your "thread pulled" - and that is not what you want.

Spiv -

Just for grins I googled hotels in Fussen and found Hotel Jakob advertising for 40 Euro per night.

I randomly plugged in a date in May (they were booked) but in April, a room for 6 nights would total 492 Euros. That's more than the 40 Euro they advertised, so PLEASE take this into consideration when looking.

I don't want you to get stuck paying more than you thought it would be. Just because a hotel advertises "Rooms from 40 E" does not mean they will actually have them at that rate. That could be the price for 1 person on a weekend, for instance.

So watch out and make sure you email the hotel and they confirm their rates.

robjame, I felt I got my point across without being too graphic. If the forum moderators feel otherwise, then they can do as they wish.

In the meantime, any useful replies are appreciated.

Last April we traveled in Germany by train and only made advanced reservations for our first stop. But, as someone else suggested we researched hotels on line and had a list of possibilities. We made other reservations one day in advance. It worked great for us allowing us to modify our schedule as we progressed; we stayed an extra night in one place that we really liked and were able to adjust the rest of the schedule.

For the Romantic Road, are you going to have a car? If so, you will hardly be wandering the streets cold and hungry.

There is a cluster of Romantic Road towns in the Dinkelsbühl> Rothenburg> Würzburg area. You may find a hotel that you really like, decide to stay there and make daily sightseeing trips by car or train.

Regards, Gary

Canterbury: thanks for the reply. Thank you for supporting the fact that there are hotels that at least advertise lower rates. :)

Gary: We're planning on taking the train, since the Eurail pass should cover it. How did you do your advance booking once you were there? Telephone or Internet? Do the small towns have net cafes?

Hi S,

How much of your honeymoon do you want to spend looking for a hotel room?

((I))

PS,

50E/night dbl is about as low as you should expect for decent lodging.

Before you buy a railpass, I suggest that you enter your itinerary at www.railsaver.com and click "only if it saves money".

((I))

Well, I'll tell you that in May we have two holidays over here, Ascension and Pentecost. Ascension is the equivalent of Memorial Day in the US, beginning of the summer. My first year over here my husband and I decided to drive to the south of France without reservations and one night we drove around for hours and hours looking for a hotel that didn't have a "complet" (no vacancies) sign on it. We were barely speaking when we pulled into the parking lot of a Formula 1 hotel. We got the last room available that was in the process of being cleaned.

Do you know these places? The whole thing is made out of plastic and the sheet on the bed is one giant long sheet that is about the length of a football field and wraps under the pillow, around the mattress, up over you, and over the blanket. Anyway, it was not romantic queuing up in the hallway to use the plastic toilets and showers. Maybe Germany has these same holidays like France and Switzerland. We did start speaking again but I wouldn't want to spend my honeymoon like that!

Last May, my husband and I traveled in the Black Forest area of Germany. We stayed in a small village, Staufen, about 15 minutes south of Freiburg. We booked our hotel in advance (75 euro for a double, including breakfast) and were glad we did. It was sold out, as was every other hotel in the town.

May is not "off-season" in my opinion. There are several holidays in Europe throughout the month of May, so locals have the opportunity for long-weekend getaways. Also, many towns hold annual fairs and festivals in the springtime.

I have to agree with most of the other posters and recommend that you at least plan your itinerary and possible hotels in advance, if not book them.

Good luck and congratulations on your marriage.

Diane

In most of the towns along the Romantic Road, you should be able to find nice, comfortable double accomodations with private bath and breakfast in the 60-70 euro range.

But to be sure you get such a place, it is best (though not an absolute requirement) to reserve in advance.

Go to the websites of the various towns--most will have links to accomodations from big hotels to rooms in private houses. In Germany we've found pensions and Gasthoefe in this price range to be very comfortable and interesting--in a good way. Many will be connected to a restaurant or, if you're really lucky, a brewery.

Here's the accomodations page for Dinkelsbuehl's website as an example:

http://tinyurl.com/35az22

Wow, things must have changed alot in the last 20 years. My husband and I went to Germany, Austria & Switzerland for our Honeymoon in July for 2 weeks. Had absolutely no real plans let alone reservations for our second week. Had no problems finding a hotel and stayed in some very quaint villages and hotels. We never stayed in a large city though. Intimacy was not an issue as we were there to experience the countries. Plenty of time for the other stuff later.I am glad to read this as my son and I will be there for a week mid-May after a school tour and I was just going to "wing" it. Guess I better figure out an itinerary and make some reservations.

Things have definitely changed in the last 20 years, as European travel in general goes. Many more travelers.

May is now considered a very popular time to go to Europe.

It stands repeating that hotels that say they have rooms at certain rates, often don't. At least plug in your dates to see what rates are on those approximate dates.

A room outside of town may not be easily accessible from the train station. It may not even be accessible from the train station.

Your fiancée wants to do book ahead. It's her honeymoon, too and it's what she wants. My husband just said you could have a really rotten honeymoon. He also just said that it is the beginning of your marriage, and you may spend the rest of it apologizing.

If you want really inexpensive decent rooms, I suggest you start to book now.

My husband all just suggested that you not be stubborn. He is a really good husband and knows what he's talking about.

OK - you are obviously concerned about budget, and don't want tp pre-book.

But then you talk about a Eurail pass. Most of the time a Eurail Pass is NOT a bargain. Are you sure that is what you want to do? The rail pass will likely waste much more money than you would spend on nicer accomodations.

You do sound pretty sure of your ideas and I really wouldn't want you to plan my honeymoon. Be a sport - give your fiancee what she wants. Just think - if you follow your current plan and things go badly - you can expect to hear "I told you so" for the next 25 years.

Spivonius,
Save the Eurail money by looking into a German Pass or even BayernKarten (2-5 people traveling together on local trains from 9am on in bavaria for around 30 Euro), then save years of potential grief by giving up the desire to "not lock yourself in" to hotel rooms.

Believe me, it's far better to have the peace of mind of a reservation in hand than the fret of not finding a place when cold, hungry, tired and frazzled. Sure, you might find out that you've "seen it all" by 15:00 in a small town, but that's when you can take in the little pleasures like a drink on the terrace, a quiet walk in the Altstadt or snuggling in your clean, comfortable hotel room.

What's to lose? You minimize your risk and, earn the appreciation of your new bride. Quite frankly, you'll enjoy wherever you wind up if you to into it with a positive attitude.

Regarding your original three questions:

"1. Are rooms available with no reservation?" -- Well, yes and no. You are correct, the high season is July/August not the first few weeks of May. That being said, there are plenty of folks visiting in May. Hence the first rooms to go are usually the ones that are the best value and most centrally-located. I would expect to pay higher rates for the convenience of not having to book ahead (I have done this when I have gone away for the weekend on a whim and paid rates closer to 90 or 100 euro). And, I would feel more comfortable if you were driving--finding a hotel last minute with a cell phone, car, and GPS is not bad at all. It might be much more challenging on foot or by taxi.

2. Are the rates the same for walk-ins and reservations? -- In my experience, if there has been any difference, it has been nominal.

3. How much should I expect for a double? I took a quick look around and it seems that 30-50 EUR is the norm. -- I agree with the post by RufusTFirefly. You can certainly stay in comfort for 60 to 70 euros per night along the Romantische Strasse--but these rates are harder to come by if you have not booked ahead.

So, I guess you need to balance the benefits of freedom of not having reservations with the risks of higher cost and time spent as you are traveling to secure lodging. Certainly, I would want to have reservations when the risks seem high (for example, weekends, holidays, festivals) and do a cost-benefit analysis on the rest.

Best of luck to you and your bride and happy travels!

The Bayern-Ticket is a bargain as you appear to be staying in Bayern (Bavaria). I think that it went up to 27 euros this year. Train lines do not serve all towns along the Romantic Road, Dinkelsbühl is an example. You can use a bus transfer there also on a Bayern-Ticket:

http://www.bahn.de/-S:PtVORN:eNNIONN..._tickets.shtml

We made our daily reservations by both internet and by phone. Sometimes the hotel had a computer terminal. The main tourist office in Rothenburg has computer terminal. We did a lot of our research on the Hotel Reservation Service and used them for reservations.

http://www4.hrs.de/

Regards, Gary

Much as I personally like to plan ahead, they can always go to the Tourist Information office for a town, and let the TI look for rooms for them. This might not work on a holiday weekend. Or they'll be spending on taxis what they save on rooms.

I find it refreshing to see someone on this site who does not micromanage every moment of their trip.

Well done Spivonious.

It seems you are not too fussy about the style of hotel and are willing to keep the Budget low - so I don't think you'll have any problem finding somewhere. You will not be sleeping on the street.

Having said that - it is easy to find a hotel if you have a car - if one is not available - you just drive to the next. However - it seems that you will be getting the train - so its not the best idea to be trudging around looking for accomodation.

In short - if you want to wing it - hire a car - if you want to take the train - i'd take the precaution of booking in advance.

If you look at hrs.de - you will find many hotels that you can book without even giving a CC number - so you can easily cancel them - that might be a plan.


Any for all you micro managing grumpy grannies with your special walking shoes and rain ponchos - I landed in Barbados - for the second half of my honeymoon - for 10 days - with no hotel, no car, no plan - and it worked out great - and I'm a woman.

Good advice above. You mention cheap rates 10 min. outside of town. If traveling by train, how do you plan on getting there? Life is much easier when traveling by train if you sleep near the train station or somewhere with easy bus or taxi access. Generally speaking, clean, comfortable budget hotels near the center of town or the train station tend to fill up fast for obvious reasons.

Lawchick writes:
"Any for all you micro managing grumpy grannies with your special walking shoes and rain ponchos - I landed in Barbados - for the second half of my honeymoon - for 10 days - with no hotel, no car, no plan - and it worked out great - and I'm a woman."

My response: "Isn't that special?" You've missed the point. Here we have a newly wed couple, one of whom strongly feels the need to have reservations, the other of whom does not for rather unclear reasons. Those of us that have suggested more flexibility on his part have not IMO been grumping grannies, your snippy accusations notwithstanding. So, get off your high horse.

Thanks for the support Lawchick :)

The Eurail passes are already purchased because they already have paid for themselves in the trains we're taking in the beginning of the trip (most notably the train from Paris to Wurzburg). We're both under 26 so we got the Youth Saver passes; $265 a person. We looked at renting a car for the R.R. but we decided the freedom of driving wasn't worth the added cost. Perhaps Germany is different, but in Scotland every little dinky town had at the very least a bus station, if not a commuter train stop.

As far as the 10 minutes outside of town, both of us are in good shape and expect to be walking a lot. We're also packing light and going to try to get everything we need into two small suitcases.

I didn't think I'd been unclear on my reasons for not wanting to book ahead, but let's just say I like adventure and not having everything mapped out.

Thank you all for the responses that didn't contain judgements; they were very helpful.

Some more details: we'll be on the R.R. in the middle of the first full week of May. In my reading of travel books there doesn't seem to be any special festivals going on then.

Yes Lawchick, you have indeed missed the point. One half of this couple is not interested in winging it with respect to accomodations and this is her trip too - and a very significant trip at that. This has nothing to do with anybody being a micro-managing grummpy grannie and everything to do with different travelling styles.

Spivonious - I understand not wanting a traditional honeymoon with lots of time spent in the hotel. My husband and I went to New Orleans for our honeymoon and spent our time wandering around, eating, drinking, taking in the sights. We didn't spend a heck of a lot of time in our hotel room either. We are planning our 5th anniversary trip - back to New Orleans in a few months :) I think wandering around Germany for your honeymoon is a terrific choice.

I do seem to remember though that your fiance originally wanted a more traditional honeymoon at a resort or something - so going to Germany was already a compromise in your direction. Since you've got the destination of your choice, go with her travelling style of choice, which is making reservations ahead of time. If this will make her more comfortable and happy, then do it.

Others have made good points about travelling by train and needing accomodations close to the center of the towns you will be staying in. You could go directly to the tourist office and have them look for rooms for you, but if they can only find rooms outside of town, then you are faced with getting back and forth between town and your hotel. You may use up the money you saved on lodging in additional transportation costs.

J,

You must be confusing me with another poster. Europe incl. Germany has always been part of the honeymoon plans. The rest of the trip is planned out and booked, I just want the R.R. part to be more open-ended.

Gary, many thanks for the hrs.de site. It has actual rates and more hotels than the sites I was looking at before.

I thought of something else to add as well: my fiancee has told me on many occassions that the hotel is a place to sleep. In other words, you don't go on the trip to stay in the hotel.

I'm still incredulous that intimate together time--and guaranteeing the places for it--would not be the top priority when planning a honeymoon!!

Hotels are a lot more than a place to sleep...but the concept behind a honeymoon must have really changed since my day.

For us the honeymoon is an excuse to take a fantastic vacation. Why waste money going to Europe when you can be intimate at home?

Yeah - I did mix you up. Sorry about that.

On the issue of honeymoons in general - I think that for some people, it is still about a lot of intimate time with a new spouse, but not for everybody. Times have changed.

I think that for couples who have not lived together, esspecially if one or both has lived with parents until the wedding, then yes - I can see how intimate time would be high on the priority list since as a married couple, they now have freedom to be together that they didn't have before.

For couples who have lived together or at least lived on their own so that they have been able to have one another stay overnight, the focus is likely less about sequestering ones' selves to a hotel room. It is likely to be more about seeing cool places and sharing experiences.

Some people like traditional honeymoons and some don't.

I kinda sounds like your mind is made up. But if there is still any doubt, I'll add my two cents.

You said you "don't want to book a hotel in a town only to find that we've seen everything in the town by 15:00 and have to waste time that could be better spent traveling to the next stop."

If you plan to do this by public transportation (and it sounds like you are), your option of going to the next town might not even be available after 15:00. Some towns don't have a train stop, and the buses run infrequently. If you look at the bus schedules ahead of time, that can give you a good idea of where you will be on a given day - not just because you want to be there, but public availability (or lack thereof) of transportation makes it so.

Also, hotels that are booked ahead usually keep your bags for you even if you can't check in until later. Are you taking your bags with you from the train station as you wander through town? Or store them at the train station, double back to get them later, then take them with you as you go hotel hunting? Or find a hotel hunting as soon as you arrive (which wouldn't allow you to leave town after 15:00 like you anticipate, so it's like booking ahead anyway).

Edited to add: when I mentioned the buses, I was talking about the Rom. Road.

It's apparent that Spivonious is really just looking for opinions that support what he wants to do--evidently to use as ammunition against his wife-to-be's preference. So all of us grumpy, stick-in-the mud's should back off.

Okay, here's what to do right now. Go to the website for the Romatic Road
www.romantischestrasse.de
Have you really talked with her about the type of place you'll be getting for 30 to 50 euros? Are you going to want to share a bathroom with other people on your honeymoon???
I'm frugal and I wouldn't even do that. The only time I would share a bthroom, down a hall, is if it's the last room in town.

Get a nice room. If you play your cards right, you'll be spending many happy hours there.