I agree if a hotel asks to be contacted by email and then doesn't respond, move on. But it's been my experience that French and Italian hotels are very slow in general to answer emails. For that reason, I usually call, then follow up with a fax and request a faxed confirmation back, so I can show up with a written confirmation in hand.

The Minitel is long gone.

Interesting about Comcast email addresses. A friend in Australia suddenly could not send emails to me at my Comcast email address. Some friends in Italy can and some cannot. I have a GMail a/c too and emails always go through.

caro johnb, I have been an italophile for many years, and visit the country regularly, but my experience has been the same as yours......faccia a faccia Italians are very generous and hospitable, but I have found them to be the world's worst correspondents, whether by email or letter. I have fallen back on 2 other booking strategies.....use the booking page on the hotel website, or email the local tourist office and ask them to make the booking for you....buona fortuna!

<I>StCirq on Jun 24, 09 at 02:42 PM


The Minitel is long gone.</i>

File under "Well, duh." I only mentioned it because it anticipated the World Wide Web by about 20 years.

I agree they may just be full and not answering. Especially if they're smaller budget places and you're not trying to reserve far in advance, likely they're fully booked

File under "Well, duh." I only mentioned it because it anticipated the World Wide Web by about 20 years.

I was answering Pete_R, not you.

I have had the same experience. And it didn't matter whether I wrote in English or Italian. I concluded it is common that if they don't have a vacancy, they simply don't respond. In part I reached this conclusion because it has been exceedingly rare that a hotel has responded to tell me they have nothing available. I second the numerous recommendations that you simply look elsewhere.

I take another strategy. If I really want to stay in a place, I send them a second, and even a third e-mail, putting URGENT in the subject line. I think I wrote to the Palazzo Alabardieri (Naples) four (!) times before they wrote back to me. (I always prefer to write directly, rather than use the booking service link on the hotel's web page)

I was quite sure they were not full since I was booking months ahead for a period that was not high season. I finally did hear from them (in the SPAM folder) and all was well. I say, try again if you really want to stay at a particular place.

Based on the fact that Italy is in dire need of Tourists, it's unlikely that it's anything other than technical problems which is stopping the replies.

If you are contacting tiny hotels, send a rough translated version along with the message using something like Google Translate.

Well...just to say, one of the 3 just replied....!