Am getting very frustrated that I am not getting answers about rates and availabilty for Oct. Nothing from the Salzburg area, and scant from Vienna. What am i doing wrong? Never had this problem in other European countries.Help! Lisa

I'd try and give them a call or use a third party booking engine such as Expedia.

..try venere.com

Hi lisa,

Many smaller hotels don't bother answering emails.

You might get a better response if you faxed or phoned.

Dial 1016868 first. You can call Europe for about 10 cts./min

Ira, you are so right!! I have sent e-mails to 3 different hotels in Switzerland and no replies. I thought something was wrong with my e-mail service.

Small hotels and B&Bs all over Europe just haven't gotten the hang of using e-mail yet. Pick up the phone and call them. If you use 101068 it costs only pennies per minute, and you can get a feel for what their service is like by the way they talk to you.

I have found it much more satisfactory to call the small hotels. If they have availability, then you send them a fax with your credit card # to confirm. I usually call using 10-10-987, and it's really quite inexpensive! 3 cents a minute, plus $.39 connect charge.

Not to be contrary, but I've been booking small hotels and B&Bs for several years by email and have never had a problem. It surprises me to hear how commonly you all find that to be the case.

I think it depends on the hotel. Even large well-known hotels in Paris don't respond to multiple emails until they feel like it.

Generally, if we don't get a prompt reply to a request for information, I assume they don't have a room available and look elsewhere. The places with rooms open for your date usually respond quickly.

Lisasnv, I had the same problem with many hotels in Florence for my roadrunner e-mail account. Then one hotel kindly informed me by fax that they had tried to reach my e-mail repeatedly with no success. So I opened a second e-mail on yahoo just for those hotels to reach me, and they didn't have any trouble reaching the yahoo account for some reason.

When you e-mail a hotel requesting information, be sure to add them to your e-mail address book. Several e-mail carriers refuse e-mail from sources not in your address book. This is a spam fighting measure. Don't know if this is what happened to you but it might help.

Thanks to all who responded, the venere site is going to be helpful also. Did get a couple answers and selected one pension in Vienna.Lisa

I stayed at a lovely little pension in salzburg for 2 weeks last christmas. found it on www.salzburginfo.at then click on accommodation, then bed and breakfast. i had a reply within a day and it was right on the bus route and next to a supermarket about 10 mins by bus to the oldtown. was 22euro a night for a single room but shower/wc in the hallway. 38 euro a night for a double/twin room with private facilities. no breakfast but the supermarkets was so close i just went and bought fresh bread and yoghurt each morning.