We leave 2 weeks from today. Is this a good time to email all of our hotels (there are 6), or should I wait until just the week or a few days before?

I think two weeks is an ideal time. If they have somehow messed up your reservation it gives them some time to allow for your arrival. It's also a good time to ask again about the "special room with a balcony" or "a larger, nicer room with view".

I agree. Two weeks are a good period of time to confirm.

It never occurect to me to reconfirm. I have a confirmation - and bring a paper copy with me. And we;ve never had any sort of a problem - even when we pull into places at 6 or 7 at night.

But then the reservations are always guaranteed with AmEx and we always stay at large full-service hotels. I can see this might be an issue at a small hotel or B&B.

We may be talking about two different things here, nytraveler. If you've made the reservation in the past month or two, I wouldn't think I'd reconfirm either. In my case I'm talking about a reservation booked in August or September for the following July, for example. I learned my lesson when we arrived in Amboise at a very nice larger hotel with my printed confirmation in hand. They had no record of us. Finally when she looked at it, she said, "oh, this was made last year. We don't keep records that long." How funny is that? Having a confirmation in hand, by the way, does no good if they don't have any rooms. Trust me.

Not having had a problem with this, is not an indication that it isn't a good idea, just to be sure, especially if your reservation was made a long time ago.

Perhaps the length of time is it - I don;t recall ever naking a reservation more than about 3 months or so in advance - usually more like 6 weeks or so - excpet for specific group meetings - which they wouldn;t dare not honor.

Two to three weeks in advance sounds smart. We made reservations for our September trip back in late March and wouldn't set out without reconfirming.

Even if I made a reservation within three months of arrival, I would still reconfirm to be certain. A hotel that will accept a reservation one year in advance and not keep records is really careless I think. So why bother to accept reservations that far in advance unless their policy is to overbook.

Hi are,

We made hotel reservations in March for Sept.

I am now reconfirming and settling details of arrival time, if we will have dinner with them, etc.

So how do I confirm?...email, fax or what?..Maybe sending a copy of their confirmation if I have it will do...I had a hard time getting reservations at a lot of places and had to get help from a friend who speaks French. I hate to ask for help again.

You can use either of the above methods (email and fax) you mention.

If I already have a written confirmation (email, fax), then I usually call to confirm and note the date and time of the call and the name of the person I talked to. However, I've never had a situation where a reservation, no matter how far in advance it was made, wasn't honored when I checked in. Knock wood!

I had an email confirmation of all of my reservations, so I simply pulled them up,hit the "reply" button, and asked to re-confirm. Their responses have been showing up throughout the day today.