I badly need some advice from experienced international travelers! Here's the story.

DH and I needed a hotel for just one Saturday night in Paris in late May, but had trouble finding something that met our requirements on such short notice. I finally settled on the Louvre Sainte Anne. I looked at their online availability last night and saw they had a double room, but I had a few questions so I sent an email. When I woke up this morning, I saw an email from hotel (sent last night) saying they were all booked.

I went back to the hotel site this morning and it still showed 1 double room available. I went through the online booking that's linked on the hotel site (not a separate site like booking.com), gave our credit card, and completed the reservation; we received a confirmation email right away and our credit card was charged.

So now I'm a bit worried. I obviously will bring all the confirmation emails and credit card paperwork, but I'm worried we will get there and have a problem. DH suggested that perhaps hotels give entire blocks of rooms to the online booking services and that's why the hotel itself said they were full but the online system showed not. But I'm concerned this means they've overbooked and we won't get a room. Unfortunately we're arriving by train to Paris that night so cannot get to the hotel any earlier than 7pm.

Anyone have any experience or advice to share? Should I just relax and assume the hotel has a room as promised?

Why not just give the hotel a call? Most direct way to find out the answer.

I was planning to call them tomorrow, but I was thinking they'll just say everything's fine. In my experience hotels don't usually tell you in advance when they've overbooked, but then again most of my travel experience in in the US. Is overbooking common? Is there some specific question I should ask when I call?

I've never had a problem booking through Venere.com - Can't vouch for others.
Yk's right - phone them.

Hi M,

Call the hotel

Confirm the booking.

Ask them to send you an eml confirmation.
Have you looked them up at www.tripadvisor.com?

Not an international experience, but I've had that happen with Expedia.com. When I called the hotel to ask, they said grab the Expedia rate, because 'we are full'. I did, and it worked fine.

I think maybe the hotels have 'given' some rooms to the consolidators to sell, and it shows as sold out on the hotel's system, when actually some are still available on-line.

Ask the hotel.
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The only time that I used Venere.com to book a room (every other time, I've emailed a hotel directly), I was nervous about it.

So I emailed the hotel, asked them to confirm the reservation and asked about making dinner reservations for us as well. I prefer email instead of telephone for things like this, because then you have their reply in writing. They confirmed with no problems.

A couple of years ago I wanted an apartment at Citadines in Paris and their website showed everything was booked. I found availability via AA's web and stayed there without problems.

We've used Venere with no issues for close to 10 trips to europe. I usually email the hotel as well and keep copies of everything to take along just in case. I just had a horrible experience here in the states using the drury inns website- booked a room 10 months ago, got numerous confirmations and 'regarding your upcoming stay'emails. called the hotel just to confirm on monday of this week and was told they never got the corporate info and had no rooms at all. given that this is Mom's weekend for my college aged son, I was livid. the manager was of no help either but I did find a room at a very very budget place for the two nights! moral of story- get the hotel to verify that they have the info from the website.

All very wise advice. I like the idea of making sure I have an email with their confirmation so I have something more to back me up. I selected this hotel primarily because of its excellent TripAdvisor ratings (http://tinyurl.com/yqn4me), so hopefully they'll handle this professionally!

Thank you to those who've shared your experiences booking online. It's good to know that this sort of thing has worked out for others. I guess I'll just do what I can to confirm and then not worry about it. As my DH pointed out, you can find yourself out of a room because of an overbooked hotel no matter how you booked yourself!

Thanks everyone!

msinformation_
We had similar situations last summer where we booked online based on on-line availability.

We also received an email confirmation.

About a week before we left on our trip, I emailed all the hotels to confirm our reservations. I then printed out both the original confirmation and the hotel emails confirming the confirmations.

Everything was fine.

Try not to check in late. If they're overbooked it will likely be the late -comers that will have trouble.

You did mention you are traveling byt train, so ptresumably you are coming from somewhere else within France (or other European/UK destination)?

Just to be on the safe side, I would call the day before to ensure you/they are okay with arrival after 7pm.

I would send them an e-mail explaining you will arrive after 7 PM and want to make them aware of that. Ask them to pls reconfirm. That way you ahve an e-mail directly from them that acknowledges your reservation.

You definitely must let them know if you will not be arriving until 7PM.

I've heard/read that a Paris hotel can sell your room, even if you've prepaid, if you don't arrive by 6PM, or something like that.

Oh dear, more to worry about! I will see what the hotel has to say about arriving after 7pm. We are coming by train from Strasbourg that evening so cannot arrive any earlier.

I didn't want to worry you - just let you know. I've heard of this happening, more than once.

I've also heard, though, that a fax confirmation is legally binding in France. But, that was a while ago and I have no idea whether an e-mail confirmation would serve the same purpose.

It shouldn't be anything to worry about at all misinformation. You just need to let them know that your arriving on a train and won't be there until 7:00.