Last minute hotel reservations in Europe
 

When we are on the road in the States and need a last minute hotel reservation, we normally just call the 800 number Expedia or Hotels.Com.

However, I don't know who to call for a last minute hotel reservation when travelling in Europe. (I know that American 800 numbers are useless in Europe).

Any suggestions for France, Germany, Austria and Italy?

http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/usa/index.shtml

Accor Hotels is one of the world's largest hotel chains with zillions all over Europe with several different brands like Novotel, Sofitel, IBIS, ETAP, etc. They have a number to call for each country and also can offer specials, especially on weekends in popular cities - times when they usual business clientele is not there. Great prices for what they offer - lots of great in-the-centrum of town locations.

What cities?

Use this to get started. www.venere.com

Then go on each hotel's website and make your arrangements.

Where are you traveling? Do you really want to stay in chain hotels?

Venere is a good option. But in popular areas, what you might get at the last minute could leave a <i>lot</i> to be desired . . .

Try www.booking.com

Accor is a good idea, I like their hotels and often choose them. I'd also suggest Best Western, at least they have good hotels in France, Netherlands, England, Austria and some other countries where I've been (and they do have them in Italy and Germany). Back in the old days before computers, I had a booklet of all Best Western hotels in Europe with a description, contact info and small photo that I got when staying in one in London, and I used that book a lot.These are the BW contact numbers by country http://www.bestwestern.com/reservati...onenumbers.asp


Booking.com certainly has plenty of hotels. They have phone numbers where you can call them in the US and in Europe. I think they have one in most countries, just check out the website section on customer service.

Agree with Christina - that's exactly what I was going to say! :)

Wouldn't hotels.com work in Europe, too? I know I've booked European hotels through them before departing the States, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't be the same there. Of course, if you want to call a US 800-number, you can do that, too (and I have done to AutoEurope in the past - if I recall correctly, from a pay phone in the middle of a French village).

If you have internet access, try www.laterooms.com - you can also reach them via phone
within the UK: 0844 774 1001
from outside UK: +44 (0) 844 774 1001

You can also try www.lastminute.com for online booking but not sure about phone service on that site

you can book instantly on the booking.com website, or use the link on trip advisor to the hotel's own website if you prefer - that will normally give a phone no.

some places have a booking service through the local tourist board office, either free or or a small consideration. that is certainly the situation in most of France [except Paris, curiously].

That's a good point about the tourism office, although it can be convenient to know before you get to a place where you are going. And their rooms are often not the greatest, I know as that is what I have done at times. I'd prefer using a website with hotels that are more my ideas of what I want and know.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with chain hotels, a lot of them can be really nice, if that is the goal (a really nice hotel). Accor does tend to have some large hotels like Mercure or Novotel (which I use), but they have some Mercure's that were just small regular hotels in some cities that they took over and some others in the McGallery collection are really nice. Best Western is really a wide variety, of course, but they are almost always small to medium sized local hotels with character in any of the cities where I've used them in Europe.

I looked at the hotels.com website and they don't seem to give any phone number for contacting them in Europe, actually, which surprised me. Of course you can always use computers, but I think the OP wanted a method sans computer or wouldn't have asked. I don't carry a computer with me when traveling, either.

Agreed, I like the Best Western hotels because each is owner-operated, but must maintain the property according to BW standards. I've also found the Accor hotels to be as you describe, Christine.

As for the OP, I see I did probably misread its intention to make reservations by phone while in Europe. (FWIW, I don't carry a computer on vacation, but have taken advantage of ones provided by a hotel, and have also used internet cafes.)

I was equally egregious in posting without revisiting the site to which I linked - in this case hotels.com - so I checked it out again.

Almost invisible in the tiny resolution of my laptop, just below the site logo in the upper left corner is a drop-down for "Our global sites", which are countries listed by continent. Choose, for example, France, and the page refreshes (but if you select the prompt to view it in English, it returns you to the US site). Staying on the French site in the same part of the screen, you can choose USD for currency instead of EUR. On the far right side of that same area, the booking phone number is now a French one... Note that to go back to the US version, you will have to re-select USA from the Global Sites list or clear your cookies.

That said, I would assume but couldn't say for certain if the booking operator will speak English. (Anyone want to send me to France so I can find out? ;) )

I like venere.com. I've used them for quite a few years. Once when my DD was "backpacking" with 2 other teachers, she'd email me a couple of days before they were headed to another destination and I'd check for possible budget hotels, and pick a couple, email the link to her and she'd reserve from where they were. (this was in the internet cafe era, before "smart" phones). Now they carry reviews, which may or may not make much difference. We generally make choices based on location, price, and free breakfast :-)

Do you really want to stay in chain hotels?>

And janis what is wrong with the likes of Accor hotels - note that several posts above quite rave about them.

janis what is wrong with chain hotels that moves you to criticize them so a poor option.

I only stay in chain hotels if not a B&B - I find Accor hotels dependably clean, with modern plumbing (those flats you always tout do they all have modern plumbing and showers?) - and Accor and similar chains are a good value for the money - not everyone is on as high a budget as you perhaps?

Q - why do you denigrate chain hotels? Have you ever stayed in any, apparently not.

I too am a fan of chain hotels because none of the trips I take are based on the idea of staying in the room except to sleep. I just want the room to be clean with a good bathroom, and you can certainly count on the Accor hotels for that -- as well as the Louvre Hôtels chain in France (Kyriad, Campanile, Première Classe).

We're going to travel by car from Paris to Salzburg to Venice to Rome and back to Paris ... with many, many stops along the way. We have no idea where we will be from one night to the next. I plan on buying a pre-paid cell phone in Paris that I can use on our trip to make hotel reservations. So web sites are not of any help because wifi access will be hard to find whilst we're traveling. Also hotel booking agencies without European phone numbers are useless (I don't want to pay $20 long distance charge to make a hotel reservation). So recommendations for Booking.Com and Venere.Com will not do us any good.

HOWEVER ... Accor and Laterooms.com are just what we are looking for. Thank you PalenQ and Seamus.

For those of you that may be in a similar situation, I also received email with another recommendation ... EuroBookings.Com. They are the only website that I found that a European 800 number.

halapeno, that's great to hear! FWIW, you probably will be able to find wifi access more easily than you fear - but of course it's best not to have to rely on it.

Since you are familiar with using the company, you also could take note of the French, German, Austrian and Italian phone numbers for hotels.com to have as a backup. (See my previous comment for how to find those numbers.)

Sounds like an exciting trip!!