Hello We are planning a trip in Mid March, trying to cover Rome-Venice-Florence-Milan and Amalfi Coast. I needed to make hotel-car-rail reservations for the trip. I visited a couple of local travel agant web sites but was not very impressed. I would appreciate any input for a good travel agent who would make all confirmed bookings at a good rate. Thank you<BR>D

Rest assured you'll have half the travel agents in Italy posting you their e-mail addresses here by tomorrow!

Why not do it yourself--lots of great advice on this forum. If you leave your hotel choices to a travel agent it is hard for them to be objective and you may end up paying more. Many of the regulars here can help you--not hard.

Many of the charming small hotels I stay in throughout Italy do not pay travel agents any commissions. So if you use a travel agent to book them, do not expect a good rate. In fact expect to pay extra as they may add on their own commission as a booking charge. Of course if you want to stay in the Marriotts or Hiltons, then the travel agent probably can help you. I agree with the above suggestion. If you have a little time, do it yourself. Tell us your plans, your budget, and your interests and you will receive wonderful advice here.

njwiz<BR><BR>First piece of advice. Go to www.autoeurope.com to rent a car. Many very favorable reviews on this board.<BR><BR>Buon viaggio

hi njwiz,<BR>I had good experience with catherina tour organizer,we were a group of 7 people in Rome and Venice. We planned everything in few days. GOOD LUCK

Hi njwiz,<BR>I forget the adrees sorry.<BR>([email protected] and the web page http://web.tiscalinet.it/5terre)

njwiz,<BR><BR>I wouldn't trust run's recommendation, unless he/she gives you her/his own e-mail address and more references. I think "Run" is Catherina herself. She has been advertising on this board very often, and sending unsolicited advertising messages to the posters that post their real e-mail addresses on this board, as I do.<BR><BR>So, beware of "Run" and catherina.<BR><BR>Regards,<BR><BR>S

<BR>Well, there's ME....a travel agent who's been to Italy, loves it, and can work an itinerary perfectly for you! <BR>The poster who mentioned the smaller, boutique type hotels who don't pay commissions to agents is absolutely correct..agents do need to add on a fee, because we need to get paid for our services. When smaller, unkown properties (such as B&B's for example) don't pay us, we have to charge. That said, we also have first hand knowledge of hotels (not just pretty pictures on the internet), expertise and first-hand knowledge and client recommendations. A small fee is a small price to pay for experience.<BR><BR>Melodie

I would not depend on Melanie for any tourist services. Obviously she can't read or understand that Fodor does not permit advertising on its forum pages. If she's so dense that she can't understand that I wouldn't trust her to do any planning for me.

I appreciate Melodie's honesty about travel agents having to charge a fee for boutique type hotels, but there is one further thing to consider. Those same hotels don't usually offer any special rates to travel agents, so most travel agents will have stayed at hotels that do offer specials to them. The probability of many travel agents having first hand experience at those hotels is pretty slight. On the other hand the probability of Fodor's posters having first hand knowledge of them is very great!

I don't consider Melanie's response to be advertising, she was addressing the thread conversation and had a right to say so. I don't agree with her comments as most travel agents know nothing about the places they book and have stayed in very few hotels. She may be the exception and know a lot of indiv. small hotels in Italy or something, but the remarks that travel agents as a group know all that stuff is wrong. Most of them don't know much of anything about smaller hotels or foreign countries; I think they are best for expensive itineraries and resort locations. I do agree that if you use one to book small hotels that don't pay commissions, you should pay their fee as you are the one using their services. Melanie's post was not unethical at all in my opinion, it was much less an ad than some ubiquituous other posters on this site. I have responded on here to questions within my profession also (recently on health insurance, I'm a consultant in health policy and services research and public health) but I'm not advertising myself as a business--I don't need any, I have too much work as it is.

You should also determine what the agency's fees are for faxes and telephone calls to hotels that don't have a US reservation service.