Hi...I booked a hotel in Vencie in january. I emailed them 4 times since last wednesday just to confirm..but they haven't returned the email yet..(Hotel Riva).I'm concerned. any suggestions

Not that it is necessarily the case w/ your hotel - but in general, many European hotels don't treat e-mails w/ the same urgency that many N. Americans do.

Sometimes they take a week or more to answer. Some of us tend to get antsy if an e-mail isn't answered immediately. If you are concerned - phone them.

Try a phone call. Or if you want it in writing, send a fax requesting a response. Some smaller hotels are not always looking at their email everyday.

And some just won't answer. When they get your email, they say, oh yes, we have that reservation, but don't feel the need to let you know that!

Probably nothing to worry about but if you want to be sure:-

As suggesteed by other posts, phone or fax them and ask for written confirmation.

Post on Fodor's and other travel sites with the hotel name in the subject line and ask if anyone's heard anything.

Google the hotel name. If something awful has happened, like the hotel has been burned to the ground or closed by environmental health officials, it will be mentioned in a local newspaper somewhere on the web!

Go back to the hotel web site and see if it is still up to date.

clifbob,

I know how you feel...I just went through the same experience with Sorrento hotels for next May (2009).

In one instance, I did send a fax to the hotel, and they responded within a day.

It's happened to me before when booking previous trips, and I've come to the conclusion that I always seem to be contacting them when they are the busiest, i.e. August and September. The staff probably looks at the e-mails and figures mine/your reservation isn't for quite a while...let me take care of the hotel guests we have right now.

I don't know if I'm right or wrong, but thinking that way helped me cope. Eventually, the hotel staff always politely contacts me and everything is fine.

I DOUBT very much you have an open reservation. Very, very few hotels in Italy (Venice no less...) would book a reservation in January for later part of the year travel. Just out of curiosity, I checked their website and they ask customers to please confirm DAYS IN ADVANCE. When is your travel?

To the poster that stated that it should be taken as normal business for a hotel to take a week to CONFIRM a reservation, that is nuts. #-o You have to be one to sit and wait for a week till a hotel gets to tell you whether they are doing business with you or not. Not a chance. In the 21st Century, any hotel that takes that amount of time to get back to a customer is one that I stay clear from.

Hello clibob, if you are feeling worried fax the hotel. Knowing people in Italy in the hotel business that take faxes much more serious than they do emails. Or as others have said phone the hotel. Best regards.

Check your spam filtered mail also.

Having the same problem with my hotel in Rome and Valencia. They selectively answer and I think whoever said they don't treat emails as urgently as we do is correct.

We stayed at the Hotel Riva in May 2006, and liked it a lot for the value. It is a nice little boutique hotel, well-located, clean and cute.

I wrote a trip report about it, which is at:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34814606

It seemed to be run by a owner/couple, very nice, but slightly disorganized perhaps with their record-keeping. They had my reservation without a problem, but were confused about our leave date which I'd changed. They were gracious about it, though.

I would fax to them, if possible. But January may be too far off. Don't worry about it, if you have booked them, it should be ok.

P.S. Ask for a corner room, because you will have the view of two small canals. We had room #1, which was great because there is no elevator and it's good to be on the first floor up. Room #1 has a twin bed and a 'marriage bed' I think they call it.