No confirmation e-mail from hotel - is this normal for France?
 

I submitted a reservation inquiry using the hotel's on-line reservation form and received an e-mail from them requesting credit card details to confirm. I called and furnished the cc details and understood they would follow-up with a confirmation e-mail. Failing to receive the e-mail, I used their reservation form to request a confirmation. A couple of weeks have past and there has been no response. Is it SOP for hotels in France not to send confirmation e-mails or did I just get lucky - lol?
/Thanks

I would send them an email asking for confirmation; you don't want to arrive to find there's no room at the inn! Is the charge on your credit card? Out of curiosity, what hotel is this and where.

I have found the French (and Italians) to have a fairly laissez-faire attitude about emails and faxes. I'd pester them a bit. Definitely get a confirmation (and print it out and take it with you).

In my experience, hotels do send a final confirmation. But if I ever didn't receive one, I also would continue to email them for that confirmation that they received your credit card information. And, as StCirq said, print it out and take it with you.

Hi ftr,

There could be a problem in communication. Sometimes your ISP filters decide that the hotel is just sending spam.

I would fax or phone for confirmation.

((I))

Hotels send a confirmation note when a CC is provided; it is standard business practice. Call them.

I agree with ira. We had reservations and I emailed
to change one night and never heard back after sending
5 or 6 additional emails. I was going to call when I
received a call from the hotel telling me my computer
was not accepting their emails. However, there was no
problem when I made the reservations and they promptly
sent me a confirmation. You definitely want to have
a confirmation in your hand when you arrive so you
probably need to call them.

We stayed at 4 different hotels in Germany. The one that had terrible email communication was the one that didn't have a room for us when we arrived.

no, it's not normal. I always get a confirmation email from a hotel in France, and definitely when you use one of those automated reservation things. I wouldn't expect a personal email, but if you didn't get any confirmation, you probably don't have a reservation. From reading your note, though, it is a little different and it could be they saw no reason to respond since you had contact.

I've never done what you did, though, it's kind of complicated -- all the forms and other emails. Why send a form if you have their email address? I always ASK to get a confirmation if I am doing it by email to any hotel, I only don't ask when it's those automated systems.

IMO it is NOT "normal" for any hotel I have ever stayed in in France.
And even automated systems give you a confirmation number.

The only question is now do you spend the money to call and confirm by phone?

And yes, i have had "personal" e-mails after i have asked the hotel to specifically confirm a reservation when I've supplied credit card details...

I didn't mentioned it in my original post but I also replied to the e-mail I received from them [after verbally furnishing cc details] requesting confirmation but to no avail. I used their reservation form because it generates an automatic acknowledgement via e-mail that they received your message so it is apparent they are ignoring my request for confirmation.

Hadn't thought about the spam problem so I checked my ISP's spam folder and it is empty.

I've thought about calling but decided why should I have to work so hard to spend money at their establishment and as missypie pointed out - "The one that had terrible email communication was the one that didn't have a room for us when we arrived."

I thought I might have been expecting too much so it's good to know that I'm not being overly concerned. Based on your feedback, I think I'm going to send a cancellation request via e-mail and their reservation form and look for lodging elsewhere.

Thanks to all who commented.

so it is apparent they are ignoring my request for confirmation.


Sorry, I disagree..you have no idea if that message actually reached them or not..the automated system might indicate that it did but you cannot rely on that.

I would call them for sure and also give them the benefit of the doubt.