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

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

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Old Jun 14th, 2009, 01:54 PM
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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
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Old Jun 14th, 2009, 02:04 PM
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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.
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Old Jun 14th, 2009, 02:13 PM
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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).
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Old Jun 14th, 2009, 03:08 PM
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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.
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Old Jun 15th, 2009, 07:24 AM
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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.

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Old Jun 15th, 2009, 07:49 AM
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Hotels send a confirmation note when a CC is provided; it is standard business practice. Call them.
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Old Jun 15th, 2009, 08:18 AM
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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.
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Old Jun 15th, 2009, 08:35 AM
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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.
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Old Jun 15th, 2009, 08:55 AM
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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.
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Old Jun 15th, 2009, 09:37 AM
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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...
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Old Jun 15th, 2009, 12:43 PM
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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.
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Old Jun 15th, 2009, 01:18 PM
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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.
Dukey is offline  
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