Paris - Problems with confirming reservations
 

Hey all,

Just curious if anyone else has experienced something similar.

I have been sending e-mails back and forth with a particular hotel and they have always been quick to answer my questions (most times within 12 hours).

This past Wednesday, I placed a reservation request via their website (sent via e-mail). My request included a credit card number.

As of this afternoon, they have not provided any confirmation that they received this e-mail. I have sent 2 subsequent e-mails (just to try and confirm that they received my request), but they have not responded.

Do I just keep e-mailing them?...call them?...or just leave it alone thinking that they just do things differently there.

I call the hotel by phone during the time there is someone who knows what's going on (their business hours.) I used to worry about not having written confirmations, but so far all verbal confirmations have been solid.

My take on this is that there are things they consider so obvious (but not necessary to you) that they feel no need for further correspondences.

I use a MCI international card. It costs about 6cents/min from the US to do this, a cheap assurance.

I have much better luck making reservations by fax.

Call them. Ask them to fax you written confirmation. That way you can arrive with paper proof in hand in case there's a problem. Why waste time continuing to email when a call will take about 3 minutes?

Thanks

I try to keep emails to a minimum when doing hotel reservations, by asking all questions in the first one. I think too many back and forth can be a nuisance for a simple reservation.

However, you didn't reserve by email, but by their website and that's a different thing entirely. Many hotels in Paris use different software for their online reservations, it isn't direct with the hotel. It's hard to say what your situation is, as you don't mention the hotel, but it could well be that problem. You aren't reserving with the hotel, but an outside agency, and that can take longer to confirm or more problems. It's also possible it's just some email problem, like your ISP is putting that email in spam or something. I have had several reservations by those online systems that just disappear never to be confirmed or anything, so I don't usually do them unless it's the only choice.

The request was sent via e-mail. Their website provides 2 options:

1. Instant online reservation
2. Reservation by e-mail (through form on their web page)

The dates that I'm goging aren't loaded into the online reservation site as of yet, but they indicated that I could reserve via e-mail, which is what I did.

Thanks for your input.

Hi clem,

If you dial 1016868, your call to Paris will be only 10cts/min.

((I))

My preferred way is to call, then fax them my information, then they fax back the confirmation, answering any questions I might have asked them as to cancellation policy, etc. I definitely like to call to see if they have availability rather than wait around not knowing. It's called "instant gratification"!

Also, I (like Ira) learned to use the discount long distance # (1010987, from So. Fla.)and it's only 3 cents a minute plus a 38 cents connecting fee. A HUGE difference from regular L/D carriers like AT&T. Granted, there are more #'s to punch in, but the savings are significant (I use it in the US as well as Europe - the same charges).

We had the same experience two years ago with a Paris hotel. Once I sent the reservation in, I heard nothing back despite asking for verification. After several more requests for a response, we FINALLY got a reply, and it was something like, "Well, of course, you have a reservation. You sent it in, didn't you?" Not quite that direct, but you get the picture. Also, once we arrived, the desk person made a comment about how much paper had been used up (by us) with all of our emailing! He even waved the document around a bit. We just figured we didn't know the drill and let it go at that.

French hotels respond much beter to faxes and telephone calls than to e-mails--for some reason those seem to get lowest priority.

Probably not the case here, since you've had previous e-mail correspondence, but I've found that my ISP's spam filter has arbitrarily decided that many e-mails from French servers are spam.

I can no longer receive e-mails from people or hotels that I used to get regularly, even though they are listed in my address book, and to make matters worse they don't go into the junk folder, they just get blocked entirely. I've had to give folks in France a secondary e-mail address with another provider. By the way, I found this out when I phoned a hotel to determine why I hadn't heard from them and when a friend called to say his e-mails were coming back as undeliverable.

A lot of major ISPs unconditionally block e-mail from overseas correspondents: AOL, Hotmail, MSN, Comcast, Cox, Roadrunner, Mindspring, Earthlink, and many, many others. If you are with one of these ISPs, replies from overseas to your e-mails may simply be thrown away, without any notice to you. The only way to get around this is to change to an ISP that doesn't block e-mail based on origin alone.

A second problem is that French people are about twenty-five years behind when it comes to cyberspace. One very possible explanation for your experience is that the one person at the hotel who knows how to check the hotel's one and only e-mail account may have simply gone on vacation; if nobody else in the hotel has a clue about how to use that new-fangled 386 with the 300-bps dial-up, you won't get any answers.

Don't assume that French companies are good at e-mail; they barely understand what it is, and they don't know how to use it. And don't assume that e-mail sent to you by anyone other than another large ISP is getting through; many major ISPs are routinely and silently discarding <i>everything</i> that doesn't come from one of the other &quot;big boys.&quot;

I have one of the ISP's that was listed here today and I receive emails from Italy all the time.

I am not a computer expert (the understatement of the year, lol) but I think the comments from Anthony and others regarding hotels being lack regarding replying to email for the reasons listed is no doubt a good part of the problem. At least that is true with hotels in Italy.

I hope you get this worked out clemson. I too would call them if I were in your situation. Best wishes.

Surely emails are just as acceptable ways to book your rooms and faxes are not more reliable. It all depends on that particular hotel. I agree with what toulouse described as it's happened with me as well.

What you said about the many back and forth emails asking and receiving information is what I've experienced too. But once you confirm by emailing them your c/c information no word again. Sometimes it could be they're busy and can't reply or they figure you confirmed so that's that.

However, you can't assume you have a reservation so you should either fax or call them.

This is different but a couple of times I needed to cancel my reservations and the hotel never responded. I had to end up faxing them before they acted.

Just a follow-up.

Called the hotel this morning. The person I spoke with spoke very good english.

I explained my situation and he searched around for a minure before telling me that they had received my e-mail(s), but they were busy. He went on to say that I should be getting a confirmation via e-mail in the near future.

Guess I'll wait a little bit to see if they gat back to me.

Glad to know that your reservation is fine. I had a feeling the hotel was just busy and since you have confirmed your reservation they didn't put priority on sending a confirmation email to you. As I said this has happened to me before and that was the same explanation I got from the hotel I booked with.

Odd that they'd be too busy to answer e-mails, but they still manage to answer the telephone and fax.

More of a follow-up. Let me preface this by saying that I'm a little paranoid when it comes to making reservations and not having written confirmation.

I still have not received written confirmation of my reservation. The hotel indicates that they have received my request and have my reservation, but are too busy to confirm via e-mail (I don't necessarily understand this...how busy can you be that you can't send a quick e-mail confirming a reservation). The young lady I spoke with today indicated that she should be able to get to it tommorrow (which is what they said when I called on Sunday).

My initial request was sent last Thurday and since then I have contacted the hotel twice via phone.

Should I just give up on receiving written confirmation and go by their verbal response or do I need this written confirmation (part of me wants the confirmation in writing). I've very rarely dealt with foreign hotels, but when I did this past year with Costa Rican hotels they were very quick to respond in writing.

My trip is early next year, but I don't want to show up and find out that I don't have a reservation. Can ayone think of anything else I should do.

I'm an Earthlink customer, have been for years, and the claim above that they block overseas emails is just wrong.

Just thought I'd throw that in.

clemson91,
I also have experienced difficulties getting written confirmations.

While many folks here always seem to get email or fax confirmations, I had about 50% success rate. I have an idea about a fax reply; it costs them international long distance charge. I had to be satisfied with verbal confirmations. So far, all had been solid. I still go with a list of alternate hotels just in case - never had to use it yet.

My guess about not replying, beside economics, if any, is in basic differences between what is necessary to complete this type of an agreement. In US, which I presume you are from, requires a written document with long list of t/c in fine prints. While Europeans also require it, they seem to rely less. My guess is that as far as the hotel is concerned, the reservation is made and that they &quot;think&quot; you know you have a reservation.

Others much conversant with Parisien business practices could elaborate if this is the case.

They can't be that busy to ignore your simple request for a confirmation continually. I hate to say it but the service at this hotel doesn't sound promising.

I suggest that you fax the hotel a note specifying everything that's occured and then give them a specific date in which they need to email you a confirmation.

I don't know if it's just a busy time of year or what.

The hotel (Hotel Lenox Montparnasse) has gotten very good reviews on TripAdvisor and this site (all note good service).

They were excellent and timely (usually within 12 hours) in responding to my questions regarding type of rooms, smoking/non-smoking, etc...

Just can't seem to get them to confirm the actual reservation. I'm starting to think that they just assume since I made the reservation request I should know that I have a reservation (very different from how things are done in the United States). I'm just apranoid about not having something in writing.

It just sounds like this particular hotel's behavior, that's all. It isn't some French thing or European thing, etc. I have never had a problem getting an email confirmation out of a French hotel when I reserved, and getting it within a day. I have gotten email confirmations for my upcoming trip within a day by email of all my hotels in Paris, Prague, Krakow, Wroclaw, and Dresden, and sometimes English isn't spoken as fluently or commonly in some of those places (like Wroclaw in Poland).

SO, they don't think it's important. It doesn't take much time, of course, just return reply with a sentence of confirmation.

I have not had as much luck with FAXes, though, because that is more trouble for them and costs to be sent. I've had a lot of hotels not respond to FAXes, but if they have a regular email address they are using for reservations, they should respond.

That hotel does have good reviews (Lenox Montparnasse) and has been around a long time, so I'm surprised also. I think it will be fine, but it is a little annoying. I do think they just think they told you that you had a reservation, so why do you care if you get an email about it. In reality, I find this handy, but I know that no matter what you have in writing, if you get there and they say they have no room or whatever, it doesn't really matter. There are a lot of decent hotels around the Lenox Montparasse so you wouldn't have to go far to find a room if something happened.

clemson,

When you called them, what did they say? Did you verbally ask for an email or fax confirmation?

Bardo,

On both occasions that I called, I specifically asked to receive written confirmation via e-mail.

When I called this morning, the young lady I spoke with indicated that she didn't beleive that they could get to it today, but that they would try to do it tomorrow (the same thing they said the first time I had called)

Somehow faxes are considered 'legal' in Europe more than emails or something as far as I can tell that's why I'd fax the hotel with the request for a confirmation. Perhaps they will still stall who knows. Honestly I would drop the hotel if you have to beg for a booking confirmation. There are many other nice hotels which will take you seriously.

With all the problems I'm having getting written confirmation, I can't imagine what it would be like to drop the hotel and cancel the reservation. :)

I've had it happen to me like what happened to you before. I ended up sending a faxed cancellation notice to the hotel with the explanation of what happened so far and informed them that I will notify my credit card company to put any charge in dispute if they end up charging my credit card anyway. The hotel replied to the fax.

The reason they can't &quot;get to&quot; responding by e-mail is probably that only one person in the hotel knows how to use the hotel's one obsolete computer to access e-mail. At least that's how it usually works in France.

Did the e-mail address have a domain name specific to the hotel, or was it something more generic (like yahoo.com or hotmail.com)? A specific domain is a good sign, although many French businesses don't even know how to access their own domain e-mail.

I don't believe this to be the case. They have responded to approximately 4 other e-mails regarding general questions without any problems or delay. They just haven't (won't) respond to the reservation request with a confirmation.

It shouldn't be this hard to book a room in Paris. I say &quot;dump them&quot;.
Send a cancellation by fax, keep a copy and watch your credit card until after your trip is over.

Here's another update.

As of this morning, still no e-mail from the hotel.

Discussed issue last night with my wife. She wanted me to wait for a couple of days before calling back. But being the impatient American that I am, I called the hotel again this morning.

I asked to speak with the manager and was connected with the same person that I spoke with yesterday. She told me that she was glad I called because she had misplaced my e-mail address and she was wanting to confirm my reservation.

I provided her with my e-mail and she said that she was sending me an e-mail once we got off of the phone.

Unfortunately I won't be able to confirm receipt of her e-mail until after I get home this evening (my employer blocks access to external e-mail systems from my workstation). Guess I'll just have to wait and see tonight.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Yeah :)...Got home today and there was an e-mail confirming my reservation (there was also an apology for the late response).

One more hurdle cleared.

Can't wait to get to Paris.

Glad to hear you have something in writing - it always makes me feel a bit more confident! Have a great time!