pay in U.S. dollars or Euros?
 

When booking a hotel online is it best to book in euros or dollars? does it really make a difference?

Unless the hotel has a specified promotion for North Americans that states something like "$1 = €1" (rarely seen), I'm not sure what you are asking.

Regardless of how you book, payment will ultimately be made in the local currency. Local currency in much of Western Europe is the euro.

So, I would say, no - it doesn't make a difference...except that if you book in dollars you are accepting the bookers currency transaction charge, which may be higher than you could do yourself.

I agree with Nimrod -- we must be staying at different kind of hotels but I have never encountered a hotel in Europe that charges in US dollars or quotes US dollars. I have in Mexico.

If you are dealing with some US mega-agency like Expedia, I can see that might happen. I have never seen it on a European hotel's own website. Maybe you are looking in different countries than I do. It probably makes a difference, but the only way to know for sure is to compare rates and see what the exchange rate is. Also, some websites might quote a rate in US dollars but if you read the fine print, it is just for advisory purposes, and the amount could be different depending on the exchange rate when you actually pay. Some English hotels have had promotions at times where they quote USDs with favorable exchange rates, as an incentive. If so, those good be advantageous. I think some were doing that last summer.

I have seen this a few times, only when I've used an online agency such as travelocity.com or venere.com. Otherwise its usually a non-issue as the rates are always charged in euros.

Tracy

We did stay at a couple of hotels in Turkey that gave a sizeable discount for paying in US dollars. That was on location, not paying in advance.

If you offer to pay for your hotel bill in US dollars in Europe, you either get refused, or they call for the manager who will safeguard himself against currency fluctuations by calculating a horrendously lousy exchange rate - can't blame him, what if there's a change between the time he takes your money and it gets credited to the hotel's account by the bank? His job might be on the line...

In other words, don't even try.

Now in "third-world" countries (or, shall we charitably say, second-world?) the dollar can be highly desirable and you may get a better rate than at the bank, a so-called black-market rate if you pay in dollars. But not in Europe.

WK

Some websites like hotels.com do charge you in USD, prpepaid in advance.

I use it once, no problem. As long as you compare the rates through the hotel's own website or other booking agents that charge in euros, and compare the two. In my case (Vienna, 2 years ago), it was cheaper with the USD rate at hotels.com.

Remember when you charge anything in a foreign currency on your credit card, you'll have to pay 2-3% or more for the currency conversion to the CC company. Don't forget about that.

With some banks you pay nothing to 1% for converting currencies over interbank rates.

The answer is probably no but the operative word is probably. About 15 years ago, the GBP was down to about $1.30 and several hotels ran promotions they would charge you for the room at a 1:1 rate; it was a promotion and of course few pay the rack rate anyway.

What you have to do as noted is check the hotel's web site or other vendors and compare the rate in local currency to what you are being charged in US currency and then make an individual decision....

A lot of people express concern that the exchange rate will turn against them before their trip, so if you pay now in dollars, you insulate yourself against the possibility that the exchange rate will have gone up, or down, unless they have a qualifier in their quotations. However, I would expect that a savvy hotelier would have taken that possibility into consideration in establishing his prices.