h2babe

I'm planning a trip to Berlin/Vienna/Prague/
Budapest, and I haven't had any luck in making reservations through email from places in Vienna/Prague/Budapest. I am looking specifically for smaller hotels/ pensions around 65 Euro range.

I sent out several emails to probably 5 different pensions in Prague, but haven't received any replies back (about 2-4 wks). The only one I received was from a pension in Berlin. This is my first time going solo, so I feel more comfortable if I booked through the hotel directly instead of going through priceline etc and receive confirmation from them. Have any of you booked any places within my price range in any of the countries above that you secured through email? Any suggestions? Thanks!

Intrepid1

Some people will tell you that a fax to an establishment carries more weight. personally, I have never found that to be true but in a case such as yours (2-4 weeks is a LONG time to be waiting for an e-mail reply UNLESS the establishment is closed for the season)..you might even try calling on the phone directly and get better results.

ira

agreed

wanderlust5

You could also try www.venere.com - we use them to make reservations sometimes and they are very reliable.

ucsun

for prague try:
prague4seasons.cz
happyhouserentals.com

otherwise, i've never had to wait for more than 2 days for an email from any place i've tried to book for a stay. i sent out a few emails to prague pensions and never heard back either.

elaine

I've experienced that some European hotels and restaurants aren't very responsive about emails, sometimes it takes several days or more than one inquiry. Sometimes of course the system might be down.

But, you've waited longer than I would, I would absolutely send a fax.

Cassandra

Three times out of 7 this year, a hotel emailed me to request a credit card number to hold the reservation, I responded by email, and they claimed they didn't get the email and requested a FAX. My guess is that they simply don't trust "mere" email responses and want the FAX as an indication of seriousness. In my case, I don't think they realize that it costs me $5/FAX at Staples. (Before you tell me to go get a fax machine -- DH can receive incoming FAXes at work, and I personally don't need to send FAXes for any other reason except our every-other-year trip.)

h2babe

Thank you for the input everyone. The Pension Columbus in Berlin actually didn't ask for my credit card #, and they responded to me within 24hrs. One day I received like 3 replies back, so I was very happy with that. They were very flexible as well with the reservation time, they only asked that I gave them like a week notice to cancel.

I did send out several requests on the happyhouserental.com for places in Prague, so I hope to get replies back. But I will try the fax for Vienna and Budapest reservations.