Ive had very good luck booking in both Italy and France through venere, not as an exclusive means but frequently Its a simple smooth process and the rates are competitive. Cancellations are smooth and easy too. Its a good resource and its an element of the trip Im not going to agonize about any more.

We booked three hotels through Venere for January just gone in Venice, Florence and Paris. Arrived exhausted at hotel in Venice to find that they appeared to not have our booking. The guy at the desk was in a bit of a flap and he could not find the booking. I was getting a little nervous about this. We had booked a room with a shared bathroom and fortunatley I had brought along with me all the print outs. Whether or not they had received the booking wasn't quite clear, but the guy apologised and said he would give us a room with a bathroom, for which we were really grateful. It was a small room, but very nicely decorated and clean, and it was a blessing to have our own bathroom. The hotels in Florence and Paris did have our reservations so it wasn't a problem there. The price we had on our print outs was the total price we paid - no extra tax.

Maybe I'm lucky or maybe it's just the way it is. But in the last 3-4 years I've stayed at, or helped book perhaps 30-40 hotels for my parents or myself. And I've never gotten a "bad" room, with one exception, which I'll explain later. This includes hotels in the US, Europe, Asia. Rooms have been booked as many ways as possible:

Priceline, Hotwire, directly with hotel, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Venere, Activehotels, Travelzoo, old fashioned travel agent, Fjord Tours (NIN); plus I have rooms booked by non-profit organizations, even Chinese Communist Youth League officials. All fine, no problem.

[Now, only time I feel I get a "bad" room (in quote) is at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta, booked via Priceline. They gave me the smallest room on the lowest floor. But having said that, it's still a very spacious room with all amenities and service, even windows on two sides. So, I can't really complain, especially for the price I paid.]

How to use www.Venere.com discount code?

EASY INSTRUCTIONS TO GET 4% DISCOUNT

CODE IS C92TJ46

which is valid until 31.12.2012, please share with your friends and enjoy ;)

The Venere discount code allows you to offer a discount to your friends who want to book via Venere. The discount code you can offer is: C92TJ46. The discount is 4%. There is a box to enter a discount code when you are inputting your personal information. I used a code from a friend and my discount was instantly applied.

here is another confirmed code that anyone can use the discount code on their first booking. enjoy!
 
code: BH5F85S

If you want to find the lowest rate, go to venere.com first, and then go the hotel's own website to see if they offer a lower rate. Generally, the hotel does offer a lower rate, but as stated above, not always. For example, this past summer in Milan, my hotel was $50.00 cheaper using venere.com than it was going through the hotel's own website. That is unusual, but it sometimes occurs.

As to taxes, I've only ever used venere.com in Italy (their rates in Paris are not nearly as good as other hotel search engines for Paris, I found) and all taxes were included when I have booked through them.