Re-confirming a reservation
 

My husband and I are about to embark on our annual trip to Europe and it is my practice to re-confirm hotel reservations, especially since I make them long in advance of our departure date. This time, I emailed the 4 hotels and received replies within a day or two from 3 of them re-confirming our reservations and welcoming us. Our choice in Paris, on Ile-Saint-Louis, has not responded to 2 emails requesting re-confirmation and rather than spend the money right now to call the hotel, I thought I'd ask perhaps more savvy Fodorites here what they would do.

Obviously, I'll call if I have to but in the interim, is this typical for certain Parisian hotels?

Many thanks.

I wouldn't take the chance. If they don't answer, there could easily be a problem. Depending on your phone company, international calls aren't expensive anymore....especially for one short call. Tell them to e-mail you the confirmation.

I never reconfirm reservations, so don't have this issue, but I think some hotels are just busy and making a reservation is a profit-making activity and "reconfirming" them is not, so they don't answer as they have other things to do. Or their email could just be down. I don't even know if they would understand what you are asking, as I'm not clear if you wrote in French or English. I know French but have never heard of the word for "reconfirm" in French, although I guess I'd ask them to verifier the reservation or confirmer encore or something. Reconfirm probably isn't a real word in English, either.

LD phone calls don't cost that much, if you really want to do this, I'd call (reconfirm). There are some 10-10 numbers I use, really it's only a few dollars. Whatever someone tells you, if you don't call, you won't really know.

I did email them in French (I'm reasonably fluent) but my concern is that I reserved in late January this year and don't want any nasty surprises when we arrive. It may be as you suggested, though: too busy to respond.

I'd call them using 10-10 -987 it will cost pennies and give you peace of mind.

I'm with you on the nasty surprises. I always re-confirm and would definitely call if I were you.

I had this same problem when I tried to re-confirm reservations at a B&B in England once. They had lost my reservation & apologized profusely, but they were able to move things around to accommodate us as it was still far enough in advance. (I think we may have ended up with a discount due to their mistake.) I had kept copies of the previous e-mails, which I faxed to them to support my contention. Anyway, I was really glad I called when I didn't get the responsive e-mail then. Better safe than sorry & all. . .

I always reconfirm one way or another. I have had reservation foul ups and there is no way I would skip such a simple step that can reduce problems.

I have had hotels not responding to email inquiries. I call them directly during their day time to increase the odd of finding someone who speaks English.

Thanks, All, for your replies. I will give the hotel a call, although I was hoping not to be too much of a pest. You know how much French hoteliers enjoy that!

A fax is better than a call as it can be answered at a convenient time, which may not be the case if you call at a random (for them) time.

It appears that third time's a charm: just heard from the 4th hotel and with Cécilia on the desk, all is well! It's always good to know that our accommodations for the first 6 days and last one at the end of our trip are secure.