My husband and I are planning to stay at the Hotel in Parione in Rome for about 6 days in August, the hotel has stated that they have availability, but their website does not have a place to make reservations(and hold it with a credit card.) The hotel wants us to send our credit card info in an e-mail to reserve the room. Is this a common practice and is this safe? Also-reviews from Trip Advisor are good for this hotel-any other opinions would be helpful! Thanks!

Hi,

For at least 3 or 4 years now I have been doing my reservations via e-mail in hotels in Europe. Sometimes I do it in their website but a lot of times, especially if I have other questions about the room I do it via e-mail. I have never had a problem.

I don't see it as any different than giving the same information via the phone or fax.

I've been sending this kind of info ever since I had a computer and it was asked for. I send the first part of the number in 1 email and the rest plus the expiration date in a follow up. I don;t know Whether this helps or not but I've never had a problem, either with the hotel or with the CC. It seems just as reliable as a fax to me.

Done it dozens of times without a problem. There are bigger fish than me out there.

I always send my credit card info by fax or phone. I realize George Bush is furiously copying it down, but I still prefer it to putting it into an e-mail.

Also, my general experience of Italians is that they themselves take more notice of faxes than e-mails, but no doubt that is gradually changing.

When I send credit card numbers by e-mail, I always divide them into two messages. I think that method is very secure.

I recently booked at a hotel in Italy using their secure web site, which makes the transmission even more secure. However, when they sent back an e-mail confirmation of the reservation, all the information I had sent over the secure link was included, with my entire credit card number and expiration date.

When I got to the hotel, I pointed out to the manager that this defeated the purpose of using a secure web site in the first place. He agreed, and said that the confirmation had been done by an employee who had not followed the correct procedure - he should have deleted the credit card information from the confirmation message.

No harm seems to have resulted from the credit card number being included in this message.

- Larry

I honestly don't understand taking these sorts of super-precautions. You are just as likely (more so actually) to have you credit card information stolen by a waiter in your home town ot a hotel clerk in Peoria.

It is no more or less safe to send a cc number to a hotel in Rome than to use your cc at Starbucks down the street from your officce . . . . . .

As some posters have said the risk of being ripped off for a small amount over e-mail is negligable, however e-mail is regarded as NOT as secure means of communication and can be hacked in several ways. The risk you face is not your $50 deposit being stolen, but someone having access to your card details and then using to run up bills or sell to criminals. So I would not send your card info via e-mail either whole or split, if the hotel doesn't have a secure site, call or fax them. OK a dishonest employee may take the data, but at least its traceable. And don't let any waiters take your card out of your site, I always go to the counter and pay where I can see the card. Paranoid? no just sensible.

Hi t,

As noted, send the info in two emails.

Let the hotel know in the first that there will be a second one.

Also as noted, the probability that someone will intercept your email and steal your CC info is vanishingly small.

E-mail has the same amount of security as a postcard; if you feel okay about sending credit-card info in a postcard, then you need not worry about sending it in e-mail. And conversely, if you wouldn't write it on a postcard, you shouldn't send it via e-mail.

Sending two separate messages is a way to slightly improve security, although it won't help if someone is systematically intercepting your e-mail (or the hotel's e-mail). Your information may sit indefinitely on the hotel's computer, too. But in some respects that's also true for credit cards used in person, anyway.

In my own case, I don't send credit-card info unless I can use encrypted e-mail.