The rising Euro - Should we pay for our hotels now before the dollar drops even more?
 

Hello, Since the dollar is dropping so fast, we were wondering if we emailed the hotels & had them charge our chargecards now that maybe we would be saving some money if the dollar continues to drop. Anybody think this is a good idea? We will be there in 3 weeks & looking back at the last 3 weeks the Euro has really gained. Will the hotels do this? Any ideas? Thank you.

Your idea reminds me of the Scotsman who took longer strides in order to save shoeleather...and ripped his pants in the process. No, do NOT try to pay in advance. The dollar and the Euro will fluctuate, no matter. If you can call the turn, you have no business being a tourist -- instead, you should be a foreign-exchange trader. Forget it. Just have fun.

Funny advice! I really needed that laugh before lunch!

Actually, your idea to try and pre-pay sounds good to me. Just got back from Europe and watched for weeks as the value of the dollar dropped before our trip. This seems to be a definite trend. Pre-paying at this point seems to be the conservative thing to do.

As well intentioned as Burta may be, he or she shows no understanding of market economics.<BR><BR>The Euro/Dollar exchange rate is purely market driven. Today it's about 99 cents to the Euro. That means that 50% of the market thinks it will either stay the same or go higher and 50% thinks it will either stay the same or go lower. Unless you think you have better knowledge or understanding than professional currency traders, there's no reason to incur the credit card charges early.<BR><BR>Old Banker has it right.

There is always a chance that the hotel will fall short of expectations. Really short. If you prepay you may end up stuck somewhere you would have been able to move from otherwise. Of course if you are only staying in places a day or 2 or 3 this may not be a big deal. On the other hand, maybe you will love a place so much you won't want to leave it as soon as you had planned. Sometimes it is just nice to have options.

no, I think it's a bad idea. The dollar hasn't dropped that much in the last few weeks (probably 9 pct) and it was overvalued anyway to begin with a few months ago IMO. There is nothing so fundamentally wrong with US economy or dollar value that it will continue to drop and drop, there is a lower limit where it is unlikely to go below. <BR><BR>I think prepaying hundreds if not thousands of dollars to hotels before you go on a trip is much riskier than worrying about value of $ to euro. Not to mention logistics of when you intend to pay off that credit card bill and when it will be payable. If it is due before your trip, you are paying the CC bill before you even know if you will get a room or have problems, so you won't really have any recourse if problems occur, will you? I just thought you had to dispute payment before you paid something, but I could be wrong. If you don't get the bill before leaving and don't pay it on time, you will probably pay a lot a lot in interest charges, as well as losing the value of that money in your own account during that time.<BR><BR>I don't know if hotels will even do that, it sounds funny to me, they might have standards about not charging clients for something that hasn't been delivered and there might even be some regulations on that. I know hotels can charge some deposit amounts (although I have never paid those) and some booking agents will take your money up front, but hotels might not. I wouldn't do it anyway, I think it's a bad idea.

How about if you buy Euros now to pay for your hotel later? Then if the dollar drops, you bought Euros at a cheaper rate than you would have had you waited. <BR><BR>Makes sense to me.

I tried to pay in advance by cc on my last trip & the hotel wouldn't do it. I was surprised!

Dollar's, you are one smart cookie!

That would be a very impractical thing to do. What would happen if for some reason you cannot keep the reservation? The hassle you'll have to get the hotels to credit back your account will not be worth the extra euro you'll pay later. It's easy to prepay but very difficult to get a refund.

Okay, maybe you guys are right -- I don't know much about market economics. All I know is that it's quite sickening to watch the dollar lose value as you get closer and closer to your trip. And Don is only 3 weeks out.<BR><BR>Even my husband disagrees with me on this. He thinks it might be wise to get American Express euro travellers checks. I don't know how easy these are to get though. I know that when I tried to get euros here in Hawaii before our recent trip, they were not to be had. Perhaps getting the TC's in euros are easier.<BR><BR>We'll see what happens in three weeks, Guys!

Why do people keep capitalizing euros?

Ed:<BR><BR>Why do people keep adding an s to supposedly make the plural of euro?<BR><BR>You don't add an "s" after yen, you don't add an "s" after lire, you don't I think add an "s" after rand, you're not supposed to add an "s" after euro.

Idiot:<BR><BR>You add an s to guilder, you add an s to peseta, you add an s to pound.<BR><BR>Wonder what the official application is?

But you don't add an "s" to quid

I'm tired of reading your responces. Please stop so I can lay down. I'm tired.

It used to be one lira but 2 or more lire. I dont get charged ten dollar for 2 cappuccino in New York City, its 10 dollars. But it certainly is 20 euro, no s. <BR><BR>As to the dropping dollar, on my llast trip to Venice whe dollar was hovering at about 2000 when I made my reservations. I payed a 30% deposit for our apartment thinking that I would kick myself a few days later when the dollar plunged to 1800. 6 weeks later we were in Venice at an all time high of 2380 and our apartment was almost 20% cheaper than if we had paid it at 2000. A few weeks later the dollar was back to 1830. Either I am a genius or I have dumb luck. And you can ask my wife which one is correct.........

Here's the official rule, from the European Union's official website, quoting Rule 12.12 of the English Style Guide of the European Commission's Translation Service<BR><BR>"Guidelines on the use of the euro, issued via the Secretariat-General, state that the plurals of both 'euro' and 'cent' are to be written without 's' in English. Do this when amending or referring to legal texts that themselves observe this rule. Elsewhere, and especially in documents intended for the general public, use the natural plural with 's' for both terms."<BR><BR>In other words, no "s" for legal documents, but "s" in general usage. This applies to only English usage, but since the posts here are in English, it would apply.<BR><BR>For the full EU explanation, see<BR><BR>http://europa.eu.int/euro/html/rubri...ue=221|chap=15

xxx, I added the "s" just to get a rise out of people. God, I'm good. It's so easy on this site. I can now accurately predict how many responses I will get to certain posts.<BR><BR>KT, in Ireland, people do not use the "s" in general usage. They say "20 euro". And that's the only English speaking country that uses the euro.