I book my airfare first, then put in my vacation request at work (just in case they balk, I can say but I've got these non-refundable plane tickets), then we decide what towns to visit & for how long, then I look for my hotels. I'm at that stage right now planning my trip to Great Britain in April.

Somehow it just seems more "logical" to buy the plnae tickets first since that's the first thing you do on your trip.

In reference to the remark by capo about a place that is considered a "must-stay"... I agree that I have never felt that way about a hotel.

But for a villa stay, it really can be what villa can we find at what price with the right number of bedrooms/etc, that has the dates available we can work with. I have done three trips like this, including the Fodorites' 2001 Italy trip, and finding the right villa was clearly the first step.

Rex you hit the nail on the head. That is or was my dilemma. Part of our trip will be renting a villa in Southern Tuscany close to Umbria for four couples.
Previously I would not make lodging reservations until Air tix were purchased but I am finding some of the villas already booked in Mid to Late September. Usually I would wait with the lodging until flights were confirmed.

There are a few circumstances where, even 9-12 months out, it will be essential to ensure that a hotel room is available at all (make a reservation you can cancel), and then book tickets. For example, if you're planning to go somewhere when a festival, trade fair or sports competition is taking place. Try finding a hotel in Sydney during the Rugby Cup etc. This becomes increasingly important the shorter your time horizon is (e.g. booking a month ahead, you might find that you can't find an affordable hotel anywhere in certain cities). So, since the airline ticket is usually very restrictive, book the hotel first. You can change your mind later. Keep in mind that you might not know that you're planning a holiday at a time and in a place where some major event is taking place. So even if you're planning 9-12 months ahead, make a few inquiries of hotels (including asking them about festivals etc) - and if things seem wide open, go ahead and wait a while as you watch airfares for sales.

Rex, I actually do have one "must-stay" hotel in Europe, in Nice -- this wonderful family-run place I've stayed at 4-5 times since my first visit to it in 1994 -- but they've always have room (at least in the non-summer months when I've been there.)

I can't recall ever booking accommodation first. Also not terribly fussy about one particular hotel, but I wouldn't want to be in town for a major event and we usually go off season.

I was always in the habit of checking availablity of a sampling of rooms in our chosen area using something like Expedia before booking anything. Just to see if it looks like there's some sort of unusually high demand. I don't book, I just check availability around town in general. Not sure if that method really is terribly effective, but so far so good or it could just be dumb luck.

I'm sure that in the case of an apartment, villa, etc that we'd do that booking first and run the risk of a little higher airfare.

We are planning a trip to Belgium and France for October. So far, when I have checked hotel websites, most are not available for booking yet. How far out do most hotels (2* & 3*) book rooms? I'm most concerned about Paris at the end of the trip - the last week in October.

I never plan that far in advance. If I think it may be difficult to get hotel reservations, but fairly easy to get flights at a good price for the approximate dates I'm interested in, then I'll make hotel reservations first, since I can cancel without penalty with ample notice to the hotel if I can't get flights on the days I'd tentatively planned. When I took advantage of a great one-day airfare sale for $268 round trip Newark/Milan two years ago, I grabbed the flight right away, then decided where to go and looked for hotels. When I'm being particularly indecisive and procrastining a lot about making plans, as I was for my trip this past fall, then one tactic that can help get me off the fence is to force myself to make plane reservations before I have my trip all figured out, because that forces me to hurry up and decide on my itinerary. I don't usually get my flights more than about a month and a half in advance, and usually make hotel reservations not more than a month before leaving.