Venere.com
 

Has anyone ever booked a hotel through Venere.com? I was just wondering how reliable they are.
Thanks!

Very good, Well established, popular and reliable. The good thing is you don' pay them - you settle direct with the hotel when you check in or out.

Thank you very much Alec.

I have and I've had no problems.

I would not hesitate to book with Venere. I've always been satisfied. Our room in Nice last Sept. was cheaper than on the hotel site.

I hesitated to respond, as we used them in 2000 and a lot can change in 9 years....We had a very good experience. However, from these other posts, it sounds it is still true that they are good.

We have booked several times with Venere and everything went as planned. You didn't ask, but another good booking site is booking.com which we use a lot.

We used them last year and had no problems at all.

magcota - I've just booked a hotel in Munich through Venere.com

Just be sure when you select your dates for a hotel and need to change them - do it before entering your credit card details etc. I changed them by starting the booking over but when clicked the "accept" button, the old dates went through. Now I have to go to the trouble of trying to cancel and then start over! Take it slow.

I have used them for years now and there is never a problem at the hotel end.

I lodged my critism of their business practices here on Fodors and was shouted down. Once you book with them, don't expect them to notify you again of any reservations you are holding. HRS, Steigenberger, Priceline, Expedia and Hotwire always send reconfirmation e-mails but I never heard squat from Venere. As a result, a reservation I had made 10 months before was charged to me. I know now that I should've made backups of my reservations before my computer crashed, but I never expected a problem to happen. I guess I got spoiled by the more efficient systems the other major booking services employ. And they were of absolutely no help in trying to straighten things out. Luckily for me, the hotel manager in Berlin offered a solution satisfactory for both parties.

I'm amazed that Venere is being called out for not handholding. It's a great site, well respected in Italy, and I've never had a problem.

If you're expecting them to send you e-mails reminding you that you booked a hotel, go elsewhere. But otherwise, they are better than most.

One of the best things about Venere.com is that they are not only in the big cities...they were the source of some wonderful off-season finds in small towns in both Le Marche and Umbria when we were there.

Even if I end up booking some other way, I always check the Venere website because I love the way it shows a map of the city with each area identified so you can narrow your search to specific area, or just get a good overview of the districts/landmarks in an unfamiliar city while you do your hotel shopping.

When I have booked with them, everything went as expected. I do usually email the hotel directly after booking through any third-party service to make sure all is ok with my reservation.

Booked our 3 1/2-week vacation to Paris and Italy in 2007. No quibbles and would do it again.

HTH
K

used twice in the past, going to do it again this summer.
Love the fact they don't charge your CC right away like Expedia, Hotel etc

Venere seems to be great source for quality properties outside major metro areas. Ive used them for a number of B&Bs, no problems.

Thanks for the input, it's been a long time since I've traveled to Europe, so I appreciate all the advice.

Used Venere on 3 trips in the past 4 years and had very good experiences. Had to cancel a reservation once--this was done without any problem. Another time realized I made a mistake with a reservation and communicated directly with Venere; got a reply confirming the change.

I found Venere especially helpful because at the time we were looking for quad and triple rooms--not always easy to find in Europe.