wkcape

Haven't seen too much information on people who have booked with these websites. We are leaving on Friday and have booked in Venice through veniceby.com the San Marco Palace, In Siena at the Castello di Tornano through tuscany.net and in Rome at the Domina Town House through romeby.com

Will present a full report when we get back.

francophile03

Probably not too many people use these particular sites is that they are agencies that require prepayment. What alot of people do (myself included) is check out properties on these sites as the presentations are pretty detailed. But then they contact the hotels and book directly with them. Plus you only need to provide the hotel with a credit card as guarantee or the most is one night's deposit but not the entire stay.

Good luck.

Kay2

Not all the properties represented by this company require prepayment. Their sites provide more detailed information about the properties than many of the properties' own websites. Some properties offer the same rates directly through another email or fax as through their romeby e-mail addresses. Some take just credit card guarantee both ways as well. It seems to vary tremendously by property.

silvo123

I recently booked 3 places through those sites and I am looking forward to your review. In searching for places to stay, I found those sites easy to use and very informative.

Jean_Valjean

I've stayed in a couple of places from Florenceby.com. They were VERY good B&B's, in excellent locations (Albergo Apostoli and Cimatori Guest House). Everything was handled as efficiently as one would hope, w/o any incidents. The pictures were very accurate in reflecting the properties.

europhile

I booked a 3 night stay at Palazzo Sasso through italyby.com for our trip last September. No problems at all, and they did not require prepayment (just credit card guarantee, which the hotel would have required anyway). After we returned home, italyby.com sent an email with a survey asking how our experience was and whether it all went smoothly. I was very happy with the service. The room and rate was exactly as noted on the email confirmation, and breakfast was included. Assuming italyby.com is affiliated with worldby and veniceby, I can recommend their site without reservation.

gourmet2go

I just returned from a 2 week trip in Italy using Romeby, Veniceby and Italyby, and found the hotels to be excellent. The company is based in Florence, and apparently makes site visits to prospective hotels, takes photos and really checks them out. I was very very pleased!

JulieVikmanis

When I first discovered these sites I posted about them saying how excited I was to have found such useful sites and telling that I had booked all or most of my hotels for an upcoming trip. I received a lot of replies, about the prepayment problem but never encountered it. I have continued to use them extensively and even in preference to other booking sites for the same hotel or the hotels directly and I have never had a problem or had prepayment other than a credit card guarantee required. Each hotel has their own cancellation policy about which the site informs you while you are booking. Some require full payment if not cancelled with x number of days prior to start of stay, etc. But hotels do that when you book directly with them as well. So I see nothing amiss with these sites and some wonderful services. They provide lots of pictures of the properties. Spell out amenities very completely, even use a Q & A format. Provide your a personal consultant to work with--mine called one of the hotels and got me a response when I informed him that I'd not heard within the customary 48 hour response time the site lists. They also provide you a personalized tracking mechanism so you can tell at a glance which hotels you requested availability info from, which you've requested booking, which have responded, whether there is an offer to you, etc. If you check a box while making your availability request of one hotel, others of similar type with availability during your requested times may send you no obligation solicitations. This has come in handy for me when I've found my first choice filled. I just think they're great. And the hotels we've booked through them have all been very good with one exception (which wasn't terrible, just not living up to its potential) and I reported about that to them on their after visit survey. There is also a Parisby and Amsterdamby site. You can find them all I think at worldby.com

casinadirosa

Hi!

I work a lot with Tuscany.net, and I have never had problems.
Most structure ask for a credit card number or for a deposit, to avoid no show up, but if you have to cancel almost everybody is understanding and tries to find a suitable solution for everybody.

Of course, larger hotels with a lot of advertisement to back them can afford avoiding asking a deposit, but smaller businesses risk loosing reservations if tehy do not ask people a deposit.
Many people are serious and when they book they intend to come, but unfortunately there are also people who book and then desappear. In those cases, it happens that you have to say no to other interested guests and then you remain with the house empty for that week.
I have had people cancelling in advance and I have always given teh deposit back if the cancellation arrived with a decent advance.

I think Tuscany.net is reliable.

Ciao!
Gloria