emailing hotels
 

Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.
What's your experiences?
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Re: emailing hotels
 

"The Reids" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    > Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
    > Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
    > discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.
    > What's your experiences?

Hit and miss. I've had good responses from Holiday Inns when I've tried to
email them, both in the UK and USA. Also Jury's Inn in Birmingham responded
to my queries quickly.

Other cheaper hotels I doubt they even look at their computers.

Re: emailing hotels
 

Following up to Mark Hewitt

    >Other cheaper hotels I doubt they even look at their computers.

the ones I have contacting are fairly high end. But they still
don't look it seems.
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Re: emailing hotels
 

Am Mon, 04 Oct 2004 12:08:43 +0100 schrieb The Reids:

    > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    > Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
    > Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
    > discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.

I'll second that for Italy. They don't seem to look up their e-mails
frequenty. What I do is first phone them (normally the'll have someone who
speaks at least a bit of english) and ask if they are vacant, then I
confirm my booking by fax with all the details and ask them to confirm my
fax, so I have something written.

Always works fine for me.

You don't need to discuss lots of things on the phone - just ask them to
look up if they have a room free and how much it costs.

Regards,

Frank

Re: emailing hotels
 

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 12:08:43 +0100, The Reids
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    >Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
    >Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
    >discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.
    >What's your experiences?

I've never tried it. Before my Italian was up to snuff, I usually
faxed the hotel rather than phoning. That gave them the opportunity to
find someone who could decipher my English and compose a response.

In theory, an email should work also. However, it's quite possibile
that many hotels have signed onto some web advertising deal that
includes an email possibility, in spite of the fact that they have no
one on staff who checks the email.


-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

Re: emailing hotels
 

"The Reids" <[email protected]> schrieb im
    > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the
    > agencies on Google) have email booking or enquiry forms
    > you can use. For Spain this usually has worked and saved
    > foreign language discussions over phone, for Italy most
    > do not seem to respond. What's your experiences?


I've made good experiences with hotels in Lviv, Odessa and Kiev
this summer. It was no problem to reserve a room via email (in
english) in those Ukrainian cities, usually the hotels answered my
emails within 1-2 working days (only one hotel in Kiev didn't
reply, so I looked for another hotel...).
In Odessa the hotel I contacted even made a reservation for me in
another hotel, because they had no free rooms. Also this
reservation worked without problems.



--
Helmut Uttenthaler,
Graz

Re: emailing hotels
 

    > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    > Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
    > Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
    > discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.
    > What's your experiences?

I emailed the NH Dornach, Munich to ask for directions from Reim S-Bahn, and
received a reply in perfect English with a map within the hour.

Re: emailing hotels
 

"The Reids" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    > Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
    > Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
    > discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.
    > What's your experiences?
    > --

Haven't done Italy, but I've had mostly good luck, except for one small
hotel in the Carribean (which turned out to be wonderful). It's been my
primary way of booking for the past five years, including trips to England,
Croatia, Bosnia, Prague, the Netherlands, Belgium, and probably others. I
like smaller guesthouse-type places, so that may have something to do with
it.

The Internet is the greatest invention since _________ (fill in your own
blank). It has really heightened the travel experience (for me). But y'all
probably know that :-)

Re: emailing hotels
 

The Reids <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>. ..
    > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    > Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use...
    > for Italy most do not seem to respond.
    > What's your experiences?

Email has worked very well for us. We usually stay in 2 or 3 star
hotels -- make sure you go to the hotel's own website, not one of the
booking engines. This may mean wading through several pages of google
results before finding the right site.

Just last night, I sent off a lot of emails to hotels in Rome,
Perugia, Arezzo, Florence, and Venice, and my response rate has
already been about 70-80% in less than 24 hours.

I start with a very short email in simple, direct English. We've been
doing this since 1999 or 2000, and it's getting even better each year.
If a hotel does not respond to email, we scratch it off the list and
look for another. We may have missed some good places this way, but
on the other hand, travel planning is very easy.

Re: emailing hotels
 

"Frank Hucklenbroich" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Am Mon, 04 Oct 2004 12:08:43 +0100 schrieb The Reids:
    > > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    > > Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
    > > Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
    > > discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.
    > I'll second that for Italy. They don't seem to look up their e-mails
    > frequenty. What I do is first phone them (normally the'll have someone who
    > speaks at least a bit of english) and ask if they are vacant, then I
    > confirm my booking by fax with all the details and ask them to confirm my
    > fax, so I have something written.
    > Always works fine for me.
    > You don't need to discuss lots of things on the phone - just ask them to
    > look up if they have a room free and how much it costs.
    > Regards,
    > Frank

Based on limited experience from 1997, I was able to successfully book rooms
at the Onda Verde in Praiano (Amalfi Coast), the Romae in Rome and a hotel
in Assisi (sorry, don't remember which one since we had to cancel due to the
earthquake on our arrival day) using email directly to the hotels. I guess
it just depends on the hotel. Since this was some years ago, I would hope
things would be even easier now.

GG

Re: emailing hotels
 

The Reids wrote:

    > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    > Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
    > Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
    > discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.
    > What's your experiences?

My most recent experiences were with places in Germany,
Belgium, and the Netherlands - all booked via e-mail. All
went well. I've been booking hotels via e-mail for years now,
and have had good success, but have not done so with anyplace
in Italy.

Maybe you'll need Expedia or Travelocity or something for the
Italian booking?
--
dgs

Re: emailing hotels
 

The Reids wrote:

    > Many websites of hotels (when you can get past the agencies on
    > Google) have email booking or enquiry forms you can use. For
    > Spain this usually has worked and saved foreign language
    > discussions over phone, for Italy most do not seem to respond.
    > What's your experiences?

I've never been to Italy, but have had no problem making
e-mail reservations in Vienna, Brussels or Paris. Usually
the reply appears in the following day's inbox, and I can't
recall ever wating more than two days for a response (even
if they had no vacancies for the time I requested).

Re: emailing hotels
 

Following up to GG

    >Based on limited experience from 1997, I was able to successfully book rooms
    >at the Onda Verde in Praiano (Amalfi Coast), the Romae in Rome and a hotel
    >in Assisi (sorry, don't remember which one since we had to cancel due to the
    >earthquake on our arrival day) using email directly to the hotels. I guess
    >it just depends on the hotel. Since this was some years ago, I would hope
    >things would be even easier now.

Three days now,nobody has replied, time for phone/fax.
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Re: emailing hotels
 

Following up to Sarah Banick

    >The Internet is the greatest invention since powered flight and the internal combustion engine (fill in your own
    >blank). It has really heightened the travel experience (for me). But y'all
    >probably know that :-)

(I was sticking to travel)
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Re: emailing hotels
 

Following up to EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)

    >I've never been to Italy, but have had no problem making
    >e-mail reservations in Vienna, Brussels or Paris.

I've had no problems outside Italy, funny setting up a system
then ignoring it.
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap