Room-Finding Tricks: 2004
The town is packed, you don't have a reservation, and night is quickly approaching. What are your emergency room-finding tricks?
Using Tourist Information Offices
I have used the TIO in many European towns with excellent results. However I try to never agree to the room until I see it. If I plan to stay more than one night, I don't pay for more than one night at a time. The next morning when I find I want to stay I pay the host. If I have to look for another place I can do it without that extra cost. Most places I have rented will allow me to inspect the room and bathroom before paying. In Vernazza I looked at 5 apartments before renting.
WOODY
CHICAGO, USA Fri 12/24/2004
Hotel Reservation Service
Here is a web site showing discounted hotels in Germany and other parts of Europe - www.hrs.de We used it extensively to make our next nights reservations and scored a couple of 4 star hotels at 2 star prices as well as several back door style places. They confirm by email or text message and include directions. The rooms are held without a credit card number. Worked great for us.
Les and Robbi
WA USA Tue 12/07/2004
Finding a room
We were in York without reservations and the TI was closed by the time we arrived! What to do? We were with friends from Macclesfield and had bragged to them about the ease with which we were able to find great b&b's without reservations. Stopping at the railroad station, to use the public phone, my friend and I were able to find a room without trouble because she had thought to bring a book listing the names and phone numbers of local b&bs. But, if that had failed, her husband and mine were approached by a taxi driver, a flower seller, and a passerbye who all knew of places we could find a room. So, to echo one of the other messages...don't freak out when you can't find a room, there always seems to be a good samaritan to help out.
Sallie Walker
Denver, NC USA Thu 10/21/2004
Seeking Last Minute Lodging
I want to recommend Lastminute.com at bus and train locations throughout Great Britain as a place to find lodging at the last minute. Last weekend,, my daughter & I arrived in Edinburgh without any lodging reservations. The city was full of visitors for The British Open and two concerts. Fortunately, Lastminute.com found us two rooms at a local temporary hostel (Euro hostel) at vacant dorms at the U. of Edinburgh. I don't know what we would have done otherwise. campus.
Paul Hanson
Edmonds, Wa USA Sat 07/24/2004
Changing hotels on the internet during the trip
On our latest travels (to Portugal, the Azores (very inexpensive and pretty!) and Italy, sometimes we really didn't like the hotel we had booked online. In that case, we would spend one night there, locate the nearest internet cafe and log onto tripadvisor.com to find a better hotel in the same city. We would book that hotel (or B&B) online, go back to the unwanted hotel and cancel the rest of our stay and set out for the "new" hotel. Sometimes we got very reasonable prices for rather fancy accomodations, as it was not the high season and the room was about to go unfilled.
Sue
San Francisco, CA USA Tue 04/27/2004
Sold out in Munich
We entered Munich and went to the TI for a little help. We had tried the muenchen-tourist.de hotel booking website the night before and the city was sold out! We learned that 300,000 visitors were in town for a mining trade show. Whoops. The TI was very helpful to send us to Augsburg (1 hour away) for the night. Munich would be available in just one day.
J & D
Seattle, WA USA Sun 04/11/2004
Airport Information - quick and easy
When we couldn't get a flight home from the Frankfort Airport (we fly standby), we asked the airport information center staff to recommend a clean, cheap hotel that would have a free shuttle to get us back and forth to the airport. We just needed to sleep, shower and return to the airport the next morning. They called a Sofitel for us (at no charge), reserved a room, and in 20 minutes a shuttle van showed up and picked us up. They had a nice little restaurant and spotless room. The location was in an industrial park, but at the end of a 10 day vacation, who cared? We wanted to rest and get back home. It was great!
Sunny
FL USA Wed 03/10/2004
No Hotel Rex
Ask a lot of questions before you book a room. Also, ask to look at the room before you agree to pay for it. We had a bad experience at Hotel Rex in Florence. Make sure you don't give that hotel a second look.
Dan Van Beeno
San Diego, CA USA Sat 02/28/2004
room finding tricks
If you've had previous trouble with jet lag, book a comfortable hotel
for your first night in Europe before you leave home. You may not be up
to searching when you arrive, and the extra comforts of a 3-star hotel
may be worth the extra cost for one night. If you're staying in that city,
check out the next morning and find a less expensive one.
Traveled in southern Germany in early December. In Nurnberg, it was getting late in the afternoon but the Tourist Bureau booked us a no frills but clean and quiet room for 42 Euros at the Hotel-Pension garni "Vater Jahn" at Jahnstrasse 13, a few blocks from the Hauptbahnhof, with a laundromat and a good Thai restaurant 2 blocks away. An easy walk into old Nurnberg, and street parking can usually be found.
In Heidelberg, we just walked
up to the Hotel Nassauer Hof at Plock 1, we found a nice room that cost
102 Euros, but its location was very convenient,it had private parking
a block away, and the breakfast buffet was excellent. In Rothenburg, it
was dark but we just walked up to a hotel in the city. Although it was
full, they called the Gasthof Klingentor right outside the Klingen gate
of the city wall, which was fine.
David Lloyd
Silver Spring, MD USA Fri 01/16/2004