Exploring Brittany - how easy is it to reserve gites the same day

In general - finding lodging on the fly the same day you need it means you’re getting leftovers...what nobody else wanted. yoyre also investing your vacation/sightseeing time looking for lodging instead of doing something more fun? maybe April is different.

Some of our most miserable trip moments have been trying to find a hotel last minute and they are in our experience terrible when things well planned are marvelous. At the very least have a list of hotels you know are open for the season and that you can call ahead to on the road or the day before.

We have found in April that a fair number of rural hotels are still not open for the season.

I don't travel to that part of Europe in April (weather!), so all I can offer is the suggestion that you check lodging availability in possible stopping points on booking.com 4 days ahead, 3 days ahead, 2 days ahead, and 1 day ahead. See how things are looking. I think that should give you advance notice of an impending problem.

I regularly book budget-level European hotel rooms as my trip goes along, but looking for same-day accommodations isn't ideal. For one thing, you'll be doing it during hours when you could be sightseeing. I do my booking online in the evening after I've crashed for the day. I started out booking one day ahead and am now often doing so 3 or 4 days out. Still, I often have to choose between paying more than I'd like and being in a less convenient location.

I trust you'll have cellular data on your phone so you won't have to go looking for a Wi-Fi connection or (worse) pound the pavement from hotel to hotel.

Over the years we occasionally booked a hotel or B&B by just showing up in a town and looking around. While it always worked out in the end, a couple of times it almost didn't. On the other hand, calling ahead the day before (this was pre-Internet) always worked well. We haven't done anything like that for many years, and I don't think we'll ever just show up looking for a place. On the other hand, I would have no hesitation recommending trying to find a place the day before, especially not in April.

I should have mentioned in my earlier response that everyone and his brother now uses the internet to book places ahead of time (or to research, followed by calling the hotel), so when you arrive in town and start looking for a room for that very night, you are definitely fishing in a depleted pond. The most charming and best-deal places will probably be full. I'm OK with missing out on the charm (for me, the flexibility is more than worth it), but I do hate spending the extra money.

Although my own experience has been in other areas (Normandy and Alsace) I think you are working with the image of a pleasant memory of immediately post-war Europe that does not exist today. It's kind of like the budget travelers who expect to save half their hotel money by taking "night trains". You are looking for something whose time has passed.

Most of the places I have stayed were full, both in and out of season. If your "hope" list comes from Rick's books or newsboards like this one, you chances are even worse. I would never travel without reservations in a popular northern European country. My two cents.

I have not seen really rural Brittany, but I wonder if you will ever need a hotel with proprietary parking (as we needed in small Alsace towns.) If you can get a room at the last minute, you may have to get up at 6AM (I made that time up ... ) to move the car. Or have a very long walk to it. We certainly chose our hotel in Dinard partly because it included private parking. (Not recommending you stay in Dinard in April.)

The last week in April ends with the May 1 Holiday weekend. In my experience, you will at a minimum want to lock in reservations for the weekends, both April 25 and definitely April 30-May 3.

Also, many gites (as opposed to hotels) prefer to book for full Saturday-to-Saturday weeks.

I think — as Laura indicated — that you are very unlikely to be able to reserve a gite same day.

A hotel, maybe.

I had no significant trouble booking twin rooms for Mom and I on the day of arrival (and generally the afternoon of arrival) over several stops in Brittany and Normandy in October, 2018. I'd expect April to be similar, since it's outside of the French summer beachgoing holidays, but do be careful about any holiday weekend, such as Easter, and also perhaps any weekend with a great weather forecast. A couple of these were listings from Rick's France book, but most were in towns that he doesn't cover. All but one included free parking.

While you might research them online, I suggest calling to make the actual booking, especially the more last-minute it gets. A few examples why:
* You can sound "undecided" and perhaps get a cheaper rate.
* One hotel that I booked in Roscoff through Booking.com turned out to be closed! I ended up walking a block away and taking a room at the Ibis (chain hotel), instead. Had to report back to Booking.com to get a refund on the nonrefundable booking, but that worked out fine. (This town has a pretty central public parking lot.)
* One tiny B&B that I booked through Booking.com outside of Etretat, Normandy, was "the type" where the proprietor had assigned rooms to the bookings she had in the morning and then gone to work in town for the day. Booking.com was incorrect in stating that a twin room was available (so they booked it), but when she returned home, the proprietor was able to give us two rooms, instead (her last two). It was a quirky but lovely property and experience, including being able to join the homemade dinner on offer that night.

Dear Members,
I appreciate all the responses. All good points. We decided to reserve a place for the first night in Vannes instead of waiting. Thanks!

For me the French equivalent for a B&B is a chambre d’hôte, gîte can that be to my idea too but refers most of the time to holiday rentals. The latter you have to book in advance but with looking for a chambre d’hôte there is much more flexibility. If you are prepared to stay away from the tourist hotspots and depending the time of the year you can have good deals. Til a few years back I always made use of Gîtes de France for many years, good experiences and good value for the money. https://www.gites-de-france.com/en

I've booked Airbnb apartments pretty much last minute. Some owners won't do it, others will.

You can also use tripadvisor for last minute accommodations.

Gites are a little different animal so I'm not sure?

To date, my worst experiences are through Booking.com, followed by Hotels.com.

After a miserable two nights in Beaune, I rated the hotel fairly. Booking.com said my rating was a 3.7. I tried to go back and change my ratings to make it closer to reality and it wouldn't let me. The only plus was a good location, everything else was awful. That and getting the worst room in the building, regularly, makes Booking.com a no go.

Hotels.com has a problem with changing dates when you search for a place "near" something. You start searching for a date but can easily end up booking a different date because the app changes it with no prompting on your part. Imagine booking a room, then showing up to find there is no reservation because the app changed your date to last night (and there is no refund)?