WOW hotels are booking up fast??

September is one of (if not the) worst months for hotels. While many are easy to book in July and August, in September Paris is always full with business-oriented expositions and conferences. I must admit, it does seem pretty early to be filled up. Is it possible that some/many of the small hotels just simply aren't taking reservations yet? They will show up online as "no availability."

Have you looked around the 5th and 6th arrondissements? That's a good area, walking distance to Notre Dame and lots of "atmosphere" even with all the students around.

As Chani said,, September is a very busy month in Paris and hotels are generally full.. its trade show season and fashion week.. busy time, so besides all the tourists ( who think coming after summer is off season) there are all the business travellers. For this reason hotels often has lowest rates in August when business travel is down so hotel vacancies are up..

That said you can find something..

I can suggest cheap, a/c and central.. but for 120 a night or less I haven't found most of my hotel choices exactly "beautiful" but they are in great locations and are clean .. my two number one requirements.

What are your dates?

PS I booked my hotel and apartment for paris this july a month ago..

Thanks for the reply.
Pat, I will be in Paris on Sept 22-26 ( 4 nights) arriving in on the late afternoon from Loire Valley than we leave on the Friday evening for Ireland. I actually saw some hotels by Best Western which I feel strange going into that site for a Paris trip?? I also looked at St Pierre but unable to make enquiry as to availability. I think it could be my internet access and not their site. They seem a bit away from the sites. I will look further at the 5th and 6th arr.
Thanks again
Pat

I can't speak specifically about September in Paris; but like Chani I have found that some smaller hotels in France (and elsewhere) haven't got their online booking available that far ahead. I would suggest finding some places you like the look of and actually emailing them, for three reasons: 1) that way you are getting the best price (no commission to a 3rd party website); 2) sometimes the hotel will offer you a room even if their online booking system is full; 3) I have found the reasonably priced places without instant online booking fill up more slowly than those with. Hope that helps.

I had the unfortunate experience last year that you are having now. I thought I would get a head start on trip planning and tried to make reservations in the south of France for June. I was shocked to find that almost everything appeared to be booked on all of the various reservation and hotel sites. I frantically booked wherever I could even though the location and/or price was not my first choice. Some several weeks later all the hotel space inexplicably opened up. Unfortunately I was stuck with a few reservations that I really did not want.

I later found out that the French reservation system is unable to book too far in advance. I would suggest you write the hotel directly to determine if, in fact, there might be space.

Bon chance!

I had the unfortunate experience last year that you are having now. I thought I would get a head start on trip planning and tried to make reservations in the south of France for June. I was shocked to find that almost everything appeared to be booked on all of the various reservation and hotel sites. I frantically booked wherever I could even though the location and/or price was not my first choice. Some several weeks later all the hotel space inexplicably opened up. Unfortunately I was stuck with a few reservations that I really did not want.

I later found out that the French reservation system is unable to book too far in advance. I would suggest you write the hotel directly to determine if, in fact, there might be space.

Bon chance!

Margaret you sure you looked at correct Hotel St Pierre.. becuase the one I know and stay at is in an excellant location close to many many sites??? The one on Rue D'Ecole du Medicine.. in the 6th.

Don't worry about being away from the sites you want to visit. First, everything is smaller scale in Europe compared with North America. Walking between a metro station and the next one in Paris is a few hundreds meters, a few minutes at worst. Distances between the different things you want to see are probably much shorter than you imagine. Then, Paris has excellent public transportation, so you will never be far away from "the sites" if your hotel is in Paris and not the suburbs. Use metro and buses to go to the places you want to see, it will make your life much easier, and it's cheap.

Thanks Everyone.I will keep the smaller hotels in mind. I did receive email from 2 saying to request in June for September. The hptels that ask for money up front and severe cancell restrictions are taken off my list.
Pat, I will try St Pierre again
Margaret(Pat)

Also, don't be turned off by Best Western hotels here. I agree it seems a bit weird, but here it seems to be more of a membership/booking/reservations thing -- the hotels are usually small independent hotels, as best I can tell. I mean, not completely independent, obviously, but much different than at home,

My computer went wonky last night.. but I looked at HSP last night and found rooms there for your dates at 100-110 euros a night. And I assure you the location is excellant ( but rooms are small!)

You can try using booking.com to find and book something now for your peace of mind. Then you can keep looking or look later in the year, and with booking.com you can easily cancel your original reservation without any penalty. I've done this multiple times and had no problems with the cancellations.