hotels

Since the hotel has such a good website at http://www.crostihotel.it/ with a booking tool at the top, and an easily accessible telephone number I'd try dealing with the hotel direct and asking for their help. You haven't said when you are going - if its soon they may actually be full; if quite far out they may not have put the dates into their system. Good luck, Rhoda.

When are you traveling? Which hotels? Which cities?

In Italy....the Hotel Crosti ...its booked online but i've heard that some hotels hold rooms for people that walk in

I think that some booking sites don't have access to all the rooms at a hotel. Have you tried contacting the hotel directly? If the hotel says are no rooms, I would believe them. Why would they decline a definite reservation on the off chance someone will just show up? That wouldn't make sense.

I can't speak for Italy, but I have done considerable study of room booking in Germany and, yes, "hotels" seem not to offer all rooms to booking websites. And no wonder, booking websites take a big cut, often 15%, of the room rate. You're not likely to pay less for a single night booked directly, because these booking websites prohibit the place from charging more for booking the same thing through them, but you can sometimes get multi-night packages, not offered on the booking websites, at a lower rate. And I have seen properties showing vacancies on their website when the booking website said they were "sold out". But lots of luck finding the property's own website if you don't already know it. The booking websites are very adept at saturating an Internet search with lots of their own listings ahead of the property's. I've sometimes had to sort through pages of Booking, HRS, and Tripadvisor hits before finding the URL of the place I want. I've also found that for every property listed on a booking website, there are 1 or 2 others in town that are not listed, and these are usually the most economical properties, partly because they don't have to absorb the extra 15% in their price. I've found that the best way to find accommodations in Germany is to go to the town's own website, www. town .de. I find more places that way, and, in particular, more of the economically priced places.

Hi Rhoda: If you might be phoning internationally quite a bit and speaking for some time, it would be worth it to check out international calling cards. My husband uses them with our landline for his international calls. Saves quite a bit of money, easy to use. My husband pays about $7.00 for his card. He got it from some Asian minimarket. Have a wonderful trip!

Review the Italian based hotel website http://www.venere.com/. You don't need to pay in advance on this site. Also, I find that sending emails to your desired hotels asking if they have availability for your dates is helpful and if they offer a discount for multiple nights/rooms. I note on the subject line of the email "reservation request" and don't worry, everyone in reservations departments speake English :)

If you are interested in a particular hotel, definitely e-mail (or call or fax) them directly. I just had this experience: I wanted to book the Pension Peters in Berlin (favorite of Rick Steves himself, as well as others on this site). Their on-line booking engine said there was no availability for one of my 3 days. But, their site itself said that if the on-line booking showed no availability, one should still check directly with them, as they may be able to accommodate. Sure enough, when I e-mailed, they were able to give me the room. When sending an e-mail, I like to use the subject line "Reservation inquiry - Pension Peters - Berlin". This is because if I'm booking a trip with several stops, and in each city I'm inquiring about availability for several hotels, it can get very confusing sorting out the replies. This way, I know exactly who's responding, and for where (sometimes hotels in different cities will have the same name).

"i've heard that some hotels hold rooms for people that walk in" A large business hotel may do this, but I wouldn't expect a small place to. Many good places get filled up, and don't need to hold rooms hoping for walk-ins. Of course, there can always be a cancellation or no-show, or they just may not be full. But I'd never count on this, particularly in a busy city or at a busy time.

Also, if you try to book too far in advance, many European properties do not list more than a few months in advance. As others have already said, try contacting the hotel directly - that's your best bet!