Not seeing a lot of "Should I get lodging with AC?" posts

I would for at least the summer travel season. I was in Paris some yrs ago at 112 degrees without ac, we were miserable and could not sleep. Fans were sold out. Thx goodness Mc Donald’s has ac, spent many hours there just to cool down.

Given the press coverage of the heat waves in Europe, I'm not surprised that we aren't seeing questions. I would think anyone of normal intelligence who has seen the news reports would know that having AC would be a huge benefit.

I think the last time I encountered a heat wave in Paris was in 2012, however, the temperature was still below 100F. It was in the 90s F, ...reminded me of Bakersfield and Sacramento. The 2 star hotel in Gare du Nord did not have AC, or if it did, you had to pay extra for it. I didn't.

Another reason to go in the off-season.

I always put AC in the filters, whether I’m using a hotel booking site or Airbnb, so I don’t even have to compare places without air conditioning for July and August anywhere in Europe.

Exactly right Dick. I wouldn’t choose to go to Europe July through Sept if i had a choice. People with kids in school don’t have a choice though.

AC in the hotel room is great, but i don’t want to stay in the room other than to sleep, and being out and about in brutal heat is so difficult.

The next poster who asks, and you know there will be at some point, if they should get AC, we can all say Yes!

I have always advised posters to look for hotels with AC when they say they are traveling in Germany in the summer. It is why I recommend Motel One or Ibis or Holiday Inn. It is miserable here without it. Using www.hrs.com you can find the hotels that have AC using the website filter and then contact the hotel directly if you don't want to use hrs.

Maybe people have read old posts or seen media coverage of the weather and don’t need to ask the question.

At this point, the people who are headed to Europe for the rest of summer 2019 have plans and reservations pretty firmly in place and the booking window for summer 2020 hasn't really opened up yet in a significant way.

I'd expect to see the question appear somewhere around October or November when more people start to think seriously about travel plans for the next year.

I never used to worry about it when traveling to England or Ireland, but now I’m a little nervous! I have an Airbnb booked in the Bath for the end of August with no air conditioning and I’m hoping it will be OK! It was hard to find accommodations in my price range with the air conditioning. This is also true for the places that I’m looking at in Windsor. Having lived in Italy, I wouldn’t dream of traveling there without air conditioning! I lived there one summer without it and it was almost unbearable, especially with my asthma!! However, much cheaper over there to get places with the air conditioning than my experiences in the UK.

After experiencing Paris in a heatwave in 2011 I will not book a room in Europe from June-Sept without AC. And I've lived without AC at home in the Bay Area and Germany for 21 years now, so I'm not a delicate flower, but cities can really retain heat and it's impossible to know what airflow in a room is like if you haven't stayed there before.

My brother was just visiting Paris, Como, and Stuttgart and I basically forced him to change his Paris flat to one with AC. He was grateful for my insistence. He was here during some of the hottest days of the last heat wave.

I have noticed some hotels in the UK that have started deeming it necessary to highlight the fact they don't have AC in listings. I guess they have had plenty of complaints recently from people who have turned up and been disappointed at its absence.

A/C is a must for me. I see no charm in staying in a hotel without it. I was in Europe last year during the heat wave and was glad I had it. Just returned this year and encountered a few 97 degree days. HOWEVER, be careful. I have experienced and have heard others as well, experience the broken AC game. Small hotels "HAVE AC", but "it is broken". So, technically they have it on the Booking.com site and other sites, but it NEVER gets repaired. Read reviews carefully and check the dates of the reviews for the same complaints, it will help you see a pattern.

Susan, yes, family w kids, school teachers, and some of the assorted rest of us whose work gets really quiet in the summer find it much easier to get away in the summer.

All my trips to Paris and France have been in the summer, ie, sometime between May and August. I've experienced comfortable weather as well as some real broilers in Paris and elsewhere in France. They reminded me of being in Sacramento and Bakersfield.

I checked with my notes and in 2011 was in Paris on one of the heat wave days. It was in the 90sF...definitely could tell it was hotter and more humid than the previous couple of days.

There is no AC in my 2 star hotel unless you want to pay extra for it.

After a trip to Europe in 2012 that included Paris but also Prague and Salzburg with no AC. I don't leave home without it. It was miserable. Pretty bad that you go to the Louvre for AC not the artwork.

I posted this earlier this week:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/a-c-in-paris

I am of a certain age--I will not consider a room anywhere without a/c, and find it difficult to sleep without some kind of air circulation.