Reserving hotels in the UK and Ireland on short notice

You’ll be able to find hotel rooms. The only risk you run is that prices may be higher and/or the rooms or properties you want won’t be available. I very rarely know my schedule sufficiently in advance to book more than about 3-4 weeks in advance. So it’s a risk I frequently experience. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Will you be driving or depending on public transportation? I had trouble finding transit-accessible July lodgings on Skye back in December, so I think that's a place that could be quite challenging if you'll be tied to places near bus stops. And you'll need two rooms, I assume.

You could use a website like booking.com to spot-check for June availability as of now.

I just remembered about Skye. I was going to add that it might be a problem there.

Thank you kclyons, that is reassuring.

Acraven, we plan to drive. I am resigned to the fact that some places on our wishlist, especially Skye, may need to be eliminated due to the reservation issue. I am thinking of a back up plan of something like Oban to visit the Isles of Mull and Staffa? We had originally chosen Skye because we visited Oban, Mull and Iona on our last visit to Scotland and wanted to see Skye, but we would be interested in Staffa so we could make that work.

I've found the prices are lower. I must have 60 - 100 nights, in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, under my belt reserving the morning before arriving. I've never felt like I paid more and often felt like I was paying significantly lower than published rates. They have rooms that will go empty if they can't book them up.

The obvious exception is if they are booked up. The less choosy you are, the easier it becomes. I just want a quiet place with a bed and shower. I don't need much beyond that. If you have your heart set on a certain place, you should book ahead. My favorite hostel (I don't really have any favorite hotels) in Paris is the Mije, on the Rhine it's Burg Stahleck, in Salzburg it's Institute San Sebastian. All are great but can be booked up - reservations are needed.

The other exception is big festivals that fill up most of the rooms. I arrived in Munich on Oktoberfest opening day without reservations. I called a list of places but they were all full. I decided to go to the TI to get a room. It looked like the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile so I went back to the phone. Ultimately, I found a pension (for the normal rate, at the time 50 marks/$25) who had a cancellation - but I seriously thought I might go homeless. I wouldn't want to repeat that. If that ever happens, check the next town down the road. In Salzburg, a few days later, I had no problem arriving without reservations even at my favorite place.

Just a quick and very minor nitpick above , there is no trading floor at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and I always think it’s funny when I see protestors there, there’s nothing but computers inside. The small amount of floor trading that still occurs is over the the CBOT on LaSalle.

Getting back to hotels, I’d say it’s very unlikely you’ll find yourself shut out completely, it’s more that the best prices will be gone and you might find yourself spending more than you want to. I have no experience with Skye, however. You might just stick to the bigger cities on this trip and hit the smaller places next time when you’re able to make plans further in advance.

I have caught some good deals--often what I call "business-class hotels" nicer than my usual, on weekends--when I book late. However, that seems to work best for short stays. Part of it is the weekend thing, but also it's more likely that one guest has canceled (making perhaps two nights available at late notice) than that two people with reservations on sequential dates have done so.

You need to be careful about traveling free as a bird to places experiencing a sharp uptick in popularity, because supply often trails demand in that situation. Cornwall is tough. The Scottish islands are tough.

I always book earlier than I probably need to, but I get the pick of the B&B or small hotel that I want. We rarely do large 5 star hotels.

In some places, places book up quickly.

Since you have a reason to delay your bookings, I suggest booking your lodgings as soon as it is determined you have purchased your airfare. You probably know that most of the time you can book with the option to cancel as long as you give good notice like 48 hours.

We once traveled off the cuff a lot and never booked in advance (that was prior to the internet). One trip we showed up in the city we were staying for 3 nights and all the lodgings were full for 30 miles away. We finally, after 3 hours found a very small B&B with only three rooms and they had one room available. Otherwise, we were going to have to sleep in our car.

Thank you all for your input. I think I have nailed down some tentative dates and looked at some hotels where we want to stay. Prices are definitely higher than before, but I expected that. I think we will have to change our plans about going to the Isle of Skye, but the other stops look doable.