Very limited availability next summer in various places

I think many hotels might not be booking out that far yet. That may be the reason they appear unavailable.

I think all you're seeing are dates that are still blocked out because it's too early to accept bookings. There's a good reason for this. If everyone booked stuff up a year in advance then the later-comers (who aren't necessarily late at all) would find nothing left to choose from. I would look again in 2022. No one knows what next summer will be like in terms of the pandemic, restrictions, etc...it's hard anough to even predict next month, and the entry rules have changed and will probably continue to change over time depending on whatever country one is looking to travel to.

Did you find places, and book rooms, travel4fun? There seem to be some places - one in London in particular - that aren’t responding, yet the Webpage suggests they’re operating as usual. Some places might have closed for good during the first year of the Pandemic, so there’s just a smaller supply, and the surviving places are filling up sooner.

Especially if there’s no penalty in canceling, booking sooner definitely seems better that waiting until later. Unless one needs to keep one’s options open, and not get too tied up, and then having to cancel a bunch of bookings.

I’ve booked most of our lodging (with free cancellation). What I’m finding is that places that as of a month ago had availability next summer, are no longer available. My dates have only shifted by a few days from when I originally started my research. That leads me to believe they are accepting bookings and being booked this far in advance.

Sounds like just too far in advance given the pandemic.

Sounds like just too far in advance nothing to worry about.

I checked the two places I recommend in Wengen (Hotel Baeren and Hotel Bellevue) and neither is booked up in late June. A search on TripAdvisor for Wengen hotels for 3 nights in mid-June produces the note “22 of 40 hotels in Wengen are available”, and lists them. Which did you try?

I did not check Ortesei or Colmar. But if you cannot find anything at all, I suspect is has more to do with the changing landscape of regulations, and the hotels’ possible reluctance to accept bookings that people may cancel later because of new covid rules. France apparently now requires a quarantine for Americans who are not vaccinated, so if I were an innkeeper in Colmar I might not want to offer bookings to any Americans just yet.

I looked at random places in Ortesei and found that either (a) they wanted me to send a request for booking rather than book online, (b) they seem to be focusing on booking for ski season and are not open for booking beyond that, or (c) they want full-week bookings only at this time.

As of now I am planning to be back in Europe next summer. Presumably a ton of international tourists will probably be doing likewise.

Whether Colmar is on my itinerary (it's been years since I was there), that is also a possibility. Not concerned about "very limited availability " in Colmar. If that turns to be true next summer, I'll stay in Strasbourg instead, taking the TER train to Colmar. Around the Strasbourg train station area within a block or two are numerous two star small hotels

My lodging needs are a little more challenging, so that may be part of what’s happening. We are a party of 5: myself, my husband, our son; my sister and her husband (their first Europe trip). My searches have been for either: 1) two rooms in the same hotel (a double and a triple) or 2) three rooms in same hotel (2 doubles and a single) or 3) an apartment with at least two double beds plus a twin bed (no sofa beds) and two bathrooms.

My previous searches have been using booking.com and Airbnb. I’ve now booked most of our places, just wanted to give others a heads up.

Try VRBO International or Interhome for apartments and homes to rent.

Apartments with two bathrooms are very hard to come by in France. We are traveling in Dec with daughter and her husband and have booked apartments or aparthotels. We have come to terms with sharing a bath in all but one place.

Booking.com is not a reliable source of availability information.

Agreeing with several posts above, Booking.com is iffy at best, and Vrbo is an excellent first place to look. We’d booked apartments for Italy using both Booking.com and Vrbo months ago, and were leaving in a week and a half. The Booking place notified us 2 weeks ago that the place wasn’t going to be available, due to “mechanical reasons,” that were t going to be fixed n time for our late September stay. We were refunded, so that part was handled very well by Booking.com.

So we started looking at other places in Bologna in our price range. Three appeared to be available on Booking.com, but when we tried to book each of them, they weren’t. That was a confusing, frustrating mixed message for 3 properties, in addition to the odd first apartment’s sudden situation. We finally got a place thru Vrbo instead, and are going to be there in just a few days.

I hope you get a suitable place, travel4fun !

Please note it is spelled “Ortisei.”

I think you are indeed too far in advance for making reservations. In Ortisei they are preparing for ski season. You might have luck writing to Residence Astoria http://www.residence-astoria.com/en/Default.asp as they usually have availability in June and have apartments that would fit your needs. They are usually fully booked much of July and all of August.