I am planning a trip to Greece (Athens, Crete, Santorini and Naxos) for June 2020. Searching websites (Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia.com, Tripadvisor.com) and I am finding VERY limited availability.
Am I trying to book accommodations too early? Should I wait a couple of months?
Yes, some places may not have their calendars up yet. A year ahead is common, you are pushing that. To get an idea of what may be available, search for late April/early May 2020. Just for reference (be aware of Easter if you look at April, that can really throw off costs and availability). Much earlier than that and you get into seasonality.
I’d look again for actual booking in August or later. I like booking early, as long as it’s cancellable or I’m really, really sure.
I know it isn't Greece, but I am finding some lodgings in Venice aren't open for booking after 1st week January.
You may want to search for this summer, short list lodgings of choice, and consider emailing them directly for next summer bookings....or check their websites for extended booking opportunities.
After you use review sites like Trip Advisor to identify some of the hotels you like best in each place, you might want to consider hiring a local travel agent to make all your reservations in a package booking. Tell them where you want to stay, but also describe in general what type of place you'd like, and see if they have alternate suggestions. They'll not only book the hotels but will also arrange for a taxi pick up from the airport, rental cars, ferry tickets, etc. The advantages are significant. It gives you a local person to contact if anything goes awry. Here's the biggie: if you've booked a hotel on one of the islands on your own but you cannot get to it that day because the ferries are down due to weather conditions or a strike (these things do happen!), you'll still have to pay for that night's stay in that hotel, and find a new place on your own. If you've booked that hotel through a local travel agent, you'll be able to contact your agent at that company, and he/she will cancel that night for you, and find a new place for you to stay in the place where you're stuck, and you won't have to pay for the hotel you couldn't get to. For our 2012 trip to Greece, we worked with Aegean Thesaurus Travel, (based on Sifnos even though we didn't stay there).
I never spoke with them by phone. After emailing the company for a proposal, and then choosing them based on their response, I was assigned an agent and all of my subsequent communications with her, to finalize all the details, were also by email. Ahead of our trip, I was in touch with our agent quite a few times with general questions, on many topics, and she always seemed happy to give advice. Her emails were always prompt and helpful.
I don't believe that we paid any extra for the hotels and other things she booked than we'd have paid if we'd booked them on our own. We didn't have her book any tours, entry tickets, etc. but I know this would have been available.
When we arrived at the airport in Athens, tired after our overnight flight, our taxi driver was holding a sign with our names on it, and on the island of Naxos, when we arrived by ferry, likewise someone was standing at the car rental area with a sign with our name on it, to personally guide us to our booked car. All of that felt very welcoming in a foreign country.
I'd never used a travel agent, before that trip, (and haven't used one since), but when planning our Greece trip, I'd read that it's a "different story" in Greece and it's smart to do so. We were very happy with our decision. I'm guessing that even if it's too early to book some of your favorite hotels on your own, a local travel agent might be able to accomplish this for you. You might want to put together a tentative itinerary, describe the kind of hotel you like (or even use actual hotel names), and email this itinerary to a couple different travel agents to see if they'd like to put together a proposal for your consideration. This is what we did, and we picked the travel agent who responded the quickest and seemed the most enthusiastic and intuitive.
I’m an early bird for booking hotel reservations and usually begin making reservations in November/December for the following Summer or early Fall.
I always book my hotels early, too. You might want to e-mail the hotel and ask about price and availability. If the rooms aren't available yet, they can tell you when they will be. I always seem to get a better price dealing directly with the hotels and have never had an issue when I arrived.
I frequently book ~9-10 months in advance using an online service and usually don't have an issue with availability. You can always email the hotel directly, which is better for the hotel because the commission charged by online booking services is avoided. Between 10% and 25% goes to Booking.com, for example. Particularly if the hotel is really popular and/or it seems an ideal choice for you it may be worth the effort. You may get a better rate contacting the hotel directly as well. I have to admit that I like the convenience of services like Booking.com It's helpful to manage all of my bookings from one place, and the ease of 'comparison shopping' and re-booking if I find something better.
It's way to early for some of the third-party websites to have accommodations lined up or agreements made with them. You can search for something now and see if there is an accommodation that meets your needs. Then go to the accommodations website (if it has one) and contact them directly about inquiries for a room.
On our first trip to Greece many years ago I used Aegean Thesaurus as an agent and they were wonderful, helpful and professional. Since then I do my own bookings for flight, accommodations, transfers, etc.
I use third-party-sites to search for accommodations or even a destinations website, say Sifnos or Lesvos and look there. If I find something I contact the owners directly. You may get a better deal and definitely better customer services dealing directly with the owners. You'll probably also get lots of info on what's going on for the time of year you are going.
The internet has made ir easy and enjoyable to research trips.
We used a Greek travel agent too. Never use travel agents but it worked very well there as it is more complicated.. Look at Fantasy Travel in Athens.
New to this forum and want to thank Vickie for her good advice about the travel agent. I hadn't really considered that. Might well be advantageous to this solo traveler.
