Booking Accomodations in Cinque Terre

We stayed at Il Timone Camere last summer. They are very simple rooms in apartment buildings. We stayed at the owner's rooms near the post office. This is in the "old town". In that building, she has 3 rooms, all clustered together on the same floor. The owner speaks limited English but was very welcoming and helpful.

I have never had any issues sending my credit card via email for reservations. Sometimes they will allow you to send 2 emails each containing part of the credit card number.

Good luck,
Sharon

Let me ask you a few questions: Are you dealing directly with the B&B, or a booking website? Are you trying to book on the weekend ( I.e. yesterday or today)? Are you taking the time difference into consideration? Your answers will help all the experts on the board lead you to a solution more quickly. RS always mentions faxing, but I've never done that. I have noticed that I don't get responses over the weekend and I'm better getting responses when I send things at night ( PST) so that it's hitting them in the morning. Good luck.

Thanks so much for your input. I have been trying to work directly with the B&B's and not the booking websites. Also, most of my e-mails have been sent late in the evening ( I am also in the PST zone) so that they will receive the messages in the morning. You have a good point in that maybe I should be more patient and understand they may not respond on the weekend. I currently am waiting for a response from Le Giare, and hopefully she will respond soon.

Are you trying to book only B&B's or are you also considering hotels? Tourist season in the C.T. will be getting underway for the year about now, so all the lodgings should be open and staffed. I don't know how current THIS LIST is, but you may be able to find accommodations in one of the places on the list.

With four people travelling together, you might try Villa Adriana as they have lots of rooms and may not be fully booked. It's at the far end of the new town, but still a reasonable walk from the station. May is not far in the future so it would be a good idea to get something booked soon. If no vacancies there, you could also try Hotel Villa Steno or Hotel Pasquale (in the old town), but they're very popular so will likely be booked up already.

Given the short notice, I'd suggest grabbing whatever you can find.

Good luck!

Thank you all for your helpful and appreciated response. I finally received confirmation from Le Giare. It just took some patience and I did give them my visa by e-mail with no problem.

That's good news about the response. Sending credit card information by email is not secure if hackers gain access to the email system. However, I have done it several times and also trust in my credit card company's fraud protections. Sending the cc info in a couple of separate messages may make it harder for any one hacker to get their hands on all the details.

Send your credit card information in two separate emails. Also RS has many excellent options in his book.

In the future, a good alternative to sending CC info over email (which I've admittedly done in the past, but it's not a good idea) is to see if the owners have a Paypal account. We paid for an agriturismo deposit that way.

Why not use venere.com or booking.com for your reservations?