I’m ready to book my hotel in Rome. I’ve contacted them directly via email and have gotten a little better rate than the internet. They would like my CC info to hold the reservation, of course.
Is it safe to do this via email, is it secure? Also, the rate is guaranteed in Euros, and we are not going until September. How does this work with euro to dollar fluctuations. If it goes up, it would be really expensive.
Thanks
Lulu, if uncomfortable giving them your CC via email, then do it over the phone.
While your price is locked in per amount of euros per night, it's not protected against fluctuation in exchange rates. You'll be paying whatever the euro-to-dollar rate is at the time the hotel collects your payment. Does that make sense?
The only way to guarantee the current exchange rate is to prepay for you room (if that hotel even does that). But then you can't change or cancel your reservation. But remember the exchange rate can go in either direction, you could get lucky. I always book through booking.com these days but years ago I used to book direct with hotels and I sent my CC info through email. Nothing is completely safe.
I rarely paid in advance for hotels. I book months in advance and don't want my money tied up that long.
The exchange rate risk is very low, in my opinion.
Thanks everyone! Well, hopefully it will be comparable in $$ as it is today. I’d rather have it booked then not. I went ahead and sent 4 separate emails to them with my CC #. I don’t want to prepay.
You have the benefit of time to see where things go. If the EUR (and thus the price of your hotel) gets too high for your liking, leave yourself the option to cancel and book elsewhere closer to the date of your trip. I've cancelled rooms within a month of a trip upon finding a better alternative. There will always be alternatives - this is a large city with plenty of hotel options.
I make cancelable reservations up to a year in advance on booking.com, the premier site with reviews by actual guests. There is no prepayment.
In the past 5 years, the low for the exchange rate was 1.06 and the high was 1.25. Today it's 1.11.
Just be sure they're booking in euros, and not using DCC. Dynamic Currency Conversion, booking in your home countries currency. If not familiar with this, thepointsguy.com explains it well.
https://thepointsguy.com/2015/06/dynamic-currency-conversion/
