Hotel confirmation

Yes, it's different than here, this is the way it's commonly done in Italy. Some print out the confirmation e-mail (say the 1st page) and take it with, others don't bother.

How far in advance did you make your reservation? You'll want to reconfirm about a month before you go, and then again a week before you arrive. Just in case. And I think it's a really good idea to take a printout of the confirmation. Again, JIC.

Yes, this is quite typical. Does your email show the dates and rate? If so, that is really it.

I agree - you should be all set. However, I suggest reading each email carefully - the hotel I recently booked in Venice sent a confirmation email, but there was a sentence asking me to call and reconfirm 1 week prior to arrival. I assume they may have canceled the reservation if I hadn't done that. Better safe than sorry. Have fun!

Thought I might add something that could be useful. Since e-mail is not secure unless encryption software is used, I nearly always phone the establishment directly to provide credit card details after exchanging e-mails about vacancies and rates. I have them read the card number back to me to ensure they copied it down correctly. This can get a little tricky depending on my ability to speak their language and their ability to understand mine. I always ask for (and always receive) a “confirmation” e-mail that includes an indication that the place of lodging has received my credit card details, everything appears to be okay, the check-in/check-out dates are accurate, and the rate is correct. That’s all there is to it. Reconfirming right before your trip is an excellent idea. Only once, in Rothenburg odT, did reconfirming right before I left and having a copy of the e-mail fail me. The hotel attempted to run the card after I had already left the U.S. (the drill where they ping your account for $1 to ensure the card is good), but the transaction wouldn’t go through…the hotel had transposed digits in the account number. Anyway, when I arrived, we resolved the issue, but they had already rebooked my room and were sold out. Not good. In fairness, they tried to call me when they uncovered the problem, but I was already in Europe and unavailable. The good news is that the owner walked us across the street to a very small but brand new cottage hotel with a great restaurant downstairs and beer garden out back. They were empty, and we ended up getting a two-room apartment for less than the hotel was going to charge for a single room with two beds. I’m not sure what else I could have done to ensure we were covered…just they way it works out sometimes. In the end, we were extremely happy with the result.

yes, that's all they usually do. I always print out the confirmation email (containing the dates & rate) and take it with me. We only needed it at 1 hotel, when we were checking in he quoted a rate that was higher than I had booked. When I said I think that was a mistake and produced the email, he looked at the computer and said yes he was looking at the wrong reservation. No problem, very nice, but it may have saved us some money. Have a great trip! By the way, save those emails until the charge actually comes through on the credit card.

Ditto what Michael said, but what I do once they confirm the rate/room availability is send them an e-mail telling them I am about to fax them my cc info, and ask them to confirm by e-mail that they received the faxed cc info, and confirm my reservation, instead of calling. I take printouts with me.