Making reservations for Hotels/B&B's

We generally do it about six months out. Nine months if it is a really popular area or hotel. Ninety euro is a low target especially in big cities like Rome, Florence. You need to think in euro. Check the guide books for recommendations.

As soon as you have your itinerary hammered out and know exactly what nights will be spent where, you can start making hotel reservations (particularly a good idea for the best pick of low budget options). I like to use booking.com. It's generally easy to change your booking if you tweak your itinerary or find a hotel you like better.

In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, I would look for accommodation listings in town websites. I've found this to be the way to find nice, inexpensive places. It also helps to pick smaller towns.

However, I'm not so sure about Italy.

kerri,

Especially for the Cinque Terre, it's a good idea to book a room as soon as you have your dates finalized. Have you decided which of the five towns you want to stay in? You could try getting a reservation this fall (Sept. / Oct.) for April / May but note that many places in the C.T. shut down for the winter, so you may not get an immediate reply if you try to contact them in the winter. Otherwise you could start looking about February, as some of the larger places may have someone covering reservations then.

Under US$ 100 (about €90 at present rates) is going to be a bit of a challenge, especially in the larger cities.

I would highly recommend packing along a copy of the RS Italy guidebook as that has listings for accommodations in each of the places you'll be visiting (not sure about Bari?). The information in the book will allow you to choose which area of each city to stay, as well as the price range. The 2017 edition should be released sometime this fall.

Thanks for the info! I was worried it was too early to start making reservations. We will be hammering out our dates soon. I do have the Italy 2016 and plan to buy 2017 when its released. Guess I'll have to up my budget for the bigger cities.

I make my reservations as early as I possibly can - I often make them 9 months or more in advance. I don't use Booking.com to search because it has so many pop-ups and things flashing on the sides of my computer screen that it drives me a little nuts. I will use TripAdvisor to search (not to book - I book directly with my lodging). On a super-budget trip, I sort lodgings from by lowest price and then scan for the ones that price low but rate high. There's always a few. I read reviews carefully for helpful details and ignore rants about features that are meaningless to me (room service, porters).

This apartment is about $100 per night in Venice. https://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g187870-d2065895-CASA_DEA_MIRA-Venice_Veneto.html.

I'm a booking.com fan too and have successfully made nearly all of our European reservations though the site. I always choose the option to be able to cancel with no fees up to 24-48 hours in advance (each accommodation may have different policies) in case the trip falls through last minute. Booking NOW for the CT is not too far in advance!

For 90E a night, you should start looking at Airbnb.com and other apartment rental sites. Be prepared to stay farther away from the main sights unless you bump up your budget (and by a good bit for Venice, Florence and Rome).

@Michael, I have never used airb&b and find plenty of budget accommodations in historic centers. I book from 4-9 months out, with a free cancellation policy.

I had a single with breakfast in a hotel in Roma for €75/night. In Venezia, for that price I can find a single with breakfast in a monastery/convent. Firenze, about €100 around the corner from the Duomo.

Don't give up!