plane & hotel reservations - are hard copies necessary if they are on a smart phone?

I take paper copies of hotel and plane reservations. I also take electronic copies of them as well as electronic copies of passport, drivers license, credit/debit cards, train tickets and tips for activities and restaurants. I store these on a USB drive.

It is my habit to take a paper copy of my key reservation confirmations and a copy of my credit card and passport so I have those document numbers with me.

I do have my reservations on my phone but I like to have a backup. My phone died in Turkey in 2014 and if I hadn't had paper copies of things it would have been a hassle.

Not necessary, but I take hard copies. But if all you want is a backup, you could scan to a thumb drive or email to yourself so that you can printout at a hotel if you need it.

If you have hard copies of reservations, take them with you. In Italy you'll be given receipts every time you pay a bill, you should keep these receipts, even at a cafe, the cashier may leave, shifts change, your receipt will show that you paid, I've often returned with receipts to show a history of what I buy and paid for, i still have all my hotel receipts, especially after one jerk owner threatened to sue me over taxes he'd have to pay but didn't owe, he needed a receipt to prove taxes, he had refused to give me a receipt, he had also refused to sign a simple basic contract agreement I had prepared. Finally I signed two copies of a makeshift receipt i made up at the side of the road, got his signature, kept a copy for myself, you don't know who's out there, granted you may not go to the backwoods like i do, but Just keep your receipts!

Necessary, perhaps not; prudent, yes. I print out train tickets and hotel reservations (and sightseeing vouchers) in case my phone dies.

Take hard copies. If your battery dies or you drop your phone in water you are in trouble for the rest of your trip. I learned that after planning my trip online I was dependant on Internet access to change plans on the fly when the unexpected occurred. Hard copies will usually have phone numbers so your hotel could call another hotel to push an arrival date, for example.
Phone problems at home are a nuisance...while traveling it is a catastrophe.

Seems to me that one of the discount airlines doesn't accept boarding passes on smartphones. Paper copies only.

I was searching airfares on a number of them recently and don't remember where I read that though. EasyJet maybe?

Edit: Nope, not EasyJet. Just read that they accept boarding passes on mobile devices.

I do not take paper copies - I use an app called trip it - it stores everything. I can access it from any device.

EDIT: I do have multiple devices with me to access my info in case one fails.

Although not necessary, I always take paper copies in addition to the electronic copies that I store on Dropbox. That way if I have trouble with my phone I can access Dropbox through any type of Internet-accessible device. But I have had the occasional person prefer the paper copy.

I always take paper copies of plane & hotel reservations. We just returned from a trip to Italy & France. When we would check into a hotel, I had our passports & paper reservation in my hand. Many commented that this was helpful for them.

I print out every confirmation, my itinerary notes, and any critical directions, and put them in a gallon ziplock and slide it in the side pocket of my roll aboard. It really takes up hardly any space and I have a hard copy in case my phone dies, etc.

Zoe hit the nail on the head when she stated "Necessary, perhaps not; prudent, yes." Our philosophy about such things is hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. All the technology available to us is great when it works as it should. Unfortunately it doesn't always do that.

It's always a smart idea to have hardcopy of all of your reservations...just in case. We never leave home without them.

Buon viaggio,

It organizes my brain when I have hard copies, I know exactly where everything is, sorted by day. It is a system that has worked for me for years, be it Disneyland with three kids, weekend getaway or three week Europe. If I was raised in a different time period I am sure I would be just as comfortable with digital only. Do what you know, be comfortable and secure in whatever method you choose. IF I loose my folder with my hardopies, I can use my phone, if I loose my phone, I can access an internet cafe and pull what I need.

Plane - not all airlines will take an electronic boarding pass so sometime before the flight you should print the pass. But you can only print the pass 24 hours ahead and it can be done at the airport also. No need to print a "reservation" - all you need is your credit card or confirmation number and ID.

Hotel -no need to print. Have the hotel info and confirmation number somewhere accessible. I have never had a hotel want the number, just my name and ID, but smart to have in case of a mix up.

If you are sold on paper you still don't need to print the actual reservation - type things like airline confirmation numbers, hotel booking codes, etc into ONEdocument, one page,and save some trees and luggage weight. The full documents are online if something very, very odd a happens and you need them. Just save them to Dropbox, email, cloud, or trip it as well as your local device for redundancy.

I just have it all in tripit (can load from any computer anywhere), and I save thepages as PDFs to my kindle -accessible from my phone, kindle, husbands iPad etc, and also have the PDFs on my email so I could re download or print from any computer anywhere.

"But you can only print the pass 24 hours ahead and it can be done at the airport also. No need to print a "reservation" - all you need is your credit card or confirmation number and ID."

Yes, for many airlines. But for some of the budget flights within Europe, you have to have your boarding pass printed before you get to the airport, or pay a huge fee for this (like €40), and they allow you to do this up to 30 days before the flight. If you are allowed to print your boarding pass, it can speed up check-in - depending on the particular airport and flight you are taking, you can often go right to the bag drop, or, if you have no checked bags, to the security line.

"Hotel -no need to print. Have the hotel info and confirmation number somewhere accessible. I have never had a hotel want the number, just my name and ID, but smart to have in case of a mix up."

I have never had a hotel need the reservation number either - until my recent UK trip, where the clerk at my guest house in Glasgow said it would greatly speed up her finding my reservation (that truly was a first - they usually find it by last name).

"If you are sold on paper you still don't need to print the actual reservation - type things like airline confirmation numbers, hotel booking codes, etc into ONE document, one page,and save some trees and luggage weight."

YES, absolutely! That's what I do. I make it a small strip, then print several of these, so I have one in my wallet, in my moneybelt, in my suitcase, etc. For this most recent trip, I also had all this on my phone, but I agree that paper backup is prudent.

Another reason why I bring hard copies of the hotel reservations is because we have a mix of hotels we've already paid and a few where we need to pay at checkout. I want to ensure that there's no confusion in either case.