reservations for a hotel in Rome

I have found that when I use BOOKING.COM (instead of the hotel's website), it gives me the option to cancel up to 48 or 72 hours before the actual booking date starts. So, with that in mind, it is always better to book earlier rather than later.

I see no harm in making hotel reservations as soon as your travel dates are firm, assuming those reservations are cancellable. You might save a bit of money. However, hotels that use computerized reservation systems may not be prepared to accept reservations until you're inside 330 or 360 days. You won't know until you try.

I think flights are never bookable more than a year in advance, and it's good to keep in mind that the farther out you make that reservation, the likelier that the airline will change its schedule. And of course the decent airfares are not changeable or refundable (unlike hotel reservations), so you need to be confident about your plans, buy travel insurance, or be willing to eat the cost of the plane tickets if something upsets your vacation plans.

Plane tickets are almost always at their most expensive if bought right becore the departure day. Aside from that, I don't think there is any reliable rule about when to buy tickets. I'm a great believer in looking at the schedule for the desired travel dates way in advance, deciding on the most desirable flight options, and monitoring the fares for a good while so you know what "normal" is. I keep notes in a spreadsheet rather than trusting my memory.

Then keep looking and try to buy on a significant dip. In the last two years, some good fares have cropped up during the fall from some US origins, but things could be different this year.

And it bears repeating that you need to be firm on your travel plans before buying plane tickets. Don't be one of those people who buys a round-trip to Paris before doing pre-trip research and then decides to visit Paris, Nice, Switzerland and Rome. The time to make significant changes to the extent of your itinerary is before you pony up the money for airline tickets.

I usually buy air tickets around five months before the trip, although I start looking at around the seven month mark.

For hotels, I usually book around four months in advance (after buying the plane tickets). I prefer to book directly with the hotel website so as to not have a third party in the mix. On our last trip, however, I used a booking site because the hotel website was not working properly.

For hotel reservations, the sooner the better. That will give you the most selections at the best prices. The longer you wait then the cheaper rooms will be gone. That being said, some places don't take reservation farther than a year in advance.

I am also thinking on a trip in September 2019 and I'm looking at ticket price. I think most airlines only post prices up to 300 days ahead so it might be hard to purchase tickets before November 2018. What I did was to go to matrix.itasoftware.com, plug in dates for this September 2018 and unchecked "Only show flights and prices with available seats". This will show me what was the best/lowest price that was available this year so I can have an idea of how much it might cost. Then I will set an alarm in Kayak to let me know when the ticket price is at a level I am comfortable purchasing. Have fun.

Both of those hotel locations are good as far as proximity to sites. Use Google Maps to take a look around and see if it's what you were hoping for. Due Torri in Rome is down a narrow side street. Hotel Umbra (not Umbria) in Assisi is right off the main square in town.

I make my flight reservations as soon as i can. Then, I make my hotel reservations. I go straight to the hotel website. Some, I had to email with them. They knew English. I found the cancellation policy normal. I typically reserve 2 or 3, until I make my final decision, then I cancel the others.

I do pretty much what bob said, flights about 5 months out and hotels 4 months. I was surprised in April when trying to reserve hotels in Sicily for September, that some of my first and 2nd choices were already booked (checked the normal booking sites and the hotels’ sites) in a few different cities. I made all my reservations that day.

I try to book hotel rooms directly with the hotels as soon as I make my flight reservations. My one rule is never ever book a room at a non-refundable rate.

I use miles to book flights to and from Europe, so I am usually booking a year advance. I have never had a hotel tell me that I was booking too soon. In fact, even booking that far ahead of time, I haven't always gotten rooms at some of the highly rated RS and Trip Advisor hotels - they were already booked up!

I like to book airfare 6 to 9 months out. I'll usually book a multi-city trip. Last trip, we few into Rome and out of Venice. Next trip, we'll fly into Trieste and out of Rome.

After the airfare is booked, we spend some time working up an itinerary and book the hotels as we firm up the itinerary.

Some of the train schedules don't get released until closer to the travel dates (120 days??), so I'll wait until we are about 60 to 90 days out before I try to book the trains between cities.

Thank you for the very much needed advice! This information gives me a good timeframe to work with! Happy travels Val!

The earliest you can book airfares is 330 days in advance. I rarely book that early unless I am using airline points or miles. Otherwise six or seven months is plenty. I second the advice about booking directly with hotels. And only those who will allow cancellations. While you can get information about several hotels in a general location from booking.com, you’ll get cheaper prices if you book directly with the hotels themselves. And some hotels also discount for cash rather than credit cards.

I booked our hotels in Rome, Florence and Venice in January of 2018 for travel in September 2018. Booked all hotels direct through their website and all three offer the ability to cancel at no charge. Cancellation varied from 1 week to 48 hours.

Flights I booked in May 2018.

For our most recent trip (April/May 2018) I booked flights in late October 2016 -- during a short-term sale. Then booked hotels, trains and rental car to fit with the scheduled flights. But this works for us because the lodging, as long as it meets minimal standards of cleanliness and location, is just a place to sleep, not the focus of the trip.