The Hotels are all booked!!!

I didn’t pre-book yet for our September tour to Bulgaria but am going to do it this week. Thanks for the reminder.

Donald, were you checking through the hotel website, or a third-party like Booking.com?

Are you sure the hotel was fully booked and that they haven't just put up the rooms for sale yet?

I checked both on the hotel website (I always book direct with a hotel if possible) and on Booking.com. I also e-mailed the Wellington Hotel 3 days ago but they never answered back.

If they haven't put the rooms up for sale yet they could of just responded to my e-mail saying so.

Hi Donald, things are different this year…. It took 5 days to get a response back from a hotel I emailed in Spain. I sent a follow up after 3 days. The hotel I’m trying to book in Iceland is only taking reservations 10 months in advance. Glad you found something.

I think it's likely the tour hotel isn't taking reservations this far out. Send a follow-up email, and be patient. We've had this happen a number of times. We've almost always had better luck emailing the hotel directly. That's also the best way to make it clear that you are on a RS tour. Don't forget to ask if there's a RS discount!

Way too earlier. Second, I have found that hotels do not view email inquiries as something that has to be instantly responded. You can argue poor customer service but email does not carry the same need for quick response. Our experience is that most hotels are available for booking around the six month time period.

I had the same issue trying to book for our September 2022 tour hotel, as they had no vacancies. When told to use their website, that too failed. My calls to the hotel would eventually get dropped while waiting for a live person. Finally, they called me and I was able to reserve.

Donald,
I called the Wellington to give them my credit card information to secure my reservation for 3 nights before the RS tour begins May 22, 2022. They replied to my original email 2 days ago but I like to call the hotel to share my credit card details with them, more secure I think.
Now, I have to work with the Bergen hotel as we are staying one night after the tour ends. I just checked the tour dates and there’s another RS tour ending over the same weekend. Hope I can stay in the same tour room.

Thanks Judy, that sounds encouraging.

On the official site for Wellington you can't even choose dates more than a year in the future. Currently a one night stay on July 2nd-3rd is available but not anything further ahead than that. I can also book a long stay for the full month of June up until July 3rd with a lot of room types to choose from so it is very likely that the rooms aren't released yet, but they might be in a week or so.

Thanks Anders, that would explain why I can't get booked.

And now I’m confirmed for the final hotel in Bergen for one night post-tour. Woohoo! Plus, we have booked our flights, this trip is coming together!