B and B reservations

There are B&Bs everywhere but will you find ones that fit your price range or tastes? Reservations can always be changed or cancelled (given enough time). We used to travel without any prebooking, sometimes we'd have to pay more than we'd budgeted for or would waste valuable time searching. This time could have been better spent sightseeing. It also depends on weekends or special holidays. Now we plan our trip for 2 or 3 nights at each location (sometimes receiving discounts) and TRY to limit our drive to 2 - 4 hours between locations. This allows for lots of stops en route. Everyone has their own system, this is just the way we prefer to go. We are visiting Britain in May and reserved all of our B&Bs/Hotels in February. Some B&Bs that we emailed were already fully booked. Enjoy you trip!

We always book our first night and last night before we leave home. In between we use tourist information offices who can book us into something local or down the road a bit. We would usually book for two nights and if we really like the place and the area we'll ask the landlord if we can stay on longer. Mind, it can be be a bit tricky at weekends so we wouldn't "shop" on a Friday for something on Saturday or Sunday.. The TI process does not take all that long, and we use the one nearest where we were the night before..on our way out of town when we'll know how far we want to go that day. In Ireland, where we were was more rural, we'd just stop when we saw a place we thought we might like. Touch wood, we have never been turned away.

Using a TI to book a B&B means that they are taking as much as a 30% cut from the price they forward to the B&B. We only use them if we get caught in a jam or another reservation gets screwed up. Otherwise, we have always made our B&B reservations before we go to Europe and if our plans change once we are there, we simply cancel our previous reservation, giving as much notice as possible with the understanding that there might be a fee involved, and look for another place to stay. I have never been disappointed in staying in a B&B (lucky me) and do so much more like it than staying in a hotel.

Many years ago when we started traveling, we never reserved in advance. Then we started having the TI's do it for us. Now we always book in advance, and it seems to be the preferrable method for us. We get what we want and understand our trip plan well enough to know where we want to book. We will be going in August this year and when I started looking for B&B's in February, I too had quite a number of them with no vacancies already - I couldn't believe it.

Traveling in May and June in Scotland you're not in the peak period, so I think you'll be okay. You just need to be flexible. You can use resources at the TI to make your own reservation. I would definitely try to do in the AM, but you can usually find something at the end of the day as well. It just may not be perfect. I think I only had one "bad" room and I probably would have been fine. My room was over the beer garden. But it rained that night, so if I had stayed I would have been fine. Also, if you're looking for a twin then it will be easier than I had it, as I was usually looking for a single which is way harder to find. A double (one bed for two) is the easiest I think. I do recommend having a reservation for your first night and if you know where you plan to have your last night, book that one as well. You want your last night to be a pleasant experience and not stressful. Are you flying out of Glasgow or Edinburgh? You can stay in town and get to the airport in time for an early flight from either city. Pam

I think key factors arewhether you need to carefully control your budget and whether you need anything at all unusual--if so, prebook. We'll be traveling at the same time as you, but just to Ireland, and I needed 2 single rooms and wanted to keep within a pre-established budget. I succeeded in finding lodging, but in a few instances (particularly the bank holiday weekend), it took e-mails to a number of B&Bs to find one that could meet our needs.

Pamela, I agree on the first and last night. We'll be tired the first night and don't want stress on the last night. We'll be flying out of Edinburgh and as of yet, haven't got a place to stay - 3 rooms for 6 of us. Sherry, I hadn't thought about holidays. ooops. When is the bank holiday?

30% sounds excessive to me. In my experience, the TI has only withheld their booking fee, usually between 5 and 10 £'s, from the first night charge. In addition to which if the B&B operator objects to these fees they are under no obligation to list themselves with the TI.

Spring Bank Holiday.....Monday, May 30th~~~~Father's day...Sunday, June 19th. These are the only two holidays while you are there. We have been there over Bank Holidays and still haven't had trouble finding rooms.

Thanks for that info. It will be something we may need to remember and consider since we'll be there during that time.

We didn't book in advance for any of our trip. We had the RS book, Lonely Planet and used TripAdvisor at night to figure out possible places for the next night (we usually knew where we'd stay the next night but not always). One night we had to check several places (a Saturday night in Galway) but there were a lot to chose from. My concern would be that you said there are six of you. You may have to stay at multiple places or look a little longer. Still, I'd take that risk, lots of towns have several B & B's within walking distance of each other.

Laura, that's the way I'm leaning at the moment. I'm thinking the first night it would be good to have some place ahead of time since we'll be tired - maybe Dun Laugh.... something, and the last night in Edinburgh. Any suggestion for Edinburgh - easy to get to the airport?