France in September - how soon to start making reservations

When we went to France in May 2008, we booked our hotels in January. We may have booked a little early, but it is hard to know when all the holidays and potential busy times will be for hotels. If the on-line booking system will allow you to book this far in advance, and you are happy with the hotels you have chosen and don't want to miss out, go ahead and book. For flights, I think the earlier a seat is booked, the better. As long as you are certain you are going and are not concerned about a cancellation fee, go ahead and book!

By September you've passed the main holiday season in France. We holidayed in the first fortnight of September all over France for 25 years and never booked in advance at all - nine times out of ten we just stopped at a place we liked the look of and asked on the day. If you like to make definite plans then I would book about a fortnight ahead but be ready to look elsewhere if my first choice were not available.

Last year I found it very difficult to find a hotel in Paris in September. It seems there are fashion shows at that time of year. Every hotel (about 25)listed in travel books that I contacted were filled up. I finally got a room at the Ibis hotel chain. In this case it was the Ibis Tour Eiffel . It was very satisfactory and just yards from the Metro stop. The Ibis will give you their prices for each location (there are a four or five in Paris). Weekend prices are cheaper. A really pleasant place to stay.

Almost everyone will have a different opinion about this. My wife and I try and visit Paris every year and when we have set the dates we book a hotel. We have some favorite hotels and enjoy returning to one each year. For us, waiting until arrival in the city sounds like too much of a worry. We have traveled and waited until arrival to a destination and then looked for a place to stay but sometimes it took time away from the reason we were visiting. So, we try and book early. Have a great trip.

Bob, I too am going in September.. I have booked my flights and my hotel in Paris (I am going to other cities in France and have those booked too!)
I felt a little silly doing it so early but I am now glad that I have a confirmed reservation at my choice of hotel.
This was a question that I had asked here a couple of months ago & the consensus for me was that it's not too early! I was very grateful for the "go ahead" :)

Bon Voyage!
Joanne

If you're booking this far ahead (and I appreciate that some people like to plan well ahead rather than "wing it") then check if the hotel/airline cancellation policy. If necessary, make sure you've adequate travel insurance to cover you for unexpected changes of plan. A lot can happen in 6 months to change your plans.

Paris used to be (I haven't checked for a few years now) very busy in September with business conferences and exhibitions, etc., just because everyone was back from their August holidays, making it harder to get accommodations there.

Bob - We are basically following your same itinerary (arrive in Paris on 9/15/09, depart Nice on 9/30/09) and we have already booked our accommodations and flights. Granted, we are using frequent flyer miles for the air, hotel points for the Paris stay, and our B&B stays are in places with no more than 7 or 8 rooms, so we pretty much have to book well in advance. The advice about travel insurance is good, though....there is a lot that can happen between now and then. Hope to run into you over there!

We are going to be in Paris & Rome in September & have booked hotels & flights. (ff miles) I did get responses from a few hotels that they were full, and have booked them (with a good cancellation policy).
If your desired hotel is full you can always email them occasionally and ask if they have had cancellations. As far as I'm concerned it's never too early.

I agree with Mimi. It's never too early unless there's a chance that your plans could change. We're going to Ireland in September and we booked our flight over a month ago. Also, 16 of 18 nights of hotels are aleady booked. I'm the type, though, that obsesses about our plans turning out just right! Only one of the hotels that we booked is non-refundable, and the other can always be cancelled god-forbid our plans change.... I just rest easy when I know that the hotels we want to stay at are already taken care of, and then I can focus on what we'll do while we're there!

Phil, did you go to Paris every september,, or outside of Paris? Big difference.

Paris is busy in September. Hotel prices go up,, and vacancies go down, business travellers are back( after the lull in August) .

I would book the Paris portion of trip now,, I have just finished booking for late July thru August, and was frustrated to see that prices had GONE UP in certain hotels that I had looked at only a month ago for same time period. As they fill prices go up.

If you plan on staying outside Paris this is not so urgent, there are always rooms . Nice in September will not be so bad as Nice in July or August, but, I would still book now just to get my first or second choices .You are one of hundreds of thousands of tourists who think September is still a great time for a seaside holiday,, after the "crowds of French" have gone back to work,, LLOL

No, not to Paris every time. 4 times to Paris in early September and probably 60-odd other towns and cities in France between 1984 and now. Ours have always been multi-centre holidays by car, usually based on 3 locations over a fortnight. We used to book in advance the first couple of times, but often found that there were nicer places to stay once we got there and kicked ourselves for having booked into where we were staying. So after our second holiday we started to pick places we liked the look of en route. Only once did we turn up at a hotel and find it was completely full. That was a place near Perigueux.

The only exception was always Paris. There we did book a fortnight in advance. We had a list of hotels that I had noted on previous trips (I used to go there on business, too) and I just rang through them until one had rooms - usually the hit lucky after the second or third call. And I always haggled the price down as it was short notice - they preferred to have the room booked than empty. ;)