Hotel/pension booking

Hi Ed,
We usually (always) book ahead. We always stay at Pensions and Garni's. So far, after 7 trips recently, we've been asked for a confirmation by credit card only once. All the others just took our reservation via e-mail.

Paul

I usually try to book in advanced, simply because it saves time. If you know where you're staying, upon arrival, you can head straight for your lodging, rather than wasting precious travel time searching.

As to the second question, I prefer pensions. They are usually cheaper and friendlier.

Thanks for the replies. When you say you book in advance, do you book from your whole vacation before at home or do you book while you are traveling via the internet?

munich easy palace station hostel salzburg- pension elisabeth, vienna - hostel ruthensteiner book ahead as early as possible.

Thanks again. I noticed on some of the Pensions that your prepaid reservations are not refundable. Is that typically the same with the Hotels? If something unforseen happens this could through your whole advanced reservations out of sinc and be very costly to rebook when you are there. Please advise.

Thank you again.

In Germany, you can usually find a list of accommodations (Hotels, Pensionen, Privatzimmer) on the town's website, which is usually www.[town name].de. This works better in small towns. You can usually find small, intimate, family run places for far less the those shown on booking websites. I always book in advance, but then I am very well organized when it comes to European travel.

Given that time of year I would book something in advance if you know your dates. We just came back from Germany, Austria and Prague and I had booked a couple places and left the rest open. As there were 5 of us, I wished I had booked the other locations as well. Even though it was the off-season, I didn't like the stress of trying to figure out where we were going to stay as we didn't always have internet access or easy access to a phone. What did help was that I had printed out a few options for each place we were probably going to be so one of those always worked out. We stayed at both hotels and pensions and we preferred the pensions. Our favorite places were in Rothenburg de ober Tauber and Salzburg, let me know if you are going there and I can give you the information.

I like the freedom of planning my itinerary as I go. Because we do a lot of outdoor acitivities (e.g. cycling) we follow the good weather. We book a pension for the first night or two to avoid hassels on arrival. We take a long list of recommended pensions in the areas we want to visit. When we decide on our next location we ask the pension clerk to call and book for us. We have had great luck with this method so far. They have always been glad to help and they don't charge for the calls.
HOWEVER, if you know your itinerary in advance, I would book from home to save time.

Thanks for all the information, will try to follow.

We would appreciate any advice on accommodations in the following German & Austrian towns. Bacharach, Freiburg, Fussen, Innsburk, Salzburg, Ulm, Rothenburg, Wurzburg and Frankfurt. If you have stayed lately in any of these towns/ cities please advise where you would recommend. We are typically looking for Pensions, hotels or B & B's. There are 4 adults in there 60's and would like rooms with shower, toilets and possibly breakfast included if possible. Please advise of your experiences if they were good ones. Thank you.

I travel shoulder season and have never had trouble just calling ahead in the morning to book my next place. I call about ten and let them know when I'll arrive. I'm convinced I get better rates by calling at the last minute than booking in advance from the US but I could be wrong.

book ahead all rooms.

When we have traveled by car, we have "gone with the flow" and looked for places in mid-afternoon - that works in places like England and Germany, where they openly post B&B or Zimmers in their windows, but not so well in France where you really need the TI to find Chambre-de-Hotes. We now travel more by train, and I don't like to haul my stuff - even my backpack all over looking for a place (and near the train station is not always very nice). I still like the idea of "winging it", but mostly book from home for the comfort level.