reserving a room in paris

I had the same problem with a few places (in both France and Germany) and finally found out my Comcast account was blocking some e-mails from abroad. I started using an non-Comcast account and had better luck, though some still didn't reply. Not sure if you use Comcast, but if you do, that could factor in too, though I'd concur with Kent based on my experience planning our trip for this summer. Good luck!

go to booking.com mister bed city bagnolet. near metro and shopping centre. or try paris tourism.

Hi Cheryl... As the first post noted wait a little- but not too long. You may not know this , but many of Rick's hotels in the Rue Cler area especially, book up almost a year in advance. The 2 most popular will certainly be full in May-- the Champ du Mars and the Levecque. We are staying ar the Champ du Mars in October and reserved last year and they are now full forOctober.I do not know your price range, but the Relais Bosquet may not be full, and you could try the Muguet. Also look on the Graffiti wall under Paris and you will find some unknowns that you could try.We love the Rue Cler area, but there are many other lesser known parts of Paris. Try Alistar Sawday , also. He has some nice places. For future reference you also could try vacationinparis.com. The have apartments that you can rent that are very nice. You do not have to rent for a week, and they are based in the States so you pay in dollars. I do not know if they would have a place available in May.

Hi booking.com is a good idea. What I suggest though is to go to the hotel's own site and book on their site. Sometimes the people that answer the emails are only on during the day as the night receptionist can't write English.

I had the same experience until I called a friend of mine who works in the industry and he told me the best way to get a room in Paris is finding the hotels own site. Additionally it is often a bit cheaper than thru other ways. Email is not recommended as you can't give them a deposit credit card by email.

I booked in hotel de l'abbaye on the left bank, they don't even exist on any other channels than through their own site or by phone contact or fax. Their site was http://www.hotelabbayeparis.com/ and the experience was awesome... but that is for another post.

Bon voyage :-)

Calling the hotel direct has always worked for me...!

if you have a microphone for your computer you can put $10 into a prepaid Skype account and call you hotels direct. I just confirmed previously made res with four hotels for less than 25 cents, total. It's great peace of mind to have the person in Europe respond directly to your inquiry.

Yes calling is good - but receptionist or night reception doesn't always know the best rates, often these are set by the director and the reception will sell you at rack price. So I definitely suggest you try the hotels website.

1. get a hotel name
2. google it
3. go to the booking page and check the rates and book.
4. call if you want to be sure.

I contacted hotels directly by email through their websites and got responses, usually within 48 hours. If they had what I wanted, I then telephoned to give my credit card information. Worked like a charm, Paris and Amsterdam.

I tried to book a stay at Hotel Castex via their web site. No answer for a week (maybe too impatient?) so I followed up with another e-mail and also did not receive a reply for another week. I then called them making sure to call them during normal working hours (+11 hours from here in Hawaii). Spoke to gentleman who said to resend the reservation request which I did. Called him back several days later and was told they had received my request and asked me to send them credit card info via e-mail. I asked to tell them the CC info on the phone right then but they said no, to send it e-mail.. Was told I would receive a confirmation e-mail once they received my CC info. Sent CC info via e-mail and after no confirmation e-mail after a week, I called them back and was told they had received my CC info and my reservation was now confirmed. Still have not gotten a confirmation e-mail. Since I was booking for this May I was more anxious then I would have been if I had done it sooner. By all means call but be remindful of the time difference and get the names of whomever you talk to. Happy Travels, aloha charlie

Cheryl,

Do like my wife and I just did for our 5 days in May...we rented an apartment! We just faxed our confirmation to them today.

We usually get an Email response back the day after our request. If we got no response, we crossed them off our list.

We found a fantastic apt. that was only $68 EU/ nite, but my wife wanted one with an Eiffel tower view, so we ended up spending $90EU/nite.

That is how we found a great place for our visit to Rome, and our visit to Lisbon...we rented an apt.

We always use VRBO.com, and Homelidays.com to locate apts, and have had great luck finding what we want, where we want, for a great price.

If a hotel is a "must", also check the ones out in Lonely Planet guidebook, (not as booked as a RS recomended hotel) and go to Trip Advisor.com and sort their list of hotels by popularity and price.

Cheryl...you're experiencing the Dark Side of Rick Steves :-)

Like you, thousands of folks across the US and Canada, are trying to reserve the same couple of hundred Rick Steves recommended hotel rooms in and around Rue Cler during the same two or three months.

Factor in Ricks own tour groups, and you can see the issue. There are times, particularly durng the summer that Rue Cler looks like its hosting a RS convention--every second person has the blue book clutched tightly in their hands.

If you're having problems, I'd recommend taking a look at Trip Advisor as a resource. Lots of reviews from travellers who have stayed at all sorts of hotels across Paris.

Good Luck

You may want to try these two hotels:

http://www.hotel-paris-tourism.com/english
http://www.hoteldelesperance.fr/

I just booked both for our trip to Paris in May. The hotels responded to my reservation inquiry very quickly. Also, I always check reviews on the Trip Advisor before booking. These two places have excellent reviews there. BTW, some of my friends stayed in Hotel de lesperance and just loved it. Good Luck!

Renting an appartment is a great idea too. I'd do it if we would stay in Paris longer, say 5 or 7 days.

OK, folks.

Cheryl asked this question a year ago. I doubt she needs our help anymore.

Let the zombie go back to its grave...

Even though she posted it a year ago, I am having the same trouble right now and all your responses have been very helpful. I am now looking more for an apartment since many of the hotels will not let you have food in your room. I can't imagine going to Paris without shopping the fresh markets. So any more ideas about apartment sources would be appreciated.

Hi all, there are a few hotel booking sites in Europe than can help - booking.com mentioned above, venere.com and hrs.com, all available in English.

It is a rumour that calling/booking at the hotel directly is cheaper. The reason is that these large sites can command so large discounts given the volumes they book that they always have the best rates. Hotels only leave the more expensive rates to the random bookers coming directly.

If you call the hotel directly, they know you've already decided on the location so they will only have the most expensive rates available.

This is a 95% percent rule... exceptions are always possible, but in my past 20 bookings in Europe I have never found cheaper on a hotel direct site.

Have you checked you bulk mail folder? I've had several replies come to that folder instead of my inbox.
Regards,Thomas

So, Susan. You have a question that is different. You're looking for an apartment.

The OP was asking why hotels wouldn't respond to e-mails a year ago - when the stock market was above 1200, the Euro was a 1.43, etc. etc.

If you appreciate the info, by all means post the question you have. But let this zombie post die.

I have discovered through a similar personal experience, that the French prefer to deal with people directly moreso than through e-mail. As a result, if they are sold out for the dates you inquired about, chances are they will not even address your e-mail.