Two of us are interested in visiting Steinheim an der Murr, Marbach am Neckar and Murrhardt which are north to north east of Stuttgart. Guidebooks (RS and Lonely Planet) do not mention these towns. Any ideas on how to find info on hotels, etc would be appreciated.
The Eyewitness Travel guide for Germany has a few paragraphs about Marbach and one hotel recommendation (http://www.parkhotel-schillerhoe.de). Is there any particular reason you want to stay in these towns (which are all very close to each other) rather than Stuttgart? There's a couple of other towns nearby that make most of the guide books, like Swabisch-Hall, Ludwigsburg, Esslingen and Tubingen where you could also consider staying.
Murrhardt's website is at www.murrhardt.de. You can find accommodations at Tourismus > Unterkünfte.
Marbach's website is www.schillerstadt-marbach.de. They have a list of accommodations under Touristik > Übernachten.
I found Steinheim an der Murr at www.stadt-steinheim.de. However, at first glance I did not see any listing of accommodations.
Better bone up on your German. These towns don't give the impression that a lot of English is spoken. However, according to the German Hotel and Restaurant association (DEHOGA), any place with three or more stars must have a "bilingual (German/English) staff. At one of the few "starred" hotels I have stayed in the day manager spoke pretty good English. No one else did. I was happy.
Thanks. We want to visit all these towns for family genealogy purposes; however, we would no doubt overnight in just one of them or somewhere nearby.