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booking accommodation-help please!
Sat, 04/14/2007 - 07:26
New Member
Well I’ve booked my flights (and that was hard enough) and now I need to start booking accommodation. As we’re travelling in peak season to France and Italy (June/July) we need to get cracking. I’ve had a look on the internet and feel a bit confused. We need accommodation that caters for 2 adults and 2 kids, but most hotels seem to only cater for 3 people. It seems self catering units are priced to be almost cheaper than staying in a hotel room, but I don’t intend to do much cooking, so it’s not really necessary.
My questions are…
Given this late stage of organisation and my inexperience using the internet, am I better off using a travel agent to book our accommodation.
How much more is this likely to cost us than using the net than doing it myself?
I’m really scared of booking accommodation that ends up being a bad choice because of my lack of knowledge, such as being badly located…
(especially in places in Paris where it is so important to be in walking distance of rail travel, etc)
Appreciate any suggestions.
There is a good chance that you will be much more satisfied with a travel agent. Jumping in headfirst and making an obligation to a hotel that you know nothing about could prove to be a very bad decision. I’ve had a lot of success with sites like booking.com and in France spesifically hotels-france-reservations.com. Hopefully I could be of some help.
You can still stay in hostels. It depends on the hostel, but often times i’ve seen families staying in the same hostel as I have been. You can just book a 4 bed dorm, and then you’ll have the whole place to yourself. Another option is to look at pensions or apartments.
Trying looking on www.hostelworld.com
You can then select the type of accomadation that you want to search for.
Wow, there was many a time when I became frustrated trying to find accomodation for 3.
I certainly agree that being a family does not exclude you from staying at hostels, we (me, spouse, younger kid) stayed at one in Germany last June. Le Village in Paris might work for you. [url=“http://www.villagehostel.fr/”]Le Village[/url]
It had crappy breakfasts but was very clean and friendly.
But maybe someone else can suggest something better.
I really don’t see what a travel agent can do that you can’t, but I suppose what really matters is how much your time is worth to you.
Iguess my main question is…
I’m happy to give a travel agent a go but not if it’s going to cost me 20% more (for example). Does anyone know what they add on, if anything, or do we just get the same deal because they get subsidised offers from the various chains of accommodation. I guess sometimes they would have access to special offers that we would not be privy to on the internet.