Seeking advice regarding hotel booking engines for hotels in Europe

[CruiseVirginfromBrooklyn]

Hello all,

 

I have a question for those of you who have used Priceline.com, Expedia.com and Travelocity.com for booking your hotels overseas - I like the idea of "prepaying" for my hotel, this frees up my credit card for the cruise and shopping. I've used priceline, expedia, and travelocity in the USA without problem but, I'm a bit concerned about using them overseas. Anyone had any problems using these booking engines in Europe? And, yes, I know I'll be charged in Euro's and not dollars, that's one of the reasons I want to prepay. Any advice you can offer would be welcomed. Thanks.

 

Vinnie

[lfy]

Hey Vinnie,

 

I used Priceline last summer for flight to Paris and for the hotel in Paris. I got a great price for the airfare and hotel. I had never used priceline for air in US because flights could be anytime within a 16 hour period and upto 2 connections. With Europe I knew that probably the flight would be at night and at most there would be one connection, which there was. Good luck.

[geri]

I have used Priceline in Europe and it works the same as the US. You bid in US dollars and your credit card is billed in dollars. One suggestion.... European hotel standards are usually slightly lower than US standards. So you might want to consider going up one STAR level from what you typically bid in the US (ie. if you usually bid 3 STAR hotels you might want to bid 4 STAR in Europe).

Also, I really like venere.com for European hotels. Good selection, pictures, reviews and well priced. You pay the hotel when you arrive, so it's not like Priceline, but I find the Priceline European selection is very limited. If you plan to explore outside a major city Venere offers lots of options.

[dog]

I use the Venere click thru on this site to book my hotels:

 

www.slowtrav.com

 

I have used it successfully for 2 years to Italy and this year to France and England.

[sultan_sfo]

This appeared in today's (1/30/05) SF Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/30/TRG4HB0USP1.TMP

 

/Sultan

[relevart]

Sultan sfo

 

Thank you for the article, I have copied it so I will have it for future reference!