Receiving Responses to Reservations

Question: Based on your great information (from your travel class) we have confirmed reservations at Hotel Medici in Florence for 8 days, but, for whatever reason we have never heard from any of the hotels in Venice that we had requested room rate and availability. Is this normal? I don't want to seem like the pushy American by contacting them again. The ones you had mentioned I sent the request this morning so it's understandable they haven't yet responded, I suppose. However, for others I had sent a request yesterday morning. I'm just curious as to your experience and any suggestions on how to get responses.

Answer: It's not normal for a request to go unanswered. But, keep in mind, Europe is 6-7 hours ahead of us. If you sent the request this morning, it was the end of the day or middle of the night there. I would wait a few more days. If you don't hear anything, then I would contact them again. And no, you're not being pushy. Actually, you're doing the right thing by being persistent. You have to be in order to get low rates, especially at the Venice hotels I recommended. They are often at capacity or near capacity.

Another thing to consider is November and December is very off season for Venice. In fact, a lot of the hotels close during this time. So, that's another reason to wait a few days just in case someone is not checking the emails daily. I've never had any problem getting responses, but I have sent multiple requests before I received a response.

Hope this helps!

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