European Hotel Bookings

Many moons ago, I signed up to ReviewMe.com to get a little extra money. Now I have a chance to do a review on something that truly interest me. It's called Eurobookings.

Why would this interest me? I have some good friends in Germany that I would love to visit. If you remember, about a year ago their daughter came and stayed with us for 4 weeks. And they have offered for us to stay with them. Nope, not going to happen. They have a little tiny flat and I have 2 children and a husband to haul along with me. I want a hotel.

Being someone always looking for a good deal to get me to Germany and a place to stay while there... I wanted to check out this European Hotel booking site because of what they wrote:

provides users with easy-to-book European hotel reservations. Visitors can sort by hotels near landmarks, hotel popularity, proximity to airports, and hotel reviews.

People do not pay a reservation fee or pay for the hotel in advance but rather pay when they check out of the hotel - a concept that puts more travelers at ease when they book a hotel because they can always negotiate their rate if their stay isn't satisfactory.

Something that caught my eye was the part about not paying a reservation fee or for the hotel in advance. I lived in Germany and traveled a lot. Trust me, you want to be able to negotiate if there is any problem with the stay.

Hence, I went to the site and checked it out. The first thing I noticed it was easy to navigate. It also gave some options when I put in Munich, Germany. Nice! First it gave me a couple of other places: Did you mean Monnickendam, Moniga, Monnikendam. Then it broke down another way: Was the destination the country, the city, the airport or the region. At the end of each was the number of hotels available. I clicked on Munich (the city) and was pleasantly surprised I could narrow my search even more (since I forgot to at the initial page). For me, non-smoking is a necessity. Tot has asthma. That is one of those options. For the computer geeks, there is Internet Services and Wi-Fi/Wireless LAN. A whole lot more is listed but you can go see for yourself.

I liked the map option (must have spent 10 minutes just playing with that), the information on the hotels and the little pop-up window on what is included in the price. I like the fact they have been in business about 10 years, have an easy to read Terms and Conditions, an FAQ, an email address to ask questions, and that their prices are approximately the same as Expedia for 2 adults staying q week. Yep, I checked but it is a little difficult to make sure. It took some time to figure which one was picking which room and so on. If I did it right, Eurobookings was a little cheaper.

Are you ready for the part that drove me nuts? It is all in Euros. ya ya ya. I'm going to Germany, what should I expect? At the top, it gives you the option for the language of "English". Notice the flag? Yep, England and not the USA. Sigh. It would be nice to have a link to a money converter. It also did not have a good indication that 4 people were acceptable for a room. Will that stop me from using it? Nope.

I enjoyed going through the site. Found it easy to get information. When I'm ready to travel, I will certainly come back to Eurobookings and check out the prices and availability... even if I have to convert the money myself and send out a few emails to make sure there isn't a price increase for hauling to young kids with me.

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